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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: To enforce, or not to enforce, that is the question.
I just wonder how to look at the situation......... must admit in 20 years in Asia I still don't know what to do. Rules of society are so openly flouted. I've pretty much accepted that I, as an outsider, cannot bring about change, except on perhaps a very miniscule level, but how does society come to be that way, and what should our response be? I will sum it up, then provide a couple of current examples:
Summation: China society (government) states rules for members of society to follow. These are rather clearly put forth.
Enforcement: Random. Some places higly enforced and followed/respected. Other places openly violated/ignored.
Conundrum: Do we as a society state rules and then allow open flouting, or do we go to extreme trouble to enforce?
Example:
Smoking in my school is of course forbidden, but is openly practiced. Students standing in the hallways smoking cigarettes. It is the most open behavior, I mean not sneaking off into a stairwell like the old days. See? The progression of the flouting of stated rules/policy. Cigarette butts everywhere- stairwells, alcoves, plant urns/green spaces treated as ashtrays.
Eating/Drinking in classroom is common. So far it is more the handheld snacks, but doesn't the trend indicate that in a few years they will enjoy meals at their desk during class?
Roadways are an absolute free-for-all. (I refer to developing 3rd tier;;; not sure if this is the case in 1st tier)
OK, what I am asking ECC is which of the following is the answer:
State/Enact rules and then accept that they are not respected.
State/Enact rules and then go to any length to enforce.
Rescind rules and allow any behaviour.
*I will chime in with my take on the situation later.....
Hmmm... interesting.I think there are various shades of grey with a question like this.
I think a lot of the rules are put in place with the govt not really caring if they're followed, they're just there to cover their arses when shit goes wrong.
Example; building catches fire and everyone burns to death because the fire escapes are chained shut. People being what they are they look to blame the government for something like this, but now the govt can say "don't blame, we told you about fire safety and you ignored us".
There's also the power / control aspect. The local fire chief can interpret the rules as he sees fit which means everyone needs to treat him with respect and lots of gifts if they want to operate any kind of business. Disrepect the govt in any way and watch how suddenly all the vague laws that are usually ignored are suddenly enforced.
It's hard to run a country like the good old days where you send people to beat up the population regularly to keep them in line, that sort of thing causes rebellion and gets a govt overthrown. A much better way is to have rules like fire safety laws that nobody would disagree with but let people flout the rules as much as they want, as long as they kowtow to the govt.
Step out of line and instead of beheading you in the town square which might lead to people saying "WTF - that ain't cool", you'll get busted for the fire code violations you didn't even know about and that nobody cared about before. The other villagers won't decide to rebel because the govt was 'protecting their safety' by upholding the law and they'll realize that if they just shut up and keep their heads down they won't get on the wrong side of the law themselves.
Then there's just human nature. Head office makes laws and really wants to see them enforced so they send out officials to do that. But the officials are greedy and corrupt and look the other way for cash bribes and there's not much the boys at the top can do about that because whoever they replace them with will do the same thing.
Hmmm... interesting.I think there are various shades of grey with a question like this.
I think a lot of the rules are put in place with the govt not really caring if they're followed, they're just there to cover their arses when shit goes wrong.
Example; building catches fire and everyone burns to death because the fire escapes are chained shut. People being what they are they look to blame the government for something like this, but now the govt can say "don't blame, we told you about fire safety and you ignored us".
There's also the power / control aspect. The local fire chief can interpret the rules as he sees fit which means everyone needs to treat him with respect and lots of gifts if they want to operate any kind of business. Disrepect the govt in any way and watch how suddenly all the vague laws that are usually ignored are suddenly enforced.
It's hard to run a country like the good old days where you send people to beat up the population regularly to keep them in line, that sort of thing causes rebellion and gets a govt overthrown. A much better way is to have rules like fire safety laws that nobody would disagree with but let people flout the rules as much as they want, as long as they kowtow to the govt.
Step out of line and instead of beheading you in the town square which might lead to people saying "WTF - that ain't cool", you'll get busted for the fire code violations you didn't even know about and that nobody cared about before. The other villagers won't decide to rebel because the govt was 'protecting their safety' by upholding the law and they'll realize that if they just shut up and keep their heads down they won't get on the wrong side of the law themselves.
Then there's just human nature. Head office makes laws and really wants to see them enforced so they send out officials to do that. But the officials are greedy and corrupt and look the other way for cash bribes and there's not much the boys at the top can do about that because whoever they replace them with will do the same thing.
I think, you should just go with the flow ... .
You might be able to avoid grey-ish hair ... like me!
diverdude1:
too late for the grey hair part,,, ex-gf a few years ago told me to dye it,,, never forgot that... I understand Asians dying Black hair black,, that seems pretty doable,,,, but I'm very fair skinned,, blue eyes, and white / blonde hair since birth,,,, I don't think blondes can really dye back to blonde? or he**,, I don't know,, not something I ever thought about or researched... until now that is... the damn modern world (especially chinese) are very ageist. Just about every job ad I look at has age limit,,, even down in the 40's ,,,, that really sux!
Well, I traveled to remote places,,, and into E/SE Asia in part because I liked the idea of not really following the rules,,,,
but my Literal mindedness also gets me to the point of 'Why post the Rule if you Know nobody is going to Follow the Rule ?' So, my kind of Anarchist side says just don't make these rules, just let people do whatever, and don't gripe about the negative impact it has on Quality of Life afterwards.
diverdude1:
wow,, u r even more cynical than I am ,, yeah,, that idea kinda meshes with my Conspiracy Theory,,,,, which is as follows...
Beijing doesn't really want any traffic safety,,, workplace safety,,,, two reasons,,, those things are hard and expensive to enforce and would probably lead to a reduction in efficiency,,,, and the massive #'s of people getting smoked and turned into Marinara Sauce everyday keeps the population #'s in check.
Two reasons, one of which is more to do with the actual control of citizens. First, enforcing all these rules is expensive, time consuming, and requires effort. Why bother, really, when no-one around seems to really care. You stop students in one corridor smoking, but it involves anrguements and stree, and the moment you walk away, they'll just start smoking again. You'd need every single teacher to enforce the rules at every occasion, and discipline effectively. But you just can't, here too many really don't care of anything outside their sphere.
The Second reason is more insiduoous. Yes, there are rules and laws on almost everything. Everyone ignores them. But if at anytime you wish to punish someone, pick a law. They've broken it, guaranteed. The defense of "But no-one enforced it before!" doesn't matter. Take those students. No-one says anything, but the moment that the Principle wants to get rid of a troublesome student or punish a particular parent, every teacher will suddenly provide evidence of them smoking in the corridors and flouting the rules, allowing their expulsion. The key is if there are too many laws that get ignored, there's ALWAYS something someone has done that they can be punished for. Now THAT's how to control a population.
diverdude1:
Insightful argument you make. One of the reasons I brought this up is because I see the behavior catching-on in the US. A lady reported someone employee breaking a very well-known, respected rule*. The lady who got in trouble was Not the one who broke the rule, but the one who Reported it! She actually lost her job for reporting the incident. There is some stories that reflect this,,,, something about when one ignores problems they grow. I see that here,,,,,, like I said,, today I witnessed a student having a nice hot meal/sandwich at his desk.. So, we have University Classroom as the hang-out spot. Not much different than KTV.
no one denied she broke the rule,,, photographed in the act...