The Golden Rule ? Sense or Bullshit?

[genkaus]

My example contemplated a society where every (or most) member acted like that.
Your example contemplates that only a small minority acts like that.
I'd say my version requires some imagination, since we don't actually see any society like that.

Your example contemplated a tribe and tribes usually contain less people than the government of a country.

Nevertheless, examining how a principle applies at a small scale and then extrapolating the effect is a reliable way of predicting how it would apply at large scale. So, I'd say that the hypothesis that society where people lie, manipulate and take what they can won't destroy itself has more support for it, since we see small sections of society doing just that and not ending up destroyed. On the other hand, I don't know of any society - small or large - which is solely based on the golden principle.