(RULE)___UNABATED WITNESS IS THE PROOF

“Accept or implement strategies witnessed by different societies for a very long time without considerable alteration.”

Exception: For convenience, we may exclude slavery (to avoid misinterpretation / misjudgement).

Human Civilization and the struggle to organize

In the history of human civilization, there has always been a struggle to implement strategies that can benefit all, from the individual to the whole society. Also, there has been an outpouring of strategies for the benefit of some while neglecting others.

In a societal aggregation, rules have been devised to organize things. It is a necessity for the very foundations of relationships among people.

Any disproportionate/evil practice cannot be sustained for a very long period among several societies at the same time. (Here, “a very long time” means many generations, i.e. long enough for a practice to outlive the rulers, systems and fashions under which it began; “different societies” means societies that are far apart in place, language and belief, so that one has not simply copied it from another; and “without considerable alteration” means that the core of the practice stays the same, while its outer form, i.e. the customs and language, may differ from society to society.) (In practice, a practice passes this test when it is found in different societies, even in different forms, while its core survives for a long time and never fails.)

There is a list of hard and fast rules, i.e. rules that have endured the test of time.

These include the traditional family system (i.e. a father and a mother raising their children under one roof, with the elders respected and the young protected), leadership that cares for the people (i.e. leaders who serve the people rather than rule over them; see POWER STRUGGLE AND ITS PREVENTION), trading free of usury, i.e. real-time trading (trading that meets the NEPs), moral and ethical values, etc.

The warning here is against all those things that have no worthful existence. Firstly, trade must be done only in things that have real worth. Secondly, wealth must not be exploited. The one who has it is only its guardian (see RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE WEALTH), and the resources he holds are there just to prevent flooding (see Draining the TAP). Hence, neither trading in worthless things nor using trade to exploit one’s status is legitimate; even trading money for money is exploitation, because that money was never his in the first place, i.e. he is only trusted to keep its flow.

Note: The term “different societies” refers to the big groups rather than small dominative forces.