The Golden Rule Upside Down

The Golden Rule is one of the most durable of all 'rules' humans have devised for living the good life. It is usually expressed in the positive form:

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Personally,I prefer the negatively stated version:

Don’t do to others you would not have done to you.

Sure, I’d love to have someone give me a hundred thousand dollars, but I don’t feel compelled to just give someone else 100k because that's what I'd like done to me. I would venture the guess that most people simply want to be treated nicely and not maliciously or hurtfully – but that’s about it. Charity, however, is the one domain where the positive expression of the Golden Rule becomes a more plausible expression of the rule to follow. If I’m homeless and living on the street, I would like for people to be active and help me out of my circumstances with food, shelter etc. There have been many iterations of the Golden Rule over the millennia, most famously in the Common Era as reported to be said by Jesus; "Love each other as you love yourselves." I've always thought this was pretty radical since it stands if opposition of the Biblical doctrine of Original Sin – that we're all sinners and deserve not only to die, but be punished eternally for it. In short, we're all complete losers from the get go and we don't deserve to live. That doctrine has caused so much pain in the world and its children. But of course we do love ourselves – how can we – since our 'self' is the only consciousness that can connect with our surroundings? You might say, "Well the negative of the rule makes it a very passive rule, a rule that allows you to ignore the needs of those less fortunate.. But ignoring the needs of others is actually an active positive stance – something you would not like to have done to you.

Let's try an example: When the 7th Day Adventists come knocking at your door, they have motives; either they want to be good congregation members and try to convert the great unwashed to their form of religious worship out of the common practice of the religion, or they are afraid if they don't try to convert the heathen, they will suffer the pains of hell, or, they are 'counting coup' and it's an ego trip to rack up the scalps of the unbelievers. Either way, knocking on your door is not something you would like like done to you. And that's my raison d'etre to holding to the negative form of the rule in a nutshell. Here are some things that would fall under the header of the Golden Rule in its negative form:

- Don't offer advice to people you think need it unless you get clearance first.

- Don't let a criminal out of jail because that's what you'd like done to you.

- Don't steal from people

- Don't lie to people

You know, basic 10 Commandment sort of stuff without all the hoopla of thunder on the mountain. Just common sense.