My father would often say: “In life there are rules; laid down set of instructions for us to follow. A system that helps us determine what is right and what is wrong; that’s why we are called human beings, not Barbarians.” He couldn’t be anymore right about that; without the rules that serve as foundation for our thoughts and guidelines to our actions, we as a society would crumble on ourselves. The only thing about rules is how often they are broken. Despite the plethora of guidelines we have set to fine-tune our way of life once or twice, people have fallen under the group that defy these rules and are often punished for their actions. Over the years we have made excuses for these miscreants either calling them psychopaths, serial killers, sociopaths, or disobedient. We have, as a collective body, decided that our rules are the basis for what is right and what is wrong and we have chosen not to see otherwise. Perhaps one thing we need to consider is the fact that whether the very presence of these rules increase their propensity to be broken, or as it is better stated: Are rules meant to be broken?
The rules and regulations we have set for ourselves pave a very naïve way of thinking; it gives us a wrong perspective of our very own world. Rules suggest that things are either right or wrong, good or bad, painting a picture that the world exists as two different poles: black or white. But what about the times when the current circumstance goes against the rules we have made? What do the rules say about the necessary or the required, or the vital; what do our rules stand for in times of distress? If the norm is to respect our elders and then a particular elderly person has taken it upon himself to frustrate my life with utter wickedness and shame, does she really deserve my respect? If the norm is to study and then come to class, get taught, clarify our knowledge and then get tested for what we know, but our teachers never show up in class to teach and we never truly understand what we studied, are we really breaking the laws by indulging in examination malpractice? If everything in the market is way too expensive and our salaries from 3 jobs can’t still get us a decent 3 square meal a day while our presidency is busy buying a new jet to add to his fleet, is it treason if I betray my country for its corrupt leadership? If I am convinced that my flat mate brings people he kidnaps to his house and holds them hostage till their ransom are paid, is it breaking the law if I break into his apartment looking for evidence to prove I am right? If an armed robber was trying to snatch my father’s car and then shot him in the process, is it wrong for me to seek out this armed robber and kill him myself? What does the law stand for in times that demand us to be more than just people trying to keep our society peaceful but as what we are; human beings?
The truth is this: the world we live in is far too complicated for the rules we make to keep it too orderly. Time and time again, situations would arise where we have to drop those rules and be what we are; we have to take the demanded action and sometimes the only action that seems relevant to us. Rules are not supposed to make us robots; the world is not that easy. There is no infinite good and terrible bad, the world is not made of two extremes; black and white, there are grey areas. Those grey areas are where it no longer rests on the arms of the law, the rules, or the bible. In those grey areas we must then decide what we want to do, for ourselves and see the result of our actions through the eyes of others.
The Pursuit of Perfection 