First, Do No Harm
ByJudith and I were talking yesterday about the first oath doctors take
First Do No Harm.
What if marketers had to abide by that same oath?
Hype would be the first thing to go.
As Shakespeare said —
That would be a consummation devoutly to be wished.
Jim
I couldn’t agree with you more.
I am so sick and tired of being hoodwinked, sold a bill of goods, and searching for fine print I can’t ever seem to find. It’s exhausting! Not to mention discouraging.
I like to be told CLEARLY what is for sale, what it costs, what to expect, and that no unnecessary charges will be tacked on to my credit card! I also do not want to give up my first born, even if it is a dog!
Not only “Do no Harm” but what about “Do not treat others as you yourself would not like to be treated!”
Cindy Morris, msw
Priestess Entrepreneur
http://www.SuccessPriestess.blogspot.com
Cindy,
We’ve always had trouble with the Do Unto Others maxim. Because when I do unto other as I want them to do unto me it’s all about me.
It’s clear that the injunction is meant to encourage people to treat each other better, but it is a psychologically primitive point of view.
It has embedded in it a narcissistic assumption that everyone is like me and it does not call for a me to extend out beyond myself and ask the other person — how would you like to be treated and then set about treating them that way.
That behavior requires the ability to get it that the other person is not you and it asks us to be able to step outside ourselves without losing ourselves so that we can hold in consciouness two different and perhaps conflciting points of view at the same time.
Now that’s a stretch.
Thanks
Jim
I actually was using the injunction as it is read in the Torah. “Do not do unto others as you would not have others do unto you.” A backwards way of stating of it, it seems, so we really chew on it. You may call it primitive. I call it core knowledge. Just because we are still working on it does not make it any less valid.
Personally I want to see each of us stretch. I also think it is important to expect others to grow and stretch as well. If we, at any point, accept where we are and not push ourselves, and each other, to greater awareness and growth then how we are ever going to evolve past our narcissistic limitations? If I thought, for a moment, that it was not worth it to encourage personal growth past narcissism, I would hang up the towel right now!
Cindy Morris, msw
Priestess Entrepreneur
http://www.SuccessPriestess.blogspot.com
“First do no harm,” might be the credo to each and every human being. It is the essence (at the core) of building one’s own consciousness about our ultimate connections with each other, all life, and the planet itself. Those active in commerce (or conscious capitalism) have an even greater responsibility to take it to heart. Thanks J&J for your uncommon insights.