Rules are meant to be broken.
It’s not that I don’t like rules, but I do agree that they can stifle creativity and growth. Just like having too many pillars can wall the entrance to a temple, ruining its beauty and purpose; too many rules in a system can cause stagnation, excessive bureaucracy and tyrannical control. Too many rules can in fact be abused to purposefully keep certain individuals “out” and others “in” indefinitely.
Rules do however allow for a narrower focus for creativity to thrive. A musician must abide by musical rules to allow her artform to flourish. Rules here allow a framework for her consciousness to transcend and effectively change ours, a wall for vines to attach and grow, if you like. You would have had to abided by the rules of the internet, as well as language and grammatical rules, to have successfully read this post. If there were no rules, my thoughts would have sadly been my own forever.
I remember visiting Madras as a child, the experience was truly life-altering. The city air was filled with a thousand smells and many more people and animals. Tuktuks screeched past only inches away from my face. Though the roads were marked, it was as if they were painted on for show. Anarchy filled the streets, motorcycles carrying whole families sped and lorries drove on the wrong side of the road. Traffic lights were cute ornaments, not objects to wait and be ruled by. And at a rare moment that we did stop at one, our car was quickly surrounded by street beggars with the most horrific disabilities. Some were blind, others had no legs and many were children carrying babies. Maybe this is what Siddhartha Gautama felt like when he first laid his eyes on the sick? “This would never happen in England,” I thought to myself.
I was relieved landing back in the UK. Speed cameras, road signs, roundabouts all gave me a sense of comfort and security. I knew I was safe, I knew I was home. No nasty surprises, no cows licking our car window. But funnily, this soon faded. Even though Madras was outwardly chaotic, I felt free there and I was happy. If you wanted to be somewhere, you’d just go. No reducing speed to 50 miles an hour or becoming increasingly frustrated in standstill traffic. The price of freedom in India was death. The price of security in England was your life.
I have since grown to understand that rules are necessary, but a fine equilibrium must be reached. Too many rules cause stagnation and too little cause collapse. Both are chaos in their own way. This has only been further highlighted by strategies of overprotection used primarily in the West to counteract the pandemic. This is why house plants die.
The number and type of rules are only secondary to the one that forms them. Rules are dependent on their rulers. Man is fallible and so are his rules. This is why great empires fall or why we have financial recessions and stock market crashes. Man is too simplistic when creating rules, riddled with bias and extreme self-interest and blindly ignorant of downstream effects. In an effort to keep his carpet dry, man will create rules to plaster up leaks on the ceiling, all the whilst ignorant of the fact that his bath is overflowing upstairs.
Progress is dependent on the actions of rule followers. Whether scientific or political, rules must be questioned constantly. This is why we should always be in a constant state of revolution. Those who follow rules blindly are stiflers of progress, and progress is what defines Man. Rules are meant to be broken. But, there are some rules that cannot be. These are rules made by the ungovernable, not by man.
If you enjoy my content, wish to learn more and would like to support me, why not become a Patron? For £5 a month you’ll get exclusive membership-only evidence-based content and even behind-the-scenes info too. Our growing community would love to have you. To sign up, click the button below. Thank you.