I’ll repeat a Wiccan commandment–Do as you will so long as it harms no one.
I like it but it sounds unrealistic
So does the Golden Rule!
it depends on how you look at the wiccan thing or the golden rule
They are really not all that different.
That’s what he was saying, James.
But the chocolates and cake things was stupidity or more to the point, simply a lack of awareness. But sometimes thinking we are being kind when we are actually causing harm is not so much stupidity but wrongful interpretation. Maybe that’s the same as a lack of awareness too.
In order to have a thread on kindness, I think we have to define it as we mean it and how we don’t mean it. Give examples of it.
Kindness is not always trying to be nice…no matter what. There is a distinction between being kind and allowing one’s self to be treated as a doormat.
Kindness includes a gentle attitude toward persons and things. Morality, in which kindness is possible, is ecological. How we react to what is not us, in the physical sense, defines who we are., in a spiritual sense. We must love one another or die. Nothing else makes sense. See Aldous Huxley’s “Island” for an example of ecological morality.
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[we must love one another or die]—that sounds pretty extreme…I like kind and gentle if possible…
It’s a fact. If we do not learn to love one another, we will surely die. Read W. H. Auden’s thoughtful poem, “Sept. 1939”, written on the eve of WWII.
would [love one another] include an adequate defensive military force…and a good police force
Military and police----same old, same old. Nothing gets changed for the better.
As I’ve said in threads along this topic, kindness also means kindness to self. You are a part of this world are you not?!!
The problem we found with kindness in another thread here is that you can believe you’re being kind but actually hurting someone really bad.
yes… for sure… I am using wikipedia
turtle, do you think that it meant “love” when the military forces went in and rescued all of those Jews and people who were in the concentration camps?
As for a good police force, let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Love is not just plain sentimentality and what sometimes passes for kindness.
yes arc…that is why I asked ier the question
Meaning?
All I’m saying is that military and police represent order when things are as they are. The step beyond these is to recognize ecological morality. But one can’t force morality on anyone, which is why police and military are still necessary. I’m not dismissing such necessity; I’m only stating that we should be able to rise above it.
I don't think the problem is that we can't rise above it. As a matter of fact, we certainly DID rise above it in the United States through most of it's history- we solved our own problems through community and family and so on, and the law was rarely involved except among complete strangers. The further we go, the more dependant on the law we become, because we aren't taught there's anything else to respect. So, people still rise above the need for the police and military- they just individually rise above it in completely different ways and to completely different conclusions. There is no more classic example of those who's morality has 'risen above the law' than the Mafia. Also, the man who beats his wife to teach her respect has 'risen above' the law by his own lights- it is we who have sunken to the point that the law is the only thing we have enough shared belief in to condemn such as these with.