2/5/19 - "The Golden Rule" Optimist: "Treat others as you want to be treated!" Realist: "...So, I should treat bad people like kings and queens, even when they deserve to be considered riff-raff?" The bad people LOVE that "pearl of wisdom", because it makes it all the easier for them to walk all over anyone who makes it a rule to be nice. I might be "mean", whenever reason calls me to be so. I can compete at a high level with the biggest and baddest assholes. It's just the nature of the animal kingdom - You can treat everyone as though they were divine and sacred, but the reality is, a lot of people aren't. A lot of people are really just ornery animals who want their way, without justification. That said, I find that kindness can make me dominant. My secret super-power is that everyone likes me for being right, and true, and understanding... So understanding that I can make you understand yourself when you are wrong. At first, anyone will reject being called "wrong", but once they see the vital importance of correcting their selves, they will thank me. So, the realist's way of interpreting that platitude, would be, "Treat others as they deserve to be treated, by observing the respect (and the appropriateness of such) that they give back." If THEY aren't doing it, then WHY would they deserve to be treated as a "high" thing? People who help maintain a higher social order deserve to be included in a world where we don't hurt each other... People who WON'T stop hurting others, don't deserve to be included in that world. |