Al G Smith

QUESTION:
Does being totally cruel help?
Get you respect? Most of the youngish guys in my town are nuts, some have been cruel to animals and everything and yet they’ve got the most pals and just about everyone respects them.

Some of them openly admit to respecting that guy (motes guy) who shot a police officer and yet it doesn’t seems to bother anybody.

And no offence but the women respect them like **** (and yes, even the women who appear kind)

Is it like this where you live?

ANSWER:
I think you know the answer to this.

Cruelty is never good, never to be ‘respected’, and never acceptable — ever.

If anyone seems to respect someone who is known to be ‘cruel’ it is not truly respect — unless by someone who is too lacking in intellect and.or maturity to be able to have any proper moral values and standards.

If a girl seems to ‘have the hots’ for a guy who is brutal and cruel — (sometimes the idea that girls like ‘bad boys’) it is because they lack maturity and see a ‘false glamour;’ in it, They will later learn, when beaten or abused, or have their heart broken and their emotions torn, that such guys are worthless. Sometimes they foolishly believe that ‘they can tame him’ or ”change him’ — this is usually a false hope.

A really nice girl will appreciate the better qualities of the decent man, and will find the cruel guy a ‘turn-off’ and pitiful.

Moat was simply a brutal bully who had psychological issues, exacerbated by steroid use, for which he did not get the help he needed (largely through his own failure to take the opportunities offered). His case got too much media attention and his actions do not deserve admiration or respect, only pity at best. I am sorry for his children who will eventually have to try an live with the reality of their rathers ignominious existence and death. His brutality was such that his (far too young) ex-girlfriend was so scared of him she lied to try and keep him away from her — and sadly that partly led to the events that unfolded. I feel sorry for her too, and the media claptrap that will have made her life a misery.

You may need to make a plan to get away from the area you live in that seems to have these types that you are evidently not one of. Look at what this ambition will require.

You should also look at how you can develop social contacts with people and groups that do not hold cruelty and bad-behaviou in any ‘esteem. This is a period of social malaise that the country is sadly suffering and it takes a braver person to defy the temptation to join the wasters and the bullies.

Remember it is NOT about trying to get respect from others. You have to have respect for yourself. A man who can honestly say he repects himself and knows he has good and caring heart is a man who WILL become respected by DECENT people.

Being ‘respected’ by trash is no respect at all, and if you gain ’street-respect’ through cruelty — you still have to live with yourself for the rest of your life. If you ‘cut-off’ your own emotions (which will be necessary) in order to ‘live with yourelf’ — you are on the way to becoming just another maladjusted, socially-worthless delinquent..

THE GOLDEN RULE is the foundation advice for life that is cited by all the major religions. This page - quoted directly from the official Universal House of Justice website, HQ for the Baha’i faith. I hope you too will spread this around…by word, deed and ‘blog!

This advice appears so widely yet seems so often overlooked. If only we could wake up tomorrow and suddenly lead our lives with the ‘golden Rule’ at its center - the world would INSTANTLY be transformed into paradise of peace, plenty and personal fulfillment.

The only real question that remains is WHY, with our supposedly advanced intellectual  capabilities, don’t we just grasp this and START applying it? After all — whatever color, race or CREED…the same advice for life has been handed on down through the ages for thousands of years!:

REFERENCE: Online 16 Jan 2008: http://www.uhj.net/the-golden-rule.html

JESUS CHRIST:

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”

“Jesus said to him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your mind and with all your soul… and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
(Jesus Christ, Matthew 22:36-40)

BAHA’U'LLAH:

“O son of man! If thine eyes be turned towards mercy, forsake the things that profit thee and cleave unto that which will profit mankind. And if thine eyes be turned towards justice, choose thou for thy neighbour that which thou choosest for thyself.”
(Baha’u'llah, The third Leaf of the Most Exalted Paradise, Tablets, p. 64)

BUDDHISM:

“Hurt not others with that which pains yourself or in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. One should seek for others the happiness one desires for one’s self”
(Udana-Varqa, 5:18)

HINDUISM:

“This is the sum of duty: do naught unto others that which would cause pain if done unto you.”
(Mahabharata 5:1517)

“Do not to others what ye do not wish done to yourself; and wish for others too, what ye desire and long for, for yourself. This is the whole of Dharma, heed it well.”
(The Celestial Song, 2:65)

ZOROASTRIANISM:

“That nature ONLY is good when it shall NOT DO unto another whatever is not good for its own self.”
(Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5)

“Whatsoever is disagreeable to yourself do not do unto others.”
(Shayast-na-Shayast 13:29)

That which is good for all and any one, for whomsoever - that is good for me. What I hold good for self, I should for all. Only Law Universal, is true Law.”
(Zoroaster, Yasana-Gathas)

JAINIST:

“A man should wander about treating all creatures as he himself would be treated.”
(Sutrakritanga 1.11.33)

SIKH:

“Precious like jewels are the minds of all. To hurt them is not at all good. If thou desirest thy Beloved, then hurt thou not anyone’s heart.”
(Guru Aranj Devji 259, Guru Granth Sahib)

CONFUCIANISM:

“Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.”
(Analects, 15:23)

“If one strives to treat others as he would be treated by them, he will come near the perfect life.”
(Book of Meng Tzu)

WESTERN SCHOOLS:

“What you wish your neighbors to be to you, such be also to them.”
(Pythagorean)

“We should conduct ourselves toward others as we would have them act toward us.”
(Aristotle, from Plato and Socrates)

“Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing.”
(Thales)

“Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him.”
(Pittacus)

“Cherish reciprocal benevolence, which will make you as anxious for another’s welfare as your own”
(Aristippus of Cyrene).

“Act toward others as you desire them to act toward you”
(Isocrates)

TAO:

“Pity the misfortunes of others; rejoice in the well-being of others; help those who are in want; save men in danger; rejoice at the success of others; and sympathise with their reverses, even as though YOU WERE in their place.”

“The sage has no interests of his own, but regards the interests of the people as his own. He is kind to the kind, he is also kind to the unkind: for virtue is kind.”
(T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)

NATIVE AMERICAN:

“Love your friend and never desert him. If you see him surrounded by the enemy do not run away; go to him, and if you cannot save him, be killed together and let your bones lie side by side.”
(Sur-AR-Ale-Shar, The Lessons of the Lone Chief)

“Do not kill or injure your neighbor, for it is not him that you injure, you injure yourself. But do good to him, therefore add to his days of happiness as you add to your own. Do not wrong or hate your neighbor, for it is not him that you wrong, you wrong yourself. But love him, for The Great Spirit (Moneto) loves him also as he loves you.”
(Shawnee)

“Respect for all life is the foundation.”
(The Great Law of Peace)

AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION:

“A SAGE is ingenuous and leads his life after comprehending the parity of the killed and the killer. THEREFORE, neither does he cause violence to others nor does he make others do so.”
(Yoruba Proverb, Nigeria)

“One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.”
(Yoruba Proverb, Nigeria)

ISLAM:

“Not one of you is a believer until he desires for another that which he desires for himself.”
(Muhammad, 40 Hadith of an-Nawawi 13)

“Do unto all men as you would they should do unto you, and reject for them that which you would reject for yourself.”
(Mishkat-el-Masabih)

JUDAISM:

“What is hateful to you, DO NOT to your fellow man. That is the law: all the rest is commentary.”
(Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

“Thou shalt LOVE thy neighbor as thyself: I am the LORD.”
(Moses, Leviticus 19:18)

CHRISTIANITY:

“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
(Matthew 7:12)

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
(Luke 6:31)

BAHA’I WORLD FAITH:

“Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself.”
(Baha’u'llah, Tablets, p. 71)

“Lay not on any soul a load which ye would not wish to be laid on you, and desire not for any one the things ye would not desire for yourselves.”
(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings LXVI, p. 128)

“Ascribe not to any soul that which thou wouldst not have ascribed to thee, and say not that which thou doest not. This is my command unto thee, do thou observe it.”
(Baha’u'llah, The Hidden Words, Arabic # 29)

“Choose for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself.”
(Baha’u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 30)