Rules are just ways to break golden rules

Date:   6/26/2007 5:45:42 PM ( 17 y ago)

The Rules are often used by people who want to have an advatage over others, or, ironically, for those who would break the rules.

Otherwise, we would all just get along fine without "rules", other than basic golden rules which are not really rules: "Respect" ; "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" - what else do we need to know how to get along with others?

I had a run-in with "the rules guy" a few times since I moved to my new apartment. This "rules guy" is just another tenant, and he is certified mental. Sorry dude, but you have that diagnosis of Paranoid Schizophrenic.

This isn't about him, but his use of the rules made me aware of the type of people who use rules, and why they use rules. This is just a snippet of the big picture, but it likely rings true when applied to the larger world.

Here, at my new place, it is a complex of 6 units all facing a common parking lot - an old motel renovated to apartments. Not ideal, but tolerable, and cheap [I have a very small income].

Of course, we all know how to get along, we don't need rules to know that we are disturbing others.

Along comes the Paranoid One, and I hear music coming from his apartment, and he tells me these rules [without any invitation to do so]:
"There can be sound heard in the common area coming from each unit, but when the sound is heard WITHIN the units coming from another unit, then it is too loud" [and then he adds: "I have tested each unit with a meter so I know where it has to be set to not violate the rules"]. I could hear his music in the common area, and just barely hear it in my apartment. It was not bothersome, not at that time, so I stayed quiet. I also hate it when people make complaints "just because there are rules against that sort of thing".

I replied: "ya, we will just be considerate and things will be okay". That is better than spouting off rules, I think. I shudder when I hear someone quoting rules, it allways means trouble. I said "at least it is not going on for hours and hours, because I can hear it - just barely - inside my unit too".

And then the music went on, for hours and hours, but it didn't bother me much, he never did it before, just today, like a test of my reaction to it [which might be important to a paranoid shizophrenic].

Then I read the rules, which only say "tenants shall not cause noises that disturb the peaceable enjoyment at any time". The only detailed rules apply to the late night hours. So he was just making stuff up so he could play his stereo real loud. I am certain he was just testing me somehow, because he would leave it up loud when he left his unit. It did not seem to be about him 'digging the pumped up volume'.

In the world outside my little soap opera here, "the rules" are used to commit crimes, to gain advantage over others, and so on. It is rarely good.

We do, sometimes, need rules, but only when we truly do not understand how to behave in certain situations, like complex economic transactions. And, when people break the golden rules , there has to be something on paper we can point to in order to get them evicted. However, when individuals start telling me rules, I know they are up to no good.

 

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