| Should people care for each other? Do people have
greater success or become more profitable from doing so?
An interesting view of the Golden Rule in Action. |
One of the most present and missing ingredients in modern times is Care.
What does it take to care for someone? Are their differences in
caring for family, a spouse and friends? Can one care for a co-worker
or a mere acquaintance?
This last answers yes. And that follows under the Golden
Rule and its vernacular corollary: "What goes around comes around."
Let me explain. One treats another the way one would like to be
treated (or not.) This would be done despite the way the person
treats you. This solves many social ills, since rudeness and bad
manners such as road rage are stemmed and ultimately would cease to exist
(if everyone started treating others as they would like to be treated.)
So it is a useful datum. The above corollary is this way as, though
you may not have experienced it, when you treat someone with respect and
courtesy, even a little humor in their lives - cheer them up, you know
- then later you get back from them a smille and some courtesy. As
if they honor you with the respect that you granted them. Such are the
foundations of all social manners and etiquette, even laws of the land.
The reverse is true - perhaps there was some person in your life who
did you a bad turn, intentional or otherwise. They shut the door
in your face, said something mean, treated you as a lackey in public, something.
What is your attitude toward them? If they asked you for a favor,
what is your immediate response? If they asked you to come along
for a beer after work, do you think you could honestly have a good time?
So what goes around comes around. Often you will see this same
person - who doesn't care to treat others well - in various conflicts with
others around him and a near riot of criticism surrounding him wherever
he goes, whatever he does. Often there are personnel transfers and
instability around this person. If you're lucky, he transfers
himself out of the area, since his life is so uncomfortable even he can't
stand it.
Every once in a great while, you will see a person who takes the Golden
Rule to heart and lives it. Around this person things tend to stay
calm, quiet and enjoyable overall. It may be a conservative lifestyle,
but it is a secure one. People around him live overall pleasant lives
and healthier, with fewer worries and upsets aggravating the conditions
they have or starting new ones.
And this extends broader to groups. To the degree people apply
these datums and care for each other, the way they would like to be cared
for - several remarkable things happen. Production is higher and
calmer. People tend to get along with one another; trust is present.
Things get done and there is less criticism of one another and others.
More constructive thought is present and problems get solved instead of
passed on to someone else. People take responsibility for their job
and help others with their responsibilities.
In a metropolitan scene, I have seen this: while people can be socially
nice, they won't go the extra step and really care for the person around
them, even though they many live close by and work with the person for
years. They get along on their jobs, but if the guy has some problem,
his co-workers have some imbedded fear that they shouldn't get involved,
even for a next door neighbor. All this has various "logical" reasons
and excuses. And there are thefts and vandalism and low production
and personnel turnovers like you wouldn't believes. A lot of overworked
execs carrying the ball "on their own." The scene is "get mine first",
and having neighbors or doing something about the neighborhood is a joke
- the only thing common about this scene iis the amount of natter and criticism
that abounds in the conversations.
Actually, they are cowards. It takes a truly courageous person
to really use the Golden Rule. But if that person simply tries it
and observes that it works for himself that it does work and continues
to use it, he will find his life getting simpler and people around him
succeeding in life, assisting him in return in his success.
So you have to use your common sense and be brave enough to keep being
nice or understanding to someone despite how they initially treat you.
If you and others keep this up, the person (unless incorrigibly criminal
- where he will soon leave if treated niceely - try it) will come around
and try to get along with the group. You have people staying on their
job for a long time and hiring new people gets them to fit in well with
the scene, since they are trained quickly in how to help and care for each
other as part of the job - if not of the written job description.
Caring for someone around you isn't hard, it's just an honest thing
to do.
Robert C. Worstell
March 27, 2001
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