Rules-Based Order: Rules Will Vary

[DISCLAIMER]

When providing psychoeducational lessons on Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I often address topics which people find disagreeable. What better subject matter is there than United States (U.S.) politics? Perhaps unsurprisingly, readers of my blog ignore these posts.

Nevertheless, for those individuals who are prepared to challenge their discomfort which is experienced when using irrational beliefs, I invite you to read this blog entry. Thus, I submit that one REBT source states (page 65):

The notion fairness is more complex than it might at first appear, principally because “rules” usually shift and change according to circumstances. Even theologians have shown that ethics (fairness) is a relative concept that depends upon many factors, including the age and intellectual abilities of a person as well as the situation in which the person finds himself.

Considering that passage, some definitions are necessary. Fairness is the quality or state of being fair—marked by impartiality and honesty: free from self-interest, prejudice, or favoritism. As well, a rule is a prescribed guide for conduct or action: an accepted procedure, custom, or habit.

Further, ethics are sets of moral (of or relating to values of right and wrong in behavior) principles: principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. Also, the term relative is a thing having a relation to or connection with or necessary dependence on another thing.

Given these clarifications, person X may deem it a matter of fairness to use an ethical rule regarding homicide (a killing of one human being by another). Specifically, person X considers it morally acceptable to kill (to deprive of life: cause the death of) person Y.

Yet, person X maintains that it isn’t in the interest of fairness to commit murder (the crime of unlawfully and unjustifiably killing a person). Thus, killing person Y who illegally enters person X’s home is deemed ethical. Still, entering person Y’s home to murder is regarded as unethical.

Per the aforementioned REBT source, the complexity of fairness is predicated on unique circumstances, as I’ve outlined here. This is a “relative concept,” because person X’s worldview is necessarily dependent on specified ethical rules for acceptable and unacceptable conduct.

This perspective is why I stress that there’s no credible evidence for the concept of objective morality (expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as perceived without distortion by personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations of a doctrine or system of moral conduct).

Regarding politics, in a blogpost entitled No Lies Detected, I addressed how the Prime Minister of Canada Mark Carney recently delivered a speech in rebuke of the liberal international order (also known as the rules-based order). In particular, Carney stated:

For decades, countries like Canada prospered under what we called the rules-based international order. We joined its institutions, we praised its principles, we benefited from its predictability. And because of that we could pursue values-based foreign policies under its protection.

We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false. That the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient. That trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew that international law applied with varying rigor depending on the identity of the accused or the victim.

This fiction was useful. And American hegemony, in particular, helped provide public goods: open sea lanes, a stable financial system, collective security and support for frameworks for resolving disputes.

So, we placed the sign in the window. We participated in the rituals. And we largely avoided calling out the gaps between rhetoric and reality.

This bargain no longer works. Let me be direct: We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

Over the past two decades, a series of crises in finance, health, energy and geopolitics have laid bare the risks of extreme global integration.

But more recently, great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons. Tariffs as leverage. Financial infrastructure as coercion. Supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.

You cannot “live within the lie” of mutual benefit through integration when integration becomes the source of your subordination.

In response Carney’s speech, one source reports that U.S. President Donald Trump stated, “He [Carney] wasn’t so grateful — they should be grateful to us, Canada. Canada lives because of the United States.” In his response, Trump used a contingent ethical rule.

The unhelpful conditional belief is something like “either Canada’s leader shouldn’t speak truth about the flimsy rules-based order, or Canada will not be in good standing with the U.S.” Building upon this imagined irrational script, I invite you to consider that one source reports:

In a post from its official X account yesterday [3/4/2026], the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs directed a message towards The Hague Group, a growing coalition of sovereign states – including South Africa, Colombia, and Malaysia – that were meeting in an emergency session in The Hague to discuss the enforcement of international law and accountability for actions in Gaza.

The Israeli ministry posted an image of 40 assembled nations alongside a photograph of thick black smoke rising from a targeted Iranian vessel, sunk earlier that same day. Part of the caption read: “We can expect the outcome of the Hague meeting to be as successful as Iran’s navy.”

The post was published on an official government account and has not been retracted. It references an active military operation. When announcing the strikes, President Trump told the Iranian people that the government would be “yours to take” once the bombing was finished. […]

The group warned that if states do not act now to “give international law teeth”, the legal framework governing global order “will not be worth the paper it’s written on”. Indeed, if the outcome of a meeting defined by compliance with international law is to be measured by Israel and its allies in terms of the “success” of a bombed ship, then the very concept of international law has already been set ablaze.

There is no more urgent moment than now to hold to account those setting fire to the rules-based order.

I argue that “international law” is something to which both U.S. and Israeli officials have already set fire. Moreover, the “rules-based order,” as expressed by Carney, is at this point—and perhaps has always been—little more than “fiction.” Admitting this gives me no satisfaction.

Therefore, I rely on REBT that uses unconditional acceptance (UA) to relieve self-induced suffering from beliefs. This is accomplished through use of unconditional self-acceptance (USA), unconditional other-acceptance (UOA), and unconditional life-acceptance (ULA).

With my approach to REBT, I incorporate author Stephen Covey’s concepts regarding the circles of control, influence, and concern, as well as an area of no concern. UA maps onto the circle of control (USA), circle of influence (UOA), and circle of concern and area of no concern (ULA).

The circle of control encompasses only oneself, the circle of influence encapsulates elements which may be subject to one’s sway, the circle of concern engrosses most matters one can imagine, and the area of no concern relates to all content which isn’t yet imagined.

Rules will vary, as they’re largely dependent upon subjective principles. Personally, it’s morally and ethically bad for the U.S. to ally with Israel—especially concerning actions taken in Gaza, and now regarding armed conflict in Iran. Still, I have no control or influence over this matter.

Thus, I practice UA as the nation to which I was born, for which I’ve served in the military, and in which I live is ostensibly making up rules as it goes on while murdering people aboard. Because you also have no control or influence in this regard, I invite you to practice UA, as well.

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, Designed by Freepik, fair use

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