Playing by the rules of the society

The human mind always yearns for freedom, which often means the ability to do what it wants or perceives as being what it wants like it sees fit. This often leads us to believe that things that don't go as we would like are oppression, which takes away our freedom. Rules are sometimes part of those things that we feel take away our freedom simply because they don't allow us to do things like we would like; they tend to force us to walk in a certain way or act in a certain way, which feels like it is against our way of thinking and thus feels like it takes away our freedom. 

A simple example to illustrate this point will be the fact that you have to wake up early to get things done. For some people that feels like oppression, why do I have to wake up at such an uncomfortable time when I still have my eyes filled with sleep, all I want to do is stay in bed, but you see that if you want to accomplish something you will have to give up some of your sleep time to do so. The rules of the world have made it in such a way that things should be this way, you can still sleep, but you won't get things done but if you want to get things done, then you have to play by the rules. 

What are rules anyway 

The planet has been around for a quite a while now and throughout this time lots of different mechanisms have been experimented in order to find what works best for not only a productive society but also a happy society in general. Humanity tried different things at different times, and rules are just the outcome of all these tests, which produced the best rules. Ask yourself what a rule-less society will look like. Would that really be something you would want? Where everybody is free to do what they like? 

That was definitely tried at some point and it did produce some horrible rules, so eventually, after so many iterations we were able to come up with these set of guidelines which provide some sort of general fairness for everybody, and that is what we call rules. 

Rules which govern society aren't some invention of a single person; they are rather a general tendency which is adopted and later formalized and codified in to a book of law. The word "rules" could also mean different things; here I am talking about the rules which govern a society, not necessarily the "laws" of a country. I am referring to things like; why we greet each other when we meet, politeness, respect, decency etc

Fighting against the system 

These rules were put in place a long time ago, and they had to pass the "future-proof" test, they were experimented with generations of persons who all agreed and worked with them just fine. They didn't start off perfect, but eventually, through many iterations, were perfectioned. So to have a person come and challenge the notion of respect, politeness or even decency and many other rules would be outrageous for most people. Sure, we could have been doing the wrong thing for a very long time but a drastic change won't happen in a split second, whatever system you want to propose will also have to pass the future proof test which takes decades to do. 

I say this because I sometimes come across people who don't like the systems in which society operates, and they feel like they can change it or fight against it by voicing out their frustrations and disdain. That's when they are met with the quote "life is unfair". A counterargument I want to propose is that instead of trying to change a system by voicing out your frustrations in hopes of starting a rebellion against the set system, maybe you could propose something and put it in to action and if it is able to stick then it will only naturally overtake what is already in place, but trying to take down a bad system to replace with nothing is even worse 

Learn the rules so you can break them 

The world works in a certain way, I personally don't like to have to wake up at 5am to get things done, but I do it anyway. I don't think most people like to be told what they should or shouldn't do by another person who just happens to be wearing a uniform and a badge, but that's the system in place and so if you want to fight it, you must at the very least propose a feasible alternate which works better, which provides a general fairness and equilibrium to everybody not just you. 

Nevertheless, there are people who are able to rise beyond these rules and basically do what they want; these are the people who are able to understand all the ins and outs of the rules to the point where they know all the loopholes. They learn the rules so they can break them. 

In the future 

What will the future look like? well, it will just be an evolution of the rules we have now. Maybe decency will be redefined, or we wouldn't have to wake up at 5am to do work because robots will have taken over. One thing is sure: nature doesn't like imbalance, so an equilibrium will have to be found where everybody can have a semblance of fairness. Learn the rules of the world, play by them, then you will eventually find a way to go beyond them, you can't fight against something you don't even understand. 

This article is for people who like to complain about why they have to go to work or why life is so difficult.

Thanks for reading ☺️

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