A few days ago, a friend of mine put up on FB a reference to an article explaining how Republicans could hear lies and believe them to be true; it all came down to the way their brains worked and their early life experiences yadayadayadayadayadayada.

Naturally, since he put it up on FB, lots of people rang in, more than usual perhaps because he is a Religious Science minister. NOT Scientology. Not at all. Religious Science is close to Christian Science without the Christian part; another friend who is a Religious Science minister is, in fact, Jewish. It is more a philosophy that depends in great part on a sort of Dr. Wayne Dyer 'what you believe is what you get' way of life. I have subscribed to many of its teachings for many years, and they have served me well.

Non-judgmentally over the top

Now that the background is out of the way, a good number of the very non-judgmental people who are Religious Science adherents commented. Oh, yes, we must be understanding, they opined.

I disagree. It is bullshit, pure and simple, this search for excuses for bad behavior. Who cares what forces of man or nature influenced a person? It is that person's behavior that matters; behind closed doors, I don't care if they think their pinky toe is God and Donald Trump has a viable intellect. But what do they do?

They excuse selfish, greedy, cruel behavior on the basis of something that happened to them when they were three, or five, or 26...or 52...

In fact, there is, as far as I can see, only one reliable, universal yardstick for behavior and it exists, in one form or another, in virtually all world cultures: The Golden Rule.

The Golden Rule rules

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Act upon that belief, and, except in rare cases of limited extreme duress, you are unlikely to so much as say anything that willfully harms another.

So let's look, then, at the basic tenets of what passes as a Republican ethos today.

Four tenets of the Ratpublican ethos

1. People on welfare need to pull themselves up by themselves, and we are not going to so much as provide basic foodstuffs and shelter while they do it.

FACT: There are some welfare cheats, to be sure. But the vast majority of those receiving what little public assistance the US offers need it. Why do they need it? Always because of factors beyond their control. Their company experienced losses and they were laid off. Their job was sent to China so the company owner could get richer. They were educated after NCLB and therefore have no workable education. Etc. Etc.

Anyone might lose their job; the difference is that the top echelon will probably have savings, while the average American worker lives paycheck to paycheck. There is a world of difference between having to sell one of your five homes to tide you over, and living with your family in your old car. The Republicans don't see it. Why? Because of early experiences? Or because it is easy, if inhumane, to claim they are not like the ne'er-do-wells who have no savings just because it took every cent to provide basics...and they have no intention of heeding The Golden Rule.

2. Universal health care is communism at its best.

The people saying this most loudly, members of the US Congress, have the best health care available, a plan just for them that ordinary Americans couldn't hope to obtain for love nor money. Ditto for their retirement accounts; no "inflated" COLA-tied Soc. Sec. for them.

Suppose, though, that they had no health plan and were forced, as Willard would like, to seek help at emergency rooms when they are extremely ill. Apparently, too, Willard thinks ER treatment is "free." It is not. They will get a bill. They won't be able to pay it, and will be hounded half to death...but Willard wouldn't care about THAT. They got care, didn't they? But what if Willard had to obtain his health care that way? What if the American people finally objected to the wondrous perks their so-called public servants had voted for themselves and somehow took them away? Would Willard take it like a man? Doubtful. Like all the other Ratpublicans, he'd probably snivel and whine and lash out and grab anything else he could get his hands on, as there is no honor among thieves (while I'm on a useful platitudes rant.)

3. Women should consider the offspring of rape to be gifts from God.

This would be the same God they pray to for all sorts of goodies, like, "Please God, let me be president" Or "Please, God, make sure my gardener doesn't have health care as good as mine." Or, "Please God, I want more SUVs so make it OK when we invade oil-rich nations." That sort of thing. Keeping one's gardener (probably one of those illegals, anyway, like Mr. Obama) sick and poor follows the Golden Rule how? Invading sovereign nations to take what we want follows the Golden Rule how? But they can blame it all on something that happened to them when they were ten or 15, the same as they blame attacking gay classmates, assaulting them and ruining their looks--not to mention the damage to their selfhood--on their youthful exuberance.

4. Intelligent design means God is looking out for us in ways we can understand.

That's fine as long as you understand that God is a joker. For example, he put all those 5-million-year-old fossils into the rocks to fool us. God invented carbon dating so we would KNOW how badly he'd fooled us.

Is there a Golden Rule issue here? Of course there is; even if one wants to believe this cockamamie stuff, it violates The Golden Rule to attempt, via legislation and law, to force others to believe likewise.

I can't, of course, force a single Ratpublican to adopt a life at least marginally allied to following The Golden Rule, which, a noted, exists in all cultures. (Probably another joke from that bearded guy in the clouds.) Indeed, since this column appears on Chimp, I doubt a single Ratpublican will even read it.

The Quantum Field

But there is the quantum field, that which scientists have proven; a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio might make a tsunami in Japan, as all things/thoughts are interconnected at a quantum level. So maybe, by saying ten times to the millionth power that behavior that ignores The Golden Rule is inhumane, greedy, selfish and inimical to life on earth...maybe one or two of them will get it.

I can dream, can't I?

_______

Over and out

