ReDmpTiON spEaKs ...

Why are rules created if they are meant to be broken in the first place ??

Rules... When you set out to define the word rules, you come across two words, guidelines and strict.. If the rules were simple guidelines there would have been no problem whatsoever because then the imposition of them would have been our discretion. But unfortunately, they are never so.

A rules never remains a guideline when it is strictly enforced, because then it does not leave any room to exercise our discretion. Carrying forward that point, the rules being dumped upon us means we had no say in it. This awakens the dormant rebel that resides within all of us.

Here I would like to talk a bit more about this rebel. Oxford describes a rebel as “person or thing that resists authority or control”. When you define it that way.. You get the words, control and authority. The authority is the person enforcing the rules and control is the ultimate motive of the rules themselves. When a person tries to impinge upon our privacy naturally we try to resist. This resistance is the tool of a rebel. When you stop a kid from playing in the sun, he’ll find ways to do it , when you say that ‘blah blah’ is bad and he/she is not to do it , you are arousing the curiosity of that person which is another instigator of the rebel . In short a restriction or any attempt made to control an individual will always result in an act of rebellion.

There’s a very common phrase used by students and in some cases employees the world over, since time eternity.

“Rules are meant to be broken”

Short and crisp, it heralded the teenage era in America a few decades back by becoming the mantra of teeming youngsters.

But this phase of rebellion is very short lived. You may wonder why, as the rebel still resides within.

The answers lie in us. As much as we would like to live a life of freedom, as much as we would dream of an utopia without rules .A voice within us always forces us to follow them.

The voice is our conscience, and the rules are not the ones created by our fellow beings, but Nature’s own laws which govern our every action.

Have you ever wondered why after and sometimes even while hitting a person in rage or a sudden burst of emotion, a feeling of guilt is born? While committing an act of treachery, or stealing something a person suffers from the same pangs of guilt. He might run away and escapes the long arms of law, but where will be run from the voice inside himself.

That same thing is applicable to the rules made by our elders and peers. The rules are made to restrict our course of action which may lead to us committing an act which we will dislike ourselves for doing later on.

Let’s take an example

A rule says not to bring inflammable items on a flight; another rule says not to smoke in public places. Both these rules have one thing in common it’s a rule meant for public safety, our safety. A person bringing that flammable item on the flight or train risks the life of many others along with his own; similarly the person who is smoking in a public place is risking the lives of various others who could be affected equally with the effects of passive smoking.

Rules are created to act as a marker, a signboard pointing to the right direction .Even if it’s on a deserted road, which no one frequents; it has to be there .Not for the millions that have no need for it, but for that one solitary traveler who is helped by it.

Hope the point’s taken.