What Christ Was Wrong About Persuasion
Jesus Christ was the ultimate self-help guru. He may not have worn the flashiest robe nor ridden a high horsepower donkey, but he did amazing things. Who else in man’s history healed the blind, turned water into wine, and gave us the Golden Rule which revolutionized the way we treat each other. Remember that sublime piece of wisdom, so utterly beautiful in it’s simplicity? The Golden Rule exhorted:
Do Unto Others As You Would Have Others Do Unto You.
It works well… most of the time.
The problem arises when others wouldn’t want to be treated the way you do.
Let’s say you loved to eat only vegetables. So you decide to treat your meat loving spouse the same way- by force feeding him vegetables. Think that would work great? Of course not. Here, the Golden Rule obviously fails.
Doing unto others the way you want done unto you works only if you have the same likes and dislikes. If you’re different… the Rule causes discord.
Let me amend the rule then. Let’s call it the Platinum Rule:
Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves.
Now isn’t that better? Can you think of a way that could ever go wrong?
