I have always had serious problems with the adage that has come to be known as the Golden Rule: that virtually universal religious and humanist principle of treating others as one would want to be treated by them. While it appears as an admirable standard on which to base ones actions, I find that it lacks a certain efficiency or a morally high-minded specificity.For a simple example, there are some Christians who treat others the way they want to be treated by wishing other people Merry Christmas during the month of December, even to people who do not adhere to any Christian denomination and who do not celebrate Christmas. Related The nations founders would be horrified by the way todays politicians mix church & state Therefore, I try to practice while I hope others would practice as well what is known as the Platinum Rule, which asks us to treat other people howthose otherswould want to be treated.An example in this case would be to wish other people greetings on their important holidays during those holidays. Dive deeper every day Join our newsletter for thought-provoking commentary that goes beyond the surface of LGBTQ+ issues Subscribe to our Newsletter today I have been thinking of the Golden Rule as many nations across the globe have deviated from the course of liberal democracy of working toward a more perfect union as so eloquently phrased in the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution and increasingly have swayed onto the path of autocracy.And in witnessing this, I have been trying to address a critical question: What if autocrats such as Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, Viktor Orban, and strongmen before them like Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler had, in their way and in their minds, been performing the Golden Rule in their actions? All of these men valued strength, fortitude, and in consuming power over all else. Though they demanded loyalty from their subordinates and from the populace, they viewed what others might consider as virtues for example, compassion, selflessness, and mercy rather as weaknesses and as character flaws.These men treated others with ruthless contempt, lacking any sense of empathy, because this demonstrated their strength and power. For them to admire and respect othermen never women they expected others to respond as they would respond by treating others with strength and power, even in the way that they themselves would want to be treated.But, if one is to adhere to the Platinum Rule, the self must separate from the equation. One must, therefore, have a developed sense of empathy: being able to walk in the shoes of another, to understand what others may be feeling and how they would wish to be treated. On EmpathyI told you once that I was searching for the nature of evil. I think Ive come close to defining it: a lack of empathy. Its the one characteristic that connects all the [Nazi] defendants. A genuine incapacity to feel with their fellow man. Evil, I think, is the absence of empathy.Captain Gustav Mark Gilbert, a United States psychologist who was assigned to attend and closely watch the defendants at the Nuremberg Trials at the end of the Second World War, identified a common personality trait among all those who testified: the lack of feelings of empathy. As we understand in psychology, unless there is a developmental delay, infants demonstrate the rudimentary beginnings of empathy whenever they recognize that another is upset, and they show signs of being upset themselves. Very early in their lives, infants metaphorically develop the capacity to crawl in the diapers of others, even though their own diapers do not need changing.Though empathy is a human condition, through the process of socialization, others often teach us to inhibit our empathetic natures with messages like Dont cry, Youre too sensitive, Mind your own business, Its not your concern. We learn the stereotypes of the individuals and groups our society has minoritized and othered. We learn who to scapegoat for the problems within our neighborhoods, states, nations, and world.Through it all, that precious life-affirming flame of empathy can wither and flicker. For some, it dies entirely. And as the blaze recedes, the bullies, the demagogues, the tyrants take over, filling the void where our humanness once prevailed. And then we lost something very precious. The Nazi defendants at the Nuremberg Trials represent the termination of empathy on the individual micro level, resulting in the otherwise possibly preventable mass murders of Jews and other groups targeted by the Hitler regime. When the demise of empathy comes from powerful leaders, the consequences on the macro level become exponentially deeper, more toxic, and unimaginably catastrophic.People like Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Orban, Mussolini, Hitler (and many ordinary people) have lost that empathetic impulse long before ascending the heights of power. They feel little or absolutely nothing for others. Clinically, they could be classified as narcissistic sociopaths who have or are currently leading their respective nations toward destruction and causing havoc and international instability.Donald Trump cares little for the residents of the United States or for any other nation. If he had, and if he had an inkling of self-knowledge, he would have been aware of his overarching limitations, and he would never have entered the political arena. How could anyone with the least modicum of empathy forcibly separate young children from the arms of their desperate parents and lock them away in wire cages, as some of these children still remain separated?Netanyahu has engaged in a devastating war an overreaction to the terrorist attacks on Israel that he could have ended in a peaceful settlement long ago if he had not been more concerned about losing political power and the possibility of being convicted of previous charges of corruption.Many people, however, possess a deep sense of empathy while practicing the Platinum Rule. One such individual was former Utah Republican Senator Bob Bennett. As he lay dying at George Washington University Hospital in May 2016 in his battle with pancreatic cancer and then partial paralysis from a stroke, he called his wife Joyce and son Jim over to his bed to express his last wish. Quietly and with a slight slur in his voice, hesaid: Are there any Muslims in the hospital? Id love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump.Earlier when he was in better health, as he moved through an airport traveling home from Washington, D.C., to Utah for Christmas, Bennett walked up to a woman wearing a hijab telling her he was glad she was in the United States, and he apologized on behalf of the Republican Party, especially for Trumps call to temporarilybanall Muslims from traveling to this country. Possibly for Bennett, his connection with members of minoritized and often vilified religious groups stemmed from his own Mormon background. For Bennett to put on the shoes of Muslim Americans may have been a fairly close fit since his faith, too, has come under constant attack since its founder,Joseph Smith, introduced Mormonism and the Latter-Day Saints Movement in the early 19thcentury. During the Republican presidential primaries in 2012, for example, members of his own Party referred to Mitt Romneys Mormonism as a cult, a belief inspired by the Devil, and something un-Christian.Bob Bennett made visible the noble and all-too-rarely expressed notion of deep and profound empathy. Though Bennett walked in comparable shoes down his own neighborhood streets, his courageous actions were no less laudable and certainly no less empathetic. He related to and connected with the feelings and experiences of Muslim Americans across his own parallel feelings and experiences.But what about for people who claim never to have experienced incidents of marginalization, of feelings of being, looking, or thinking differently from others in certain contexts in their lives? Would they find the empathy hill steeper and more difficult to climb?I believe and hope not!Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.