by Martin Euser (the Netherlands, member of the Amsterdam
Seed Group)
Most of you will have heard or read about the golden rule:
"Do not do unto others what you don't want others to do unto you".
This, or similar, formulations can be found in many different religions. (See
for example, World Scripture Project.) One can also find it, in a slightly
different form, in the Wiccan Rede (An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will ). Druids
often hold to the ideal of the Celtic Virtues of honor, loyalty, hospitality,
honesty, justice and courage (see http://www.religioustolerance.org/druid.htm).
Now, this rule seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it?
Yet, we see violence and disorder all around us in this world. Maybe, it's
not that simple to put into practice?
The golden rule is formost an ethical rule. The formulation
may seem a bit strange: "do not do..". Why the negative form? Why
not simply say: do unto others as you want them to do unto you? Or just: "Be
good to others"? There is a sound psychological reason that it's form
is stated in the negative. It simply is this: while we may know what is good
for us, we certainly don't always know what is good for others. We may be
convinced that some philosophy or belief is just what is needed most in this
world, for everybody, and try to force it by some evangelization effort into
the minds of others. But isn't this just forcing or imposing one's own value
system on others? Doesn't this constitute a subtle, or not so subtle, attempt
to get people into your camp or party or sect? Yes, and this shows the wisdom
involved in the particular formulation of the golden rule. The crusades show
how little wisdom was available at that time. The inquisition is another example
of how ideas about saving a human's soul by torturing him or her to death
led to insane practices.
Now, I'm not saying that writing a book about your belief
system or giving a lecture about it is against the golden rule. No, if people
have a free choice, than it's ok when they get in touch with your beliefsystem.
It becomes quite a different matter, however, when attempts to spread one's
ideas are coupled to incentives. If people convert to some beliefsystem because
of food or money or power that comes with it as an incentive then a clear
border has been crossed. Do you know that today there's a battle going on
in Africa between evangelizers of various religions (especially Christian
and Muslim), supported financially by certain rich countries? It presents
a disgusting scenario to the perceptive mind. What is going on here? A future
battlefield between groups?
To give another example: many ecologically conscious people
are vegetarians. Now, that's perfectly ok and respectable. What's less respectable
is that some of these people look with disdain to meat-eaters. They forget
or don't know that there may be health reasons for some people to eat meat.
For example, some people have trouble digesting vegetables, they miss some
enzymes that are necessary in digesting vegetables. The lesson here is: be
very careful to impose your views on others.
Indeed, on the political side there are many who would like
to impose the Western democratic system on people that either don't want it,
have other ideas about government, or are not ready for such systems. I often
wonder whether our political leaders have ever heard about the golden rule
(probably a lofty ideal to them that is not very pragmatic or useful in politics..
).
To conclude: besides on the personal level, one can apply
the golden rule on a wider scale. What a lesson can be learnt from such a
deceptively simple rule!
http://www.teachingvalues.com/goldenrule.html
Martin Euser
Summer 2005
info [at] m-euser [dot] speedlinq [dot] nl
