Especially if she kicked your ass.
Where did I say that? I said no one follows them; not that they don’t exist.
This. Those who believe that society is “less civil” now than some halcyon time in the past are looking at things with a skewed sense of proportion.
What’s the difference between a rule that no one follows and a rule that doesn’t exist?
I’ve asked that same question regarding speed limits; other than “there’s a difference” I’ve never been given a really good answer.
Well then, where do you live that nobody follows the rules?
There’s always some guy who follows all the rules just because they’re rules. That’s the difference.
A rule that no-one follows can still be enforced if the authorities feel like it/someone wants a bribe/the powers that be decide to “Get tough on [Whatever]”/You get the idea. A rule that doesn’t exist can’t be enforced because it doesn’t exist in the first place.
For example: You might work somewhere that has a written and well-posted rule saying employees may not visit or use internet discussion forums during working hours, upon pain of getting fired. Said rule is widely ignored and almost everybody does, in fact, visit and use internet discussion forums during work time.
However, one day, the bean counters in corporate HQ decide to reduce headcount because widget sales are down 217%. So, after taking all the voluntary redundancies/retirements out of the way, they still need to get more people. Only this time, there’s no more money to pay severance money, so they need to fire people. Thus, they go through the internet records, find all the people who visited internet discussion forums at work, and fire them.
The rule has always been there, it’s just never been enforced- but now it is.
In example two, you’re working for a company that doesn’t have rules against personal internet use at work. Therefore, there’s nothing they can do about people visiting internet discussion boards at work (provided your actual job tasks are done), and thus they can’t fire people for doing it- because the rule against doing so doesn’t exist.
That’s the difference between a rule that’s not enforced and one that doesn’t exist.
Problem solved, then: if “No one follows any rules”, you can choose to fist-fight anyone you want to.