The Golden Rule … Revised? How Do Value Judgments Play into How We Treat Others?

Idea of the evening – while listening to the blasting music of the fool living above me, I often ruminate on “The Golden Rule,” a rule I really try to live my life by – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Perhaps, however, we should do unto others BETTER than we would do unto ourselves – I say this because it does seem like a large percentage, if not the majority, of people tend to view themselves in a terribly negative light (overtly or covertly) – they do not think they “deserve” to be treated well. On the other side of the coin, there are many people who think they DESERVE things they do not necessarily DESERVE (let’s save the “deserve” bit for another discussion!) simply because they are or they work or they take good care of their kids, &c. It does present something of a conundrum because the idea of treating others like we would want to be treated brings up a spectrum of “treatments” ranging from terrible to unreasonably good. What do you think about the subjective range of treatments people “expect” not only from others but from themselves?

Just a thought to ponder before you go to sleep this evening! I am sure I will come back to this conversation in the near future! I hope you are all having a happy and healthy evening or day wherever you are in the world!