Obeying The Rules
As is often the case, listening to my morning radio show (armstrongandgettyradio.com) has given me a topic to opine upon.
One of the hosts is a recent dad and given the unusually wet weather we’ve been having in Northern California he has been taking his son to the local mall to burn off a little energy in the play area. As with most play areas there is a sign with a few rules. You cannot have food or drink in the play area, you have to remove your shoes (to prevent messing up the carpet) and your child has to be under a certain height to play.
Over the past few weeks he has noticed people breaking the rules and has been intrigued by trying to figure out what they have in common (besides being minor jerks). There does not seem to be any obvious answer, they seem to be as diverse as the rest of the people in the mall and yet they simply don’t want to follow what are some fairly simple and reasonable rules.
Which brings me to the question (or questions) of the day.
Have the rest of you noticed this pattern and if so what do you think the commonality is (if any) ?
For my own part I have been in these areas with my niece and nephew and I don’t notice any specific pattern to the people either, but there does seem to be some sort of common aura they give off, like they just don’t care.
12 Responses to “Obeying The Rules”
Not wanting to obey “the rules” has always been common. The difference seems to be those who don’t want to enforce the rules.
Well yes not obeying the rules has been around, but it also seems that in the ‘olden days’ most people would respect them more.
Not sure I agree, Patrick. Our entire history is one of disobeying the rules. Revolution…civil disobedience…laws of God supercede laws of man..speakeasy’s during prohibition…the “Wild West” generally…the cultural adoration of anti-establishment types (including certain criminals)…fudging on taxes…Henry David Thoreau…Thomas Payne…the abolition movement and Underground Railroad…etc.
I think we’ve always been a pretty rebellious people who obey only the rules they agree with, very much unlike some other cultures.
It is illegal to use a hand held communication device while driving, yet after untold accidents and deaths people still do it, at least in midtown Manhattan. Is there a jerk gene, or do some of us just like to disobey because of a stubborn/anti-conformist streak, I have no clue (and yes, I am not innocent, I jaywalk, among other things).
Some people are just unable to see themselves as part of a larger picture. All they can relate to is whats in their immediate experience. If something has a negative impact on others but they don’t have to see it, and they lack the imagination to put themselves in another persons shoes, well then its not really something they can understand. They dump their trash and figure its no big deal, or use community playgrounds and make a mess of them, whatever. Its ignorance and rudeness and its sadly common. Also extends to not using turn signals, bringing screaming children to nice restaurants/theatres, justifying waterboarding etc…
I dunno, I’d say it depends strongly on which of the listed rules they are breaking.
If it’s the height thing, maybe slightly taller and/or older kids also don’t have anywhere cheap (free) for their kids to burn off their energy. If it’s the shoe thing, maybe you’ve got a couple of germaphobic parents. If it’s the food/drink thing, you’re probably looking at the “minor jerks” you mentioned. Or maybe the parents need the 3 minutes of relative peace while they’re kids are running around in a safe spot to scarf down their sandwich and coke.
Maybe the reason that you can’t pick out a pattern is that the different rules are being broken for entirely different reasons. I know that the point of the article was to talk about people who break the rules in general, but I think different rules are truly broken for different reasons, and “they’re jerks” just doesn’t cover it.
“Well yes not obeying the rules has been around, but it also seems that in the ‘olden days’ most people would respect them more.”
I tend to agree with Patrick, but I spent my first three decades in a town of about 50K that was pretty community minded too. I see more rule breaking and less of the common courtesies that I grew up taking for granted. Simple respect and awareness of the people around you seems to be on the wane. I believe this trend diminishes our society more than people might think.
Some people break the rules because they think “oh, those rules are for others, we are above those rules” I’ll just say I have a medical problem, that’s why I am on the phone next to the no phone sign.
JSpencer,
We maybe had different experiences which often accounts for divergent views.
My “olden days” included Vietnam and the civil rights movement. We broke a lot of rules…a lot of rules…and didn’t always show a lot of respect for others…especially those “establishment pigs.”
Depends when your “olden days” began”……if you were brought up by depression era parents, you never misbehaved in front of your parents….at worst you were an Eddie Haskell. 1968 was the watershed year. Baby boom offspring were the first to be accommodated leniency and I suspect it is just snowballing.
That said, anyone who voluntarily goes to a mall deserves what they receive.
Also there used to be a lot less rules but more social stigma from violating those rules, especially the unwritten ones.
Elijah, I grew up with Vietnam and the civil rights movement too, but civil disobedience (which I believe is an important tool for citizens to employ when necessary) is a different matter than the general loss of common courtesy I notice more these days. I’m sure behaviors vary a great deal from region to region as well, and of course parenting (or the lack of it) is a significant factor. Your point about 60′s counterculture is well taken.