"Love thy neighbour" or "Love thy tribe"?

In Words from the Dead, Sean Arthur Joyce points out how the golden rule of Christianity — which serves as the foundation of Western civilization — is "love thy neighbour." It's not "love thy tribe" (or community, state, country, etc.).

In other words, the golden rule is not to "love everyone" but to love one's friends and family.

Contrast that with the COVID propaganda, where one is expected to sacrifice normal human behaviour for the supposed "greater good" of people they have no connection with. People are asked to isolate and distance themselves from friends and family in order to (supposedly) save people they don't even know.

In my novel, Much Ado About Corona, I open Part Five with a similar quote from Jesus: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends."

In this quote, Jesus is not saying one should sacrifice their life for anyone, but for those who he or she considers friends. Why? Because you derive value, pleasure and meaning from your friends. You love your friends.

Even Ayn Rand, in The Virtue of Selfishness, writes: "Concern for the welfare of those one loves is a rational part of one’s selfish interests."

Therefore, is not sacrificing one's life for a larger "tribe"  really the farthest thing from love? And maybe that's why it is so appealing?

In his famous lecture, Why You Will Marry the Wrong Person, Alain de Botton says: "One of the reasons why love is so tricky for us is that it requires us to do something we really don't want to do — which is to approach another human being and say: I need you. I wouldn't really survive without you. I'm vulnerable before you."

Human relations expand us beyond our own neurotic thoughts and require we feel worthy of love. In contrast, sacrificing one's life to keep people you don't even know "safe" (whether from a virus, climate change or the Russians) only serves to protect us from the vulnerability, growth and purpose that comes from working and sharing our life with a limited number of people we love and respect.

Imagine: One man (or woman) loves twelve other people deeply. And each of those twelve people loves another twelve people deeply. And each of those 144 people loves another twelve people deeply. And each of those 1,728 people love another 12 people deeply....

Even if you account for a massive overlap, it would only take seven degrees of separation before all 7.7 billion people on earth would be loving their neighbour.

—John C. A. Manley

PS Teresa Nightingale, from British Columbia, wrote to say: "Just finished your book — wow, couldn't put it down — a real page turner! Can't wait for the next one! I love all the name-dropping and references like Trozzi pizza. Will scrape together some extra $ to get another copy to loan around to 'influential people'... Awesome."

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