The Golden Rule

I received an email from TED.com about Karen Armstrong's (author of A History of God and The Bible: A Biography) new initiative, the Charter for Compassion (http://charterforcompassion.com).

The Charter for Compassion project seeks to build a peaceful and harmonious global community among the world religions, by seeking to remind the world that while all religions are not the same, they all share a core principle of the Golden Rule, which was stated as:

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

However, I have always thought that the Golden Rule was framed in the negative. To my surprise, I learnt that this variant is actually called the Silver Rule:

Do not do unto others as you would not have them do unto you.

Although they appear to be similar, there is a subtle difference. Suppose you are a masochist (a person who derives pleasure from being offended, dominated, or mistreated). Under the Golden Rule, you would be encouraged to inflict pain on others because of your delight in such mistreatment. A sadist (a person who derives pleasure from inflicting cruelty on others) is jokingly said to be a masochist adhering to the Golden Rule. Under the Silver Rule, inflicting pain on others would be discouraged.

In the Bible, Jesus taught his disciples to repay evil with kindness. In reality, no body really follows that. Indeed, when Confucius was asked about the Golden Rule, he replied: "Repay kindness with kindness. Repay evil with justice." This is surprisingly called the Brass Rule:

Do unto others as they do unto you.

But the problem with the Brass Rule is that it can create a vicious circle of revenge. Two wrongs do not make a right.

Even baser than the Brass Rule is the Iron Rule:

Do unto others as you like, before they do it unto you.

This Iron Rule has also been called the ironic version of the Golden Rule (a cynical variant goes: "He who has the gold, makes the rules.")

Of course, we don't live in an ideal world where people live their lives following just the Golden (or Silver) rules. In fact, most of the world seems to practise an amalgam of the Golden Rule for your superiors, and the Iron Rule for your inferiors. In maintaining the metallic references, this rule has been called the Tin Rule (as tin is known for its flexibility):

Suck up to those above you, and abuse those below.

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Personally, although I do not have any major problems with the Charter for Compassion initiative, my main gripe is that the charter, as written, specifically omits any mention of people without religion. To be truly global and inclusive, such initiatives would also include people without religion. People without religion are people too. There appears to be an unstated bias that people without religion are immoral, when this is really not the case.