QOTD: Got Disobedience?
by Dale Hobson on March 13th, 2012
One of the advantages of living in a society constrained by law, rules, customs and manners is the many opportunities it provides to indulge in the pleasures of disobedience and creative chaos.
Today’s question of the Day was submitted by “erb,” who says, “I’m a rule breaker, I get a kick out of breaking rules that are arbitrary or unnecessary.”
What rules have you broken lately? Why?
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Tags: qotd
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Break rules? Whose rules? I haven’t committed murder, rape or robbery so don’t worry about it.
There was a great story on NPR this morning where they were saying that if you are driving too fast it is because you are late if someone else is driving too fast it is because they are a maniac. So true. Speed limits are to low, everyone seems to break that rule. Especially the police they are always passing me doing 100mph while talking on their cell phones without a hands free device.
I figure “erb” is the fellow who passes me on a hill when the yellow line is on our side. Once when the cop stopped him and I drove so past it felt sooo good. Laws are generally for orderliness which reduces chaos and supports safety. We seem to have more and more laws and less adherence to custom. Diminishing lack of respect is destructive.
I worded that wrong and meant increasing lack of respect.
I wrote a piece with a passage of parallel fifths. I did it because I thought it sounded good.
Katharine Hepburn is giving you all an alluring frown from heaven. Erb asks a perfectly straightforward question. We all know what the rules are, and we all know when we have transgressed.
I’ll go first. I used the women’s room outside the station. It was free and I didn’t want to wait. There. Now I feel better.
Dale, NCPR
I love people to pass me. I’ll call them potential jail bait.
I tend to do between the speed limit and 5 mph above, unless conditions require a lower speed.
The speed limits in the US (especially on the East coast) are much lower than you see in many other parts of the world. Americans are supposedly in such a hurry but Europeans get there much faster!
Pete, jail bait is right. I think some limits are more about filling the coffer than about safety. But you do have to be smart. Most accidents are cause by something other than speed. It can be a contributing factor.
My shopping cart does not make it back to the cart corral. Without fail this gets me looks of disgust as if I left my child in it and drove away. At this time I know of no laws regarding the return of carts so technically I am breaking no rules (except for the grammical ones).
I make mayo with RAW EGGS!
erb, in this day and age that”s dangerous. Be careful.
http://news.discovery.com/human/egg-salmonella-bacteria.html
But it is a good question. What is safer eating raw eggs or speeding?
The refrigerated shelf life on eggs is about 30 days. I just make cookies and of course ate raw dough. Last week I did pass an Amish buggy over a double yellow line, he was technically off the road with two tires beyond the fog line and I had good visibility. I never pull in until I see pavement under the horses hooves in my rear view mirror- don’t want to cut them off.
This is off-topic, but it’s a reaction to Dale’s post about using the women’s WC. Just today I was at the Canton McDonald’s and paid a parting visit to the men’s room. Upon exiting the WC, I knew the side entrance was just to my left. I absentmindedly plunged right through the *first* door to my left, but rather than saying hello to my car, I wound up making an embarrassed greeting in the ladies room.
Way back when at the beginning of the 21st century, I made a new years resolution never to wait for the wheels of the bureaucracy to turn again. If a lawyer/inspector/banker/architect wants to get their ducks in a line, they’d better hurry ’cause I’m already in motion. Waiting for paperwork is like waiting for paint to dry. If we intend to move into the future…we gotta move.
I’ve got a feeling Katherine Hepburn was not talking about driving a few miles over the speed limit, using the opposite gender’s bathroom, or failing to return a shopping cart. (All of which I’ve done, too.) Maybe we can’t talk publicly about breaking the kinds of rules that get you to “the fun.”
Thinking about this in bed last night (while you, Ellen Rocco, were still on the computer!): I broke a rule this fall by taking my kid out of a soccer game early and, boy, did the powers-that-be not like that! Definitely some repercussions. But it was the right thing to do.
I think that’s the real point – all rules and situations are not equal; sometimes you can and should disregard them. Laws, too, but you’d better know why you’re breaking them.
“Labourers do not bother about a law till it blocks their way – when it has to be circumvented. If nothing happens, they do it again, and again, till it is accepted as inevitable. Thus common law was made by labourers.”