We need rules. Apart from our bodies following some very strict and complex biological laws, without which we would not even be, even the very words we use follow universally agreed principles. Like this one, called English.
The political economist Elinor Ostrom (who shared the Noble Prize for economics in 2009) observed the phenomenon of spontaneous rule construction when people had to collectively manage resources such as land, fisheries, or water for irrigation.
She found that people construct rules together about, say, how many cattle a person can graze, where, and when; who gets how much water, and what should be done when the resource is limited. These agreements often arise from the needs of mutually consensual social and economic interactions.
But on the other end of the spectrum, we have the powerful, imposing their way of doing things from the top down. This is exceptionally evident in institutions. To show that it's not necessarily effective, let's take a look at a Reddit thread created by user ObviousEntertainer with the question, "What's the dumbest rule you had in school?"
#21
We weren't allowed to wear shirts with pictures on them. That includes embroidered logos like you might see from Nike, Champion, or Polo shirts. Kids were wearing those shirts that had Bugs Bunny and Taz dressed up as Kris Kross and some parent or teacher thought they looked like gangsters. So the shirts were dubbed gang paraphernalia and the school wanted them banned but didn't know how to just ban those without some kid feeling targeted so they banned all shirts with pictures. We'd have free dress day about every two weeks (which devolved into whenever they felt like it) where you could wear a picture shirt, except for those dubbed "gang paraphernalia" (? why they didn't do that to begin with, over Kris Kross Bugs Bunny of all things I don't know). If you wore something with a logo on it you had to either cover it with masking tape or buy special labels from the school to cover it.
Yay for insane Christian private schools.
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77points
#22
My middle school had a rule; if you were sent to the office for misbehavior, you remained in the office for the rest of the day.
Knowing this, my first period teacher found every escuse to send me to the office. I missed all of my lessons and nearly failed 7th grade.
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75points
#23
Non American here, We need to pay fine when we don't speak English in school. In every class, class leader used to note down student names who ever speak their native language other than English. This rule went on for 2 years and then they finally removed it.
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73points
#24
In middle school, had a stupid as all hell "one way hallway system", where students could only walk in the halls one direction. Made me late twice actually since my class was the first one behind the exit door, but forced to go in the entrance door. Was enforced even when halls were empty. One stick in the mud teacher threatened to write me up if I questioned the rule.
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70points
#25
In elementary school, we couldn't kick a ball at recess because the school was afraid we would kick the balls to the top of the building.
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68points
#26
At any point you may not talk during lunch, and may not laugh at large stools in the bathroom.
I s**t you not. (Excuse the pun)
I s**t you not. (Excuse the pun)
Edit: I am from the UK
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63points
#27
We weren't allowed to be indoors for more than five minutes at recess. This was in Canada and indoor recess started when it was below -25C. Instances of school-wide diarrhea really shot up during the winter.
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60points
#28
We could play Magic TG but we had to remove any offensive cards. Yes they looked through our decks to make sure. Good ol' Oklahoma.
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60points
#29
When I was a freshman in high school (late '80s) there was a designated smoking area on campus. It was a square, maybe 10' x 10' painted on the ground in the courtyard. Students could only smoke in that box on campus. The next year they decided that you could only smoke in that box if you had a note from your parents. The year after that, no students were allowed to smoke on campus. My senior year, staff wasn't allowed to smoke on campus. This resulted in the box metaphorically moving to someone's driveway across the street, where students and teachers were all smoking together.
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58points
#30
When i was in middle school that god awful " Shrek is love Shrek is Life" video came out and the student council wanted to have a shrek spirit day because of it. So the school banned shrek and anyone who talked about it got a detention.
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53points