People in the other thread in this forum talked about how they like to follow rules and want others to do the same. I know there has to be some who feels the opposite.
I felt like I was put on this earth to push the envelope. I was told that I would outgrow it once I graduated from high school. I’m almost 25 and I do consider myself as productive member of society, however I still have the urge to act out on crazy impulses. These impulses usually involve rule-breaking. The older I get, the less I act out on those urges. But, when I do, I feel a rush.
A couple a weeks ago, me and few friends were attending some event at the Holiday Inn. Down the hall there was this nice wedding reception and they had like a hundred slices of this yummy cake. Me and a friend went and got some. The process of swiping the cake was more pleasurable than eating the cake itself.
Whenever I’m in polite company thoughts like this run through my head:
-“I wonder what would happen if I threw this hot coffee in that woman’s face?”
-“I wonder what would happen if I let out a loud fart during church service?”
-“I wonder what would happen if I looked at this clerk in her face, grabbed this cute outfit, and then skip the store?”
-“I wonder what would happen if I dove in the shallow end of the pool?”
Okay, I’m J/K about the last one. But, you get the point. I think I need to see a therapist.
I’m one of the rule-followers who posted in the other thread. But that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes stand behind a guy in the Circle K in line and picture myself starting to rub his shoulders, kiss his neck, and press my body up against… uh, what I mean to say is, having thoughts of doing something controversial are perfectly normal. I hope. I would never actually do anything like that, though.
I feel the impulse to do plenty of “wrong” things, which if followed through would be met with reactions ranging from odd looks to a possible death penalty.
Basically I just go with the converse of the golden rule: Don’t do to other what you wouldn’t want them to do to you.
Barring that, don’t do anything ‘wrong’ that you can’t justify afterwards. And “I really wanted to” isn’t a justification.
I’ll park in no parking zones. I’ll drive the wrong way down a one way street. I’ve been in parks after dusk. I’ve burst our laughing in church. I frequently tresspass into old dumps and landfills.
(I don’t actually get out of the car in the no parking zone, I usually am waiting for someone. It was only a little one way street. As for the park, were bored, 16, and thought playing on the swings would be fun. I don’t remembey why I laughed in church. I tresspassed because I collect old glass bottles and license plates, and abandoned dumps, abandoned houses, and landfills frequently have them.)
I like to break rules that are pointless or stupid, sometimes even going out of my way to do so. But if there is a good reason for a rule I’ll tend to follow it. I feel it is nimportant to challenge the foolish/pointless rules since by doing so you will help get them changed.
I love order and dependability, but I detest the imposition of the wrong order on something that I believe to have its own ‘natural’ (in the sense of inherent or emergent) order, if it’s one of those “sufficiently important to do it right” aspects of life.
(Organizing human communication so as to form a decision-making process: very important. How you fold a fitted bottom sheet so as to generate an elegant, un-messy looking rectangle on your closet shelf: not so important)
I am the rebel under two likely circumstances: the matter in question is of very low important and “doing it by the books” is time-consuming and I could care less (e.g., the sheets); and the matter in question is of very high importance and the rules I’m breaking constitute someone else’s (wrong) idea of order, which must be overthrown or overturned or fought against etc.
Most things in life don’t matter as much as the general desire for order itself (predictability, a place for things just so that you’ll know where to find 'em, regardless of what place that might be, etc), and in those matters I’m — surprisingly enough — a rule-follower and I like things to line up and for people to know where to find the lines, etc.
I am a habitual rule breaker and I have been since I was young. I do have a strong standard of ethics but it tends to diverge with the actual law in many places. Most of the things are thrill seeking but others have been more serious like acts for revenge and things. I am 32 years old but on the first workday with snow of the season, I will roar into work and start doing donuts in the parking lot for a few minutes. I know that it is good practice but I am amazed how many people think that is naughty and I shouldn’t do that.
One of my saving graces is that I appear naive and innocent even though I am at least 50% hellspawn. Despite many near misses, I have no criminal record. I have perfected the act with the police and usually have to use very year or so.
I feel zero compulsion to follow a rule if I feel there’s not a good reason for it; I’ve felt that way since I was a child. I’d go up to teachers/yard duty’s as a child, and ask them why they had a rule; if they said “Just because” or “because you’re a boy” , I’d immediately assume they made the rule just to screw with us ( yes, I was that cynical as a kid ). I would ( and do ) follow a rule if I thought the explanation made sense; such as the rule against profanity; “It starts fights” is a perfectly good reason, so I went along with it.
If I think a rule is pointless, unjust or stupid, I’ll violate it if I can get away with it, and not feel a moment’s guilt.
I do this all the time. I’m glad I’m not the only one!
I wrote up my view on this, but AHunter3 did it better.
Here I find yet another reason to move back to Tucson ASAP. Which Circle K? I’ll be there in six hours. Seriously, sometimes I wonder if people who have affectionate urges in public (among peers, of course) shouldn’t just go for it. I think we’d find a lot of us have more fantasies in common than we think.
I posted the same explanation in a thread on dress codes. ‘Because it is tradition’ ‘Because everybody does it’ ‘Just because’ are not valid reasons for a rule.
I will go farther than some of the other posters, avoiding punishment is not always an issue. I’m not trying to ‘get away’ with anything. I want my defiance of a pointless rule to be seen and copied.
You don’t get in the express line with more items than the limit on the sign.
You say please and thank you.
<cough>grant and alvernon<cough>
What if people really did give in to those impulses? I imagine I would be taken away to the mental hospital. But it does entertain me and put my overactive imagination to good use to visualize doing strange things like this… I’m standing in line, what else am I gonna do?
As I’ve posted before, I once gave in to the urge to discredit a Jew For Jesus by screaming that we were Jews For Cthulhu. I did it for hours. It was fabulous.
A year or so ago in a large waiting room, I decided to ignore my common sense and make balloon animals for many children who seemed unaccompanied by an adult. The result was not accusations of being a child molester, or a stern warning from a cop or security guard, it was many happy children being quiet and well behaved and a feeling of bliss and contentment.
I’m not going to pour a scalding cup of hot cocoa on somebody’s face, or push somebody off the platform into a path of an oncoming train. Those would hurt people. But, if I think the woman in front of me in the checkout line would meet a barrage of passionate kisses and caresses with informed consent and match my passion with her own, than I’m giving in to my impulses. I have no problem with lack of decorum, or ignoring social norms. My only concern is that she consents, and that we do not hold up the line.
I’m a little California-bound right now, but someday we will boldly defy the conventions of society and history will be made there. From Grant and Alvernon to the University Medical Center is a long way in a straitjacket, though…
You’d better practice your blind credit-card quick-draw now, then.
There’s a new housing development in my neighborhood. Due to the fact that all the houses are identical, grey, and have a soul-crushing ordinariness to them I call it Dreamkiller Estates.
Yesterday, I noticed a beaten wooden sign in front of Dreamkiller Estates. “Keep off the grass. $100 fine”. First, due to recent construction, the “grass” in question is mostly bare earth, dead straw, and weeds. Second, I cannot imagine what legal backing such a fine could have.
Only because Dreamkiller estates is so close to my apartment building did I fight the urge to hold the sign high as I danced up and down the “grass”.
Someone throw some cold water on this thread!
I rarely break the rules. Even little ones, or unwritten ones. I’m far too scared of getting caught, or told off for doing something I shouldn’t be. My girlfriend, on the other hand, breaks little rules all the time. As Terry Pratchett once observed, if you go through life acting as though the rules don’t apply to you, most of the time people will re-write the rules so that they don’t. I just don’t have the balls to do it.
When I break a rule I see as pointless, I am not afraid of being told off. Should somebody attempt to ‘correct’ me, they get told off. They are the person conforming to a pointless rule. They should be embarrassed, not me.
Seriously, sometimes I wonder if people who have affectionate urges in public (among peers, of course) shouldn’t just go for it. I think we’d find a lot of us have more fantasies in common than we think.