The Golden Rule Has Been Downgraded

Being raised a Christian I thought I knew what the "Golden Rule" was. Both the church I attended and my parents taught me to, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." And neither my parents nor the church used any qualifiers to restrict me from applying that rule to everyone I met.

As I grew older I discovered that Christians were not the only people who had this philosophy and that it could be found in almost every religion. Of course the other religions used their own words like, "That which is hateful unto you, do not impose on others" (Judaism) and "Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you" (Confucianism).

Today however I learned that there are now several golden rules. There is a Golden Rule savings rate, a Golden Rule (fiscal policy), Fermi's golden rule and Ronen's golden rule for cluster radioactivity. And what I used to call the Golden Rule is now called the ethic of reciprocity.

Now to be sure I knew the correct new name I searched online and found several places that defined the ethic of reciprocity as:

The ethic of reciprocity, more commonly known as the Golden Rule, is an ethical code that states one has a right to just treatment, and a responsibility to ensure justice for others. Reciprocity is arguably the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights, though it has its critics. A key element of the golden rule is that a person attempting to live by this rule treats all people, not just members of his or her in-group, with consideration.

It looks like the Golden Rule has been downgraded from a religious Rule to a moral Ethic!

Now I have a few issues with this downgrade.

1. Did anyone get their God's permission?
   
   
2. Where as God's rules have to be obeyed or you suffer the consequences, ethics is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality and often change significantly over time.
   

Of course making the Golden Rule an ethic does offer some benefits. People now control it's definition and

1. They can control who it applies to. In other words they can say the ethic only applies to people like themselves..
   
   
2. They can change it's definition to something like, do more for those who have the most in the hope they'll give you some.
   
   
3. They can decide it's no longer an moral ethic since it no longer applies to anyone.
   

I read somewhere that only those without power and those who have sympathy for them have moral ethics. And while I didn't initially believe this, the more I think about it the more I tend to agree.

Take the current arguments over health care reform that are going on right now. As I see it the arguing camps are:

1. Those who have health care and don't care about anyone else. (See number 1 above.)
   
   
2. Those who don't have health care and think things will get better if we leave our health care system alone. (See number 2 above.)
   
   
3. Those who do/don't have health care and think everyone should have it. (The current ethic of reciprocity.)
   
   
4. Those who make the decisions about health care and think keeping it a major, for-profit business is the most important issue. (See number 3 above.)
   

So I'll go back to one of my questions about making the Golden Rule an ethic -

Did anyone get their God's permission to make this downgrade?

If no one did then those who aren't following the rule are in big trouble and need to start preparing for their consequences.

Susan

Tie (or Tape) a Blue Ribbon On Your Trees, Mailbox, Door, etc.

Just yesterday I was mentioning to my daughter that singlepayer health care supporters needed a way to show their support for health care reform all the time. You know, like the yellow ribbons used to support our troops coming home and the breast cancer awareness pink ribbons.

Today I got an email from the Health-Justice.org that included this.

A couple of weeks ago, Rick Ford in Florida proposed that supporters of single payer start wearing a blue bandana as an armband to rallies. In Washington DC on June 25, all the single payer people that came with HealthJustice wore blue armbands. We put blue armbands on hundreds more of the people there. We used strips of blue cloth, but even better, we used blue painters' masking tape. It's just the right color, it's cheap and it goes anywhere without leaving a mark when removed.

Go to home Depot or the local hardware store today. Buy a roll of blue painters' masking tape. Tape a few turns around every tree, maibox or lamppost in your neighborhood. And when people ask, tell them it symbolizes the demand for REAL health reform. It means single payer Medicare For All. Without REAL health reform, we will all have the 'HealthCare Blues."

This is exactly what I was talking about!

So today I'm off to get my rolls of painters tape to show my support and will be giving some to those I see so they can show their support too.

Let's show everyone how may of us there are that support a REAL health care reform.

Susan

Do You Want Healthy Americans?

Many people think that 1 of the reasons Obama was able to capture the attention, raise the funds and get elected president is because he redefined American politics with his new approach to reach the dissatisfied masses. He knew what people were unhappy about. He knew he needed a slogan. He knew he needed to have a powerful and attractive campaign. And most importantly he knew he could get his messages to the people quickly and inexpensively through the use of the internet and the big social media sites.

It's been almost 6 months since our president has been inaugurated and we've gotten exactly what he promised so far. He said things would get worse before they would get better and ... they have. However I still have some hope.

Unfortunately we all know that hoping for something doesn't make it happen, That's why I'm starting this blog and have set up a Twitter group. I'd like everyone who is like me and thinks affordable quality health care should be available to every American to let their voices be heard once again.

Now unlike Obama I don't have the dollars to spend to hire people to do all the things he did and I'm not asking for money. Instead I'm asking for something much more important.

I'm asking you to join with me on this blog and in my Twitter group and to spread the word so others will join. I'm also asking that you take the polls and sign the electronic petition so we can show our country's leaders that a large number of people haven't forgotten the campaign promise of affordable quality health care and aren't willing to accept it as another broken promise like we have done in the past.

Remember last November when we voiced our desire to see many changes in how our country does things. We voted against mud slinging. We voted against jobs going overseas. We voted against corporations cheating their employees of their retirement savings and jobs while paying huge bonuses to the ones doing the cheating. We voted against the policies keeping America on a downward spiral. And we voted against a health care system that doesn't work for the majority of Americans.

Now it's time to once again voice our concerns about the broken and unfair health care system in our country. It's time we let our policy makers know that we are still here and watching them. It's time to tell them we need a new health care system because a band-aid won't fix the broken one we have now.

So please join with me and voice your concerns about the problems with our health care system in a comment. Follow me on Twitter and tell your followers to do the same. Only by working and sharing together can we make a difference.

Will you join me?

Susan

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