I used to watch a YouTube channel of people who would go around and audit for the 1st amendment.
The reason I watched that is that I didn’t really understand many laws about the 1st amendment and I started to get very familiar with what was legally permissible to do.
Why am I sharing this? One of the auditors used to say to the audience that he gives what he gets. In other words, if someone is nice to him, he is nice to them. If they are a jerk to him, then he is a jerk to them.
In one sense reflecting the behavior of others is fair. It is completely fair to treat others how they treat you. In another sense, this is a childish and it doesn’t help our society or culture.
So this post is just to ask to be better than giving others what you get from them. If I had done that in my past I wouldn’t have achieved the small level of success that I have now. When we act in a way that shows self-control and maturity, we inspire others even if we don’t realize this.
How can I say this? I have gotten feedback from the people I have interacted with in my life. I have had coworkers stop and tell me at work that the kindness that I gave to them, they gave to others. When others are treated as valued and needed, we help society and ourselves.
If we hurt others who hurt us, there only becomes an increasing violent and harmful reflection of pain and suffering. I don’t want to live like that. I don’t want to live as though everyone is a threat. Yes, there are certainly people who wish to harm me or use me, but not everyone is like that. We need to be balanced and wise in how we react, not just a knee jerk reaction to others moods.
If you treat others how you are treated, you are destroying society not building it.