Everybody's heard of the Golden Rule. But how many have heard of the Silver Rule? Or the Brass Rule? I ran into the Silver Rule, Brass Rule, and Iron Rule a year or two ago in a forum of Christians and non-Christians. A non-Christian called them the "Metal Rules." I checked it out and was fairly impressed with it's simplicity and allure, although they are far, far from biblical, which leads me to immediately hypothesize that they are ultimately untennable in some way or another. I may leave that for another blog.
Since then, however, these rules keep popping up by non-Christians, and more recently I've taken to referencing them myself as a quick and handy makeshift non-biblical moral code for instructive/comparative/allegorical purposes. But the problem for me is that these metal rules don't exist all in one place in very many places on the Internet, and many have different definitions, which only adds to the confusion. Carl Sagan's book "Billions and Billions" doesn't even address all of the ones I found, although I think his list is the most concise published list. So I set out to collect all these definitions into one guide, which you see here. A bonus: while searching, I discovered a few more rules: The Tin Rule, the Nepotism Rule, and the Stone Rule. For visual humor, the Iron Rule always made me chuckle, but now I think my favorite is the Stone Rule. Without further ado or commentary, I present the "Metal Rules" in order of nobility. Use them as you see fit. Check out the references for more information and secular commentary. God's Greatest Rule
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (NIV) [9] God's Second-Greatest Rule
"Love your neighbor as yourself." (NIV) [9] The Golden Rule
"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." [8][11]
"Do unto others as God." [1]
"Treat others as you would like to be treated." [10]
"Do unto others, before they do unto you." [3] (I posit this is an outlier.)
"GET them.... before they get us." [3] (I posit this is an outlier.)
Debunked by Confucius: "Shall the Masochist inflict pain on his neighbour?" The Silver Rule
"Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you." [2][11]
"Do unto others for God." [1]
"After me, you come first." [3]
"Do unto others as they do unto you." [8] (I posit this is an outlier, closer to the Brass Rule.)
Practitioned by Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi.
The Brass Rule
"Do unto others as they do unto you." [4][5][11]
"Do unto others as you think they do unto you." [8] (I posit this is an outlier.)
"Do to others what they do to you." [10]
"Do unto others for self." [1]
"What have you done for me, lately?" [3]
"I've got mine.... now you get yours." [3]
"Repay kindness with kindness but evil with justice." [4][6]
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." [4][7] The Iron Rule
"Do unto others as you like before they do it to you." [4][5][11]
"Do to others as you like, before they do it to you." [10]
"Do unto others as self." [1] The Tin Rule
"Suck up to those above you and abuse those below." (A combination of the Golden Rule for superiors and Iron Rule for inferiors.) [4][5][11] The Nepotism Rule
"Give precedence in all things to close relatives and do as you like to others." (Sagan quipped that evolutionary biologists call this "kin selection.") [4][5][11] The Stone Rule
"Do unto others in any way that seems to serve your immediate best interest, even if it means clubbing them over the head with a stone ax." [1]
"Do unto others as others." [1] Summary: If I were to summarize the above into a nice table, this is what I would pick: | God's Greatest Rule | Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. | | God's Second-Greatest Rule | Love your neighbor as yourself. | | The Golden Rule | Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. | | The Silver Rule | Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do unto you. | | The Brass Rule | Do unto others as they do unto you. | | The Iron Rule | Do unto others as you like before they do it to you. | | The Tin Rule | Suck up to those above you and abuse those below. | | The Nepotism Rule | Give precedence in all things to close relatives and do as you like to others | | The Stone Rule | Do unto others in any way that seems to serve your immediate best interest. |
2:14 When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 2:15 They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them References: [1] http://gerzon.com/resources/golden_rule.html
[2] http://dianawidjaja.com/words/2007/09/21/the-silver-rule/
[3] http://www.terrific-tabs.com/print_rules.htm
[4] http://www.free2consult.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36&Itemid=2
[5] Carl Sagan, "The Rules of the Game" in his book "Billions and Billions"
[6] Confucius
[7] Exodus 21:12-36; Leviticus 24:17-22; Deuteronomy 19:15-21
[8] http://www.astronomy.net/forums/god/messages/30449.shtml
[9] Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Deuteronomy 6:4-8; Leviticus 19:18
[10] DestinyTarot, "Does the Golden Rule Measure Up?", blog, Keen.com
[11] Carl Sagan's "The Rules of the Game" |
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