two short principles

1. We're all connected, physically (since we're all matter and there's no way to find an exact physical barrier between me and you), socially (part of civilization), and psychologically (we're all humans so we all feel the same basic emotions, and our good and bad sentiments are both contagious). Thus, the Golden Rule must be rational:

a1. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." — Jesus (c. 5 B.C. - A.D. 32 ) in the Gospels, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:39, Luke 6:31, Luke 10:27

a2. "What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others." — Confucius (ca. 551 - 479 B.C.)

b. others = you, yourself

c. Substituting (b) into (a):

Do unto yourself as would have [others] do unto you.
What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to yourself.

It's hard to argue with those statements.

2. Hard questions in society often boil down to Prisoner's Dilemmas. In iterated Prisoner's Dilemmas (when we play more than once and we can punish people who defect), cooperation is ALWAYS the best solution. It's always better to establish good faith and to be screwed, than to establish bad faith and expect the worst. Again, we can always punish people who really don't know how to reciprocate good faith: the only people who really fit that that description are sociopaths. Good faith and trust are what make great relationships, families, schools, institutions, and societies. Bad faith is what characterizes social systems and relationships that are doomed to failure. Both good faith and bad faith are contagious: people who want their relationships and instutitions to succeed have to choose good faith.

Is that it??