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 Mason's
Meditations
If
you're looking for something to chew over, some thoughtful seeds
for mental cultivation, bookmark this page for Jeff Mason's monthly
meditations. To think in or take away...
Number
Twenty-Four: Golden Rules
Two
golden rules have characterized Western culture. The first is Greek
the second is Christian. Rule number one is "Moderation in
all things." Rule number two is "Do unto others what you
would have them do unto you."
We
can see good reasons to proclaim the rule about moderation. Without
moderation all sorts of bad things happen. The glutton dies young
from a heart attack. The sexually promiscuous person catches some
deadly disease. The excessive smoker gets lung cancer. Drug addicts
overdose. Greed, which is an excess of wanting possessions or power,
leads to fraud, violent crime and war. Lack of generosity leads
to rundown schools. We need moderation with respect to money, anger,
pleasure, and in our dealings with other people.
We
can see good reasons for the second rule, which is really the basis
of any kind of humane morality. The second rule reminds us to put
ourselves in others' shoes, to look into our own souls see whether
we are treating them as we would wish to be treated. If we are guided
by compassion, which is not a noticeably Greek virtue, then we won't
be so quick to judge others from a position of supposed superiority.
If everyone lived by these two golden rules, all the self-caused
problems of human life would disappear.
There
is another reason why we need these golden rules, and that is because
we show distinct tendencies as a species to go to excess in feeling
or action and to act selfishly toward others, thinking only about
how we see things, not how the other person sees them. We need to
be reminded to rein back and reflect on what we are doing because
we tend to act unreflectively in the first place. We need the rules
precisely because they are so hard to live up to.
.
Mason's
Meditations will next be updated early September 2002
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