The Golden Rule and The Bubble Theory

There are countless things that humans across the world have disagreed upon. Different philosophies and religions argue over whether there is a higher power, if there is an afterlife, who you are allowed to marry, what you are allowed to eat and even what you are should wear. I could go on listing for days and never stop giving examples of things humanity disagrees upon, but there is one thread that seems to run through every belief structure. One common theme that has been repeated over and over for thousands of years from every point of the globe…

-Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You-

Commonly known as “The Golden Rule” this idea supporting the benefits of altruism is one that can be seen across a myriad of cultures and philosophies. Gautama Buddha states “Hurt not other with what pains yourself.” The Jewish holy scriptures known as the Torah states “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Muhammad the Prophet of Islam stated “That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind.” Jesus Christ told his followers “Do to others what you want them to do to you”.

The idea that you should care for others and not do something harmful to them seems like it should be obvious, but as it pertains to normally competitive, evolutionary based, traits, it actually can seem rather illogical. Why would I want to take care of someone else, when it is me that I should be caring for? Why would I give someone some of my food, when I could have more to myself to grow stronger? Why should I waste energy that could be spent making my own life better, or increasing my own chances of survival, on someone other than myself?

A common reason given for why someone should follow The Golden Rule is that it will increase the chance of them getting a favor in return. In evolutionary biology this is known as reciprocal altruism, where an organism acts in a manner that temporarily reduces its fitness while increasing another organism’s fitness, with the expectation that the other organism will act in a similar manner at a later time. An evolutionary “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” When someone does something for you that helps you in some way, you have an innate desire to return that feeling of happiness. When that person gets something in return, they learn that it is a good idea to help others, because then good things happen in return. When the behavior is not reciprocated, they learn that it is not beneficial to them, and they stop. In that way someone will also learn that if they don’t repay favors, the favors stop coming.

Although this “tit for tat” view of evolutionary biology has been studied in humans and animals and is a proven behavioral trait, others view the reasoning for The Golden Rule in a more selfless manner. They believe you should do good just because you know that is the right thing to do. With this train of thought, you should have empathy for your fellow man and know that if you have the power to improve his lot, then you should do so. This is the basis for many acts of charity and kindness seen all around the world. Many people also derive happiness from helping others, so in some ways, they are getting something out of the trade, happiness for their kindness.

Others, especially the more religious, believe that there are more powerful forces at play. In the ancient Indian traditions such as Jainism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism, they believe in karma. Karma is translated as “action”, “work” or “deed” and in essence it is the belief of a spiritual cause and effect, that the actions of an individual influence the future of that person, either in this life or the next. So doing right unto others will result in better fortunes for you even if that person doesn’t reciprocate a favor directly. In the Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the idea is that there is a singular higher power (Yahweh, God, Allah) that judges you based upon your actions and through the higher powers control, determines your fate in this life or the next.

So this belief has its basis in thousands of years of humans teachings and evidence of its benefits in science. So why do so many people choose to ignore this Golden Rule?

  Why do so many people enact violence upon one another? Why do people treat other in such a cruel way when it seems like we all have known throughout our history that this is the wrong thing to do? I believe many of these actions come primarily from a persons own unhappiness. They feel like they have been given a bad hand in life, and they don’t think it is fair that someone else has it better. The old saying goes “misery loves company” and it is seen way too often in this world. It is almost a reverse of reciprocal altruism; these people feel like they have been treated wrong by others and so they want to pay back the world with the misery they have been dealt. It can also come through selfishness, the ultimate form of competitive biology where we let a fellow human suffer for our own benefit. In its most evil form it can come through sociopathic tendencies, where someone doesn’t have the ability to feel empathy or even finds pleasure in others pain.

     I would like to present my own theory on how The Golden Rule can logically benefit your life. I call it “The Bubble Theory” and in a sense it is a practical form of karma. According to my theory, every action we take that affects others creates a ripple effect. We do something that improves the life or happiness of someone else, and then they are more likely to pass on that positive energy through their actions and their happiness to others around them. When you do this, you create bubbles of positive energy, constant ripples that go through person after person, compounding and expanding as it passes from person to person. These bubbles that you help create and reinforce with every good action soon envelop the area around you, whether it be your family, your social circle, your workplace, your community, your city, your country and on to the rest of the world. The more positive actions you perform, the more kindness and happiness you share, the more it improves the lives of others and the more they give that out to others in turn. The bubbles of positivity soon surround you and so will be returned to you in ways you won’t even know. This butterfly effect of goodness can come back to you and you would have no idea of the chain of people it went through from when you first gave it out, but regardless, your life is now better because of it!

This also works for negative actions. The more evil you put out into the world, the more you harm those around you, the more you cheat, lie, steal, insult and degrade those around you, the more you create and reinforce negative bubbles. You bring down the world around you and then you wonder why you get treated poorly or why the people around you are in a bad mood. When someone does something absolutely terrible such as taking a life, they create a such a powerfully negative bubble that it continues to rear it’s head in all of that persons loved ones for the rest of their lives. That is without even mentioning the negativity that will come from them from the guilt or the consequences they will face from that action. It is hard to imagine the amount of negativity that is created in a war zone, bubbles of hate and suffering that continue for generations even after the bombs stop dropping.

    There will always be some form of suffering in this world. There will always be these negative bubbles, but we can choose how much we let them effect us. When someone is rude to you, will you continue to let that negative bubble grow? You don’t know why they are being rude to you, it could be they are having a bad day (surrounded by those damn negative bubbles) or it could be from a lifetime of this negativity. You need to choose to let the chain stop at you. Face rudeness with kindness. Anger with calmness. Sadness with happiness. Always smile and see how contagious it can be. Always make the choice to fill your life and your world with positivity and you will never be able to fathom just how much you may have helped beat back the negative bubbles around you and throughout all of humanity.

Whatever your reason is for following the Golden Rule, whether it be getting a favor in return, deriving happiness from your kindness, believing the Universe or a higher power will reward your actions, or if you can imagine a world of energy bubbles created by your choice to do good or evil, it all comes down to the same idea, in some way your life will improve if you decide to improve the life of others. I believe that the world is filled with energy levels, constantly fluctuating, ebbing and flowing, from happiness to suffering, all boiling down to whether you decide to fill the world with what you want the world to give back to you. It all comes down to what you do unto others.

Sources:
http://www.harryhiker.com/chronology.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_altruism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma