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The Great Golden Rule

Satisfactory Essays

Let me take you back in time for a moment, you live in a small village before the Industrial revolution and the closest town is four hours away if you have a horse, or a couple of days walking. In your village the main economic activity is shared by most people (let it be mining, fishing, maybe farming) everybody eats the same foods, listens to the same priest, has the same race, etc. It is a very homogeneous society and a very easy and effective rule to decide how to treat others is the famous golden rule "...whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them..." or any of its similar incarnations. Can we still trust this way of thinking today? I think not. I always had a very thick skin, so when I was little and I got in trouble …show more content…

It could be, but it isn't, in reality it fails so often that you could just flip your lucky coin to obtain the same level of advice. The point is that you should do to others as they (and not you) wish. But this implies that you know what that is, and if you don't, well, there is homework to be done. You need to know who are you dealing with. So before your next interaction with a client/coworker/supervisor/spouse/etc do your homework, research how that person wants to be treated, what is important for her, what isn't, what is flattering and what is offensive. That way you will be setting yourself up for a successful meeting. The golden rule is self-centered, unreliable and bad lazy (there is good lazy, but that is a topic for another post) and should be avoided unless you had no way to learn about the other person, in which case it is better than nothing (sometimes). Finally you can say (many people do) "Well I would like to be treated according to my individual needs, values and circumstance so I can use the golden rule that way" If that is the case, marvelous! I apologize for wasting your time with this post. But let's be honest that is not what the golden rule is

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