There are a lot of rules in our lives. Rules we follow without giving them a second thought. Rules that govern how we behave, how we think, how we interact, and how we go about experiencing the world. There is no question that some rules simply make sense and create a safer, healthier society. We all collectively accept that we need to stop at red lights and drive on the proper side of the road. We generally accept that money is necessary in order to acquire goods and services. We generally respect other peoples' property and don't knowingly damage or steal it. These rules help us understand how to interact in the world on a daily basis, and provide us with a guide to daily living.
Other rules, however, are more about compliance and control than they are about safety, health, or wellbeing. We are seeing legislative attempts to control bodies and identities pop up all over the country. These "rules" attempt to assert compliance with a particular notion of morality and fail to acknowledge that morals and values can be relative. My morals and values can be different than yours, and that's ok. As long as they don't infringe on either of our general wellbeing, then they have the ability to peacefully coexist.
As a society, however, we continue to insist on compliance for the sake of compliance. When this insistence is taken too far, individually are needlessly harmed for simply questioning the rationality of a "rule" that is based not in logic, but grounded in a particular moral point-of-view. We begin teaching the importance of compliance at a very young age. Anyone who struggled in school at an early age because they didn't understand why they were allowed to think some things and not others, learn some things and not others, or do something and not others, can relate.
We drill into young children the importance of compliance, and we reward that compliance with a system of grades that often punishes creativity in favor of compliance. We chase the approval of the teacher, which we see in the form of our grade, and we learn what is expected in order to receive that grade. In other words, we learn the rules or parameters for learning and expressing that knowledge before we are ever given the opportunity to think for ourselves.
These rules marinate in our consciousness for 13 years, and then we arrive at college. For some, this may be the first time we've been asked to express our creativity, to think for ourselves. We are given the latitude (if we're lucky) to express our creativity in our writing, our speaking, and our other engagement with others. For some, this is an eye-opening experience that quickly changes their mindset. Unfortunately, for others, this freedom is met with pushback. Where are the rules? Just tell me what to do to get the "A"! Will this be on the exam?
The value our society places on compliance is not by accident. That compliance insures that the systems in place, which benefit some over others, are not threatened. If we don't even realize that we can question the "why" of something, then we won't. As a result, those with power and privilege maintain it. If you comply, you may have a chance at a limited definition of success. You just have to sacrifice your creativity in the process. Quite the Faustian bargain, wouldn't you say?
