From Leviticus,
chapter 19:
“Do not
seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself.” Leviticus 19:18.
And, from
Jesus of Nazareth’s “Sermon on the Mount,” the Golden Rule:
“Do to others whatever you want
them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in The Law
and The Prophets.” Matthew 7:12.
(“The Law and The Prophets” refers to major portions of the
Hebrew Bible, or Christians’ Old Testament.)
The important role
of self-love in these imperatives is often overlooked.
Because both Ancient Imperatives include self-love as basic,
or pivotal, for judging and deciding on the rightness of actions .
. . of conduct . . . the section immediately ahead of us offers a
brief sketch to illustrate what our natural human self-love involves.
Self-love: “As
you love yourself”. . . “What you’d want them to do to you”
I understand Self-Love to
be the attitude – that is, the settled
way of thinking and feeling and being
inclined to act and speak — that aims at what’s beneficial
for oneself.
Self-love is sometimes confused with selfishness,
but these are profoundly different. Selfishness will be addressed in
chapters 5 – 7.
An infant’s
or young child’s desires for nourishment, for rest, and her aversion to
pain and her tendency to withdraw from threats – clearly are instinct-rooted precursors
of self-love as just defined.
Self-love, Threats,
and Truth
When it comes
to threats, our rudimentary, far-from-educated,
self-love inclines us to jump to conclusions that
are often mistaken.
Something
that, at first glance, appears to threaten you or me as youngsters
— perhaps as we’re walking along a roadside we notice an oncoming,
swerving, honking truck – that thing really is a threat, something
to be avoided – fled from!
But sometimes
– perhaps, because of something else we notice in the
situation, or thanks to a parent’s or friend’s instructive words –
instead of jumping to a false conclusion, we realize that another
apparent threat that startles us poses no real threat to
us. Perhaps it’s a nearby snarling dog (but one that’s tethered
securely), or an unusually dark thunder-cloud (but that’s in the distance and
moving away). What we’ve just learned – the
accurate, reliable information we’ve just
gained — spares us some needless fright
and a pointless escape, or flight.
So, believing
what’s true, deciding and acting in the
light of what’s true, giving and
receiving friendly advice and guidance that’s
based on what’s true – to avoid the oncoming truck, or,
during the Covid-19 pandemic, to keep out of unmasked gatherings of
unvaccinated people — can be a life-or-death matter (even
though the 45th President of the US downplayed the virus, and claimed early in
the pandemic that it would soon miraculously disappear).
Believing
what’s true, — that is, what accurately represents the facts – can be a
matter of life or death.
A reader
might wonder about what philosophers have to say about what the term
“true” (and its equivalents in other languages) means. There are
several theories – examined in the Internet Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, and elsewhere. For us to study those theories now would complicate
my project unnecessarily, and take us into one of those “side channels”
mentioned earlier. You can safely trust me on this; I’m not using the
term “true” in any way that conflicts with the usual idea that
“true” means accurately represents facts.
One’s attitude
of self-love becomes more intelligent – more enlightened –
as one makes a practice of having his or
her set of accepted beliefs as to the facts shaped by what’s
true, and makes a practice of trusting those people
and organizations that do such things as follow the rules
of journalism, that publicly mention their sources, express
themselves carefully, acknowledge and correct their own mistakes,
and have earned a reputation – not for
popularity, nor for millions of views,
but for honesty — for truthfulness.
The literally vital importance of
believing what’s true when it comes to personal self-love was
acknowledged belatedly by several American men who
realized they were about to die – not because
of an oncoming truck — but from the Covid-19 virus.
Previously they had chosen to trust the
US President when he downplayed that virus. Their death-bed statements from
intensive care units of hospitals were made and televised for the
benefit of others – to warn them
against believing the false and
misleading statements the then-US President had actually made – the
President who himself later, following the
extraordinary medical care he was given for Covid-19 at
Walter Reed National Military Hospital, chose to be vaccinated against the
virus – but privately.
What an honest
and knowledgeable person claims is a real threat
to someone’s life probably is a life-and-death-matter –
even if they’re not one of the people (or
one of those attractive and popular information outlets)
you or I may have gotten in the
habit of paying attention to.
And what could
be more important for any person,
since we all have instinct-based self-love,
including the crucial instinct of self-preservation?
When it comes
to learning (and to teaching), paying attention to, and heeding, people and
organizations known for both truthfulness and for normal,
unselfish, instinct-based caring about others, is among
life’s most important lessons.
Who in their right mind,
and wanting to live, wants to be deceived, misinformed?
But sometimes
we people learn too late. In the spring of
2022 many older Russian citizens – limited then for news largely to Russian
government-controlled propagandistic TV – were ignorant of their
government’s murderous disregard of the lives of their own Russian
military sons, and of Ukrainian civilians of all ages. Heavy Russian
losses would soon inform those Russian citizens.
More Marks
of Mindful Self-love
In my era
and my region, a fortunate youth’s or adult’s informed self-love –
their enlightened self-interest – might
well be marked by such things as, say, drinking enough
clean water to stay hydrated — thus avoiding toxic dehydration, getting adequate
nourishment, exercise, and sleep, taking aspirin, Ibuprofen, or the like, to
deal with a headache, spending mutually fulfilling (“win – win”) time with friends,
taking time to learn — to increase one’s skills and one’s knowledge and
understanding, and taking time for leisure and recreational activity, taking
shelter from extreme weather, consulting with a doctor, especially when ill,
and generally behaving non-threateningly, lawfully,
and in a civil manner.
Love for other human beings –
which includes making decisions that treat others as one would want to be
treated — calls for an attitude towards them that includes being
generally supportive of the other’s own informed self-love, their enlightened
self-interest. This attitude contrasts sharply with the attitude
typical of schoolyard bullies.
Some attractive
acts that conflict with self-love
Some acts
that conflict with a person’s self-love may nevertheless appeal,
even strongly appeal: A very young child may literally want
to play with fire.
Or a youth
or young adult may want to experience an intense drug-induced
“high,” but, if we’re vividly aware of the very harmful, deeply
life-troubling consequences that can accompany
such highs, including drug– (or alcohol– and tobacco–
and other sorts of) addiction, our self-love (our enlightened
self-interest) will incline us to choose a different path.
We’re not born knowing such
things!
Or we might
“feel like getting even with” – retaliating against
— someone who has criticized, snubbed, insulted, or bullied us. Often it
becomes obvious that trying to get even can
have a real downside for us: more retaliation . . . perhaps vicious
cycles. So trying to get even is
likely to be incompatible with an individual’s informed, enlightened,
self-interest – self-love.
If someone
has seriously wronged us by an illegal act,
it can make sense to speak to the police, consult with friends and family, and perhaps
with a lawyer, and even to bring charges against them in civil or criminal
court. That presumes, obviously enough, that in a world that still
is not one where everyone treats others as they
themselves would want to be treated, there often are – in
addition to friends and family – police, lawyers, and systems of civil and
criminal law that may help.
When – contrary
to those imperatives — a nation (or other group) attacks or invades a nation,
those Ancient Imperatives oppose mayhem, and support self-defense and
paths that minimize and end that harm.
The successful precise targeting of terrorist leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in July 2022
seems to illustrate such a “necessary” evil, an action that was both
retributive and protective.
My childhood
misunderstanding of those Ancient Imperatives
Although youngsters are capable
of understanding and using these two closely-related
(and all-too-commonly-ignored) ancient imperatives, they have often
been misunderstood — misinterpreted.
For a time, as a kid I completely misunderstood the one urging us to treat others
as we’d want them to treat us,
— not – as I then thought – to
treat others the way others (including
a neighborhood bully) were treating me!
The very
wide range of acts that show love for others
Love of one’s
neighbor as oneself is an attitude – that
is, a settled way of thinking and feeling and being
inclined to act and speak — that’s
expressed in extremely diverse actions.
What follows suggests
the diversity of loving acts.
In its own
time and place, each such loving act has a fairly detailed, particular “motive”
or purpose of its own.
A suggested definition of love
of one’s neighbor – that attempts to identify love’s unity in
that obvious diversity — will follow these
illustrative examples.
(1) Diverse acts that
are early steps toward — and beginnings of — a person’s
loving both self and others, especially many of one’s acts
as a normally playful, inquisitive, and non-bullying child, and
one’s acts as a conscientious student growing
toward both humanly helpful and wisely self-interested
(“well-advised,” “prudent”) life with others in society.
(2) In sharp
contrast with stealing from one’s employer (or
stealing from those who expect to be served by that employer), and in contrast
with being exploited by one’s employer by being under-paid (or
by being required to do seriously dangerous or forced labor,
etc.), but rather choosing to put in a good
day’s work, by acts that benefit both oneself and
others, plainly exemplifies treating others the way
we’d want to be treated.
(3) Mutually
fulfilling acts also exemplify such loving acts. These include
privately giving and receiving fulfillment of erotic desires by adequately-informed spouses
who have wholeheartedly chosen each other, and who continue to learn.
These are in marked contrast with the unique
suffering experienced by rape victims, and in marked contrast with those
transactions of paid sex involving a trafficked, enslaved sex
worker, or the sensations provided by a highly-paid “elite” prostitute, or any
rapist’s satisfactions, etc.
(4) A mother’s
nursing her newborn also exemplifies loving another – treating another beneficially,
as one would appreciate having been treated as a newborn – and may well have
been.
(5) Either parent’s
considerate, middle-of-the-night changing of their crying infant’s messy diaper,
and
(6) Anyone’s
simply choosing to hold a door open for someone who’d benefit from and appreciate
that.
(7) Decisions
not to disturb someone can also count as acts of love. Surely there
are frequent times when you and I benefit from and appreciate not
being disturbed! But not if we’re sleeping as
a wildfire or tornado or tsunami or hostile invasion
force threatens!
(8) A complex
economy with producers that range from tiny to huge, and
with supply chains that can be very long, requires many individuals doing what’s
essential to bring a diverse array of real benefits to us consumers.
But very
often those essential supply chain contributions have been unseen or overlooked and under-appreciated by
those who – directly or indirectly –benefit from them.
I suggest
you view this two-minute video to sense
the deep appreciation – the real love that’s being encouraged — for vital (but
often under-appreciated) essential workers during (and brought
to light by) the Covid-19 pandemic. One powerful capitalist, Apple Chief
Executive Officer, Tim Cook, urged 2020 Ohio State University graduating
seniors to take note of and to appreciate the crucial contributions of such
workers. Thanks to Fareed Zakaria, CEO Cook’s very brief urging – in
effect, it’s a call to love — can be viewed online at: “Last Look: Tim
Cook’s Reflections for 2020 graduates.”
The schools,
twenty-first century media, and timely celebrations can help to remedy that
lack of appreciation.
Also exemplifying
love of others as one loves oneself are:
(9) Typically
less frequent decisions, like, with the support of one’s close
ones, choosing to leave the familiar comforts
of one’s home, family, and community for a time of service
work as an individual, or as a member of a relief group – as
seen again recently in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, or Hurricane Ida, and
the horrific Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Love of others
and treating them as one would appreciate being treated as oneself is more dramatically evident in less
common acts by adults, including:
(10) Heroic voluntary
acts that seem likely or certain to
cost that person’s life in aiding others. Have
a close look at John 15:13.
An aside:
Perhaps in an attempt to quell the anger of parents and family of the thousands
of Russian soldiers killed early in the first phase of Vladimir Putin’s
unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, Putin seemed to be referring
to that Scripture . . . John 15:13 . . . in his contrived
rally on or about Mar 18, 2022.
Led by a
Putin loyalist, the Russian Orthodox Church,
seems to show no awareness of those Ancient Biblical imperatives. Putin –
who benefitted from a photo opportunity in the Russian Orthodox
Easter service in 2022 at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow – has (as
I write this) the backing of that branch of
organized Christianity in his apparent quest to “Make Russia Great Again.”
Unsurprisingly,
the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and most if not all informed Christians
are opposed to Putin’s criminal war.
To apply
the Ancient Imperatives: Would Putin want to be on the receiving end of
that military undertaking?!
Back to acts
that express love of others:
Some heroic
acts — including the self-sacrificial acts by New York City first responders
to the shocking surprise attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001,
and the very different acts of some US military personnel in late August, 2021,
in checking individuals for hidden weapons near an entry to the Kabul International
Airport — are heroic acts that these
adult actors implicitly committed themselves to –
in effect agreed in advance to perform if
needed — by having chosen those
dangerous lines of work.
11. Other
heroic self-sacrificial (“selfless”) loving acts by adults are above
and beyond any call of duty –
like a soldier’s self-sacrificially throwing him- or herself upon
a grenade that’s about to explode harming others, or — to protect others –
an unarmed student’s courageously charging at, rather than
fleeing from, a school-shooter equipped with lethal weaponry.
For additional
examples of what love’s imperatives call for, see upcoming section: “More on
love for others.”
What do such
acts by individuals have in common that identifies them as Loving acts?
Towards a definition.
What ties
such diverse acts of Neighbor Love together is that they aim at directly
or indirectly benefitting – voluntarily doing something
that’s good for – one or more others who are
certainly (or likely) to be impacted on the receiving end.
Because the
recipients of one’s actions will themselves have some measure of self-love,
loving those neighbors as we love ourselves will include acting
towards them in ways that respect their own mindful
self-love – perhaps as basic as wanting to go on living – self-preservation.
Love aims
to do something that’s beneficial for the recipient – including
action that prevents or lessens what would be harmful for the recipient(s).
In ways that
have often differed concretely from culture to culture,
all of them, including decisions not to disturb or interrupt, express
a desire to be directly or indirectly beneficial, or helpful, kind or compassionate —
especially to one or more other human beings.
As an individual’s
human instincts become more enlightened, they provide the basis for
a desire and for a hope for others to live, to benefit, to thrive, to flourish in
community with other human beings who are also thriving.
The appropriateness
of the term “love” to briefly sum up such actions and attitudes is suggested by
Dr. Jill Biden’s decision during the coronavirus pandemic to wear a jacket with
the single term “LOVE” prominently on it for her June 2021 diplomatic trip with
her husband, the US President, to meet with world leaders. That single
word – both verb and noun — spoke powerfully to millions, and probably more meaningfully
than any other single word in English.
And during
the Covid-19 pandemic some advertising by corporations including
auto manufacturer SUBARU, and socks manufacturer BOMBAS — advertising that
announces benevolent actions those corporations
will take in response to customer purchases — clearly takes for granted
that consumers do tend to lovingly
care about their families, their fellow human beings, as well as their
pets, and about neglected animals, especially those suffering from harms
prominent in hard times.
Those advertising appeals are quite different from what
have often been the usual appeals to the short-sighted self-interest,
the immature self-love, of some consumers. Advertisers have
often emphasized “sex sells,” the proverbial “shiny objects,” and the desire to
exercise “loud, sensational power,” in order to grab consumer attention.
I’m confident
your own internet search of “Golden Rule,” or “Love of Neighbor,” will confirm
the way of understanding “love of neighbor” that ties it to voluntary
action to promote real benefits (or to prevent or lessen real
harms) for those directly or indirectly on the receiving end — results
that the actor understands as something he or she would appreciate receiving
in such circumstances.
You might
decide to witness a polar opposite of love of
one’s fellow human beings. If so, consider the attitudes displayed
by adult members of ISIS (and attitudes ISIS
tragically “teaches” to children) by viewing the
12-minute investigative Frontline documentary: Children
of ISIS; but be cautioned: it’s disturbing to watch.
In 2022 the
ways of love stood in undeniably clear contrast with
the ways of Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin’s armed forces’ murderous, criminal mistreatment
of Ukrainian civilians.
Putin’s decisions as
commander of Russia’s military make
perfectly clear that it is not only when people act as
individuals that we manifest love or its opposite.
More on Love
for Others
Our innate rudiments of
love for people help to explain why it is natural for
many of us to want to reach out to
others in need or in danger, as seen in the strong public responses to, for
example, CNN’s invitations to contribute to vetted,
checkable providers of disaster relief for
victims of exceptionally destructive Hurricane Ida, and of
Russia’s 2022 outrageous invasion of Ukraine, or torrential flooding, as in
Kentucky.
Along with
many of my American contemporaries, I am struck by the – sometimes annoyingly inefficient — huge numbers of bona
fide, often non-governmental, often religious, checkable, not-for-profit benevolent
agencies seeking donations. Through these
agencies we are encouraged and enabled to provide relief or other needed
assistance to our fellow human beings near and far – people we’ll probably
never meet — but who are in serious need.
We have such
opportunities, and we cannot avoid making choices.
Documentaries
make plain our human instinct-rooted attitude of concern
for others who’ve witnessed or suffered tragic loss. Such
concern is unmistakable in the lives of members of New York City’s Fire Department
and others who were close to the profoundly shocking events of 9/11/2001 at New
York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington.
More recently, vital
support such as that provided by the Poles, for millions fleeing
the Putin-directed, brutal invasion of Ukraine, speaks plainly about our instinct-based attitude
of supportive concern for others.
More often
than we may realize, the instinct-rooted and well-nurtured, whole-hearted
attitude of caring about others – is shown in extraordinary patriotic
love for others. This took place on 9/11/2001 by passengers
who courageously attacked the airborne hijacking Middle-Eastern terrorists near
Shanksville, PA, — very probably to prevent the destruction of the US Capitol,
and untold subsequent harm.
The loving
intervention by those heroes in that precarious and extreme (and tragic)
situation was marked by prompt, decisive, agreed-upon,
cooperative action to limit and to prevent grave
harm.
Whether or
not we’re aware of it, many of us have remotely witnessed – via
broadcast of an unplanned video recording — a critically endangered
child or adult being instinctively rescued by complete
strangers who happen to be nearby – whether in Xinjiang, China, or
Yonkers, New York.
The value of
thoughtfully understanding and living out those Ancient Imperatives is intimated by
(1) their roots in our own
genetically-based instincts, and also by (2) their fruits –
their beneficial consequences — in guiding humankind toward the fulfillment of
enduringly attractive, and unmistakably confident hopes of
some ancient prophets (for example,
see Isaiah 2:4) and, naturally, toward fulfilling
the desires of human parents from every generation for
their own sons, daughters, and grandchildren.
PERILS OF
IGNORING THOSE IMPERATIVES Informed
and loving action can help us to reduce (and sometimes prevent) “naturally caused” harms
that threaten people via Nature’s earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, meteor collisions, and weather extremes including
tornadoes, hurricanes, super-storms, tsunamis and floods, droughts and famines,
and from wildfires, nature’s poisons, and predator attacks, and
nature’s pandemics, drug (and other) epidemics,
and more common illnesses, including cancers, blindness, as well as
phobias, depression, dementia, allergies, stings and bites, and diseases known
to be genetic diseases, like sickle-cell anemia.
Ignoring those Ancient Imperatives invites monumental
peril — especially in humankind’s
“high-tech” time of new social media, powerful news media, artificial
intelligence, drones, cyber-crime, cyber-bullying, cyber-attacks, recurring
directed pulsed-energy – microwave — attacks, cluster munitions, vacuum bombs,
hypersonic missiles with evasion abilities, biological and chemical weapons,
tactical nuclear weapons, and unimaginably devastating inter-continental
nuclear weapons.
Who knows
how much harm even one misguided organization (or powerfully-placed individual) with control of such modern weaponry, or control
of one of the relatively new and powerful yet deceptive and
profit-driven and/or propagandistic so-called “news
and information” sources on today’s “social media” can cause?
Long before
such “high-tech” threats to human flourishing — which have
been enabled by modern-science and technology, and certainly won’t be thwarted by STEM education alone —
there were and still are an assortment of “low-tech” harms and
injuries.
It was into
a world marked by “low-tech” harms – but
plagued by “man’s inhumanity to man,” suggested by much of what is forbidden in
both ancient and modern codes (including murder, false testimony, and theft) —
that the Ancient Imperatives were introduced. Some are mentioned later in
the discussions of bullying, chapter 6.
This Philosophy
of Education recommends educating for attitudes shaped by
those Ancient Imperatives for humanely coping with both the high-tech
and low-tech harms (including rape) that threaten and that
mar a great many human lives.
Some especially serious
concrete troubles of recent, twenty-first century decades should
serve all of us as wake-up calls.
Among
others, at this writing these include:
(1) The 9/11/2001 middle-eastern (mainly
Saudi) extremist terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City
and the Pentagon in Washington,
(2) The world-wide Women’s March of January 21, 2017
(Chapter 5)
(3) The long string of racially motivated killings
of black Americans by whites, that reached peaks because of spontaneous
citizen videos of the May 25, 2020 outrageous
racist murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the racist killing of
Ahmaud Arbery on Feb. 23, 2020 by white citizens near Brunswick, GA, and the
senseless March 13, 2020 killing by Louisville, KY, police of Breonna
Taylor. And more such killings continued.
And more
recently:
(4) The much-videoed deadly January
6, 2021 insurrection in Washington DC against the US Congress – clearly
intended to prevent the traditional peaceful,
constitutional transition to the democratically elected Chief
Executive of the United States of America, Joseph Biden, and to keep Donald J.
Trump in that office unlawfully.
(5) Recurring extreme weather events and
continuing evidence of profound climate change and global
warming.
(6) My Republican Party’s having utterly lost its
way. (link)
(7)
Vladimir Putin’s brutal, criminal, Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Some of my
studies of those and related matters are accessible to readers by plainly
labelled links. These linked studies do not need
to be consulted in order to understand this Philosophy of Education,
which, however, has been shaped in part with their help.