Re: The new Golden Rule

david gobel (davegobel@erols.com)
Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:40:36 -0800

>>David Gobel suggests:

>>"Do unto others the way they want, if not harmful to them or others."

>There are obvious "holes" in this one too. Harmful in whose opinion?
>I don't want Jehovah's witness' bothering me, but they believe it is
>harmful to me for them not to try to convert me.

I said in my earlier post that it REQUIRES knowledge of the person.

Perhaps the reason the Golden Rule was promulgated in its original form was to take account of the fact that we can only know a very few people intimately well-thus, appealing to an interior world-view as a propective
surrogate for the unknown party's humanity would provide the only conveniently
available template of likely beneficial behavior...never thought about this before...thanks!

By the way, in an incredibly bizzarre coincidence, I happen to be a Jehovah's
Witness. Weird huh? So, in the spirit of my rule, I promise to not bother you henceforth.

dg