„Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation.“
– Elon Musk
We are all bound by rules, like it or not. Some of them are man-made (taxes), and some are made by nature (gravitation, for example). Rules and laws are vital for the existence of any society or civilization. And in the end for the survival of each individual within them. Rules can be useful tools for human coexistence but also for controlling people. So the very important question we should ask is: who wrote the rules?
Rules of nature are given, the most fundamental of them being the laws of physics. You might be angry about the fact that you cannot jump out of the window and not fall to the ground. Or that the sunset comes so early in November (in the northern hemisphere). But that’s all you can do about it.
Religion makes it easy – everything is God’s law – he is the creator of the universe. So starting from the speed of light and ending with dietary constrictions, everything is set up by him. But is eating shrimp or pork really against the creator’s will?
I assume that many such religious prescriptions have their origin in observing nature and its actions, therefore they are man-made rules based on the rules of nature. So some of them are not based on caprice, but there are some genuine reasons for their existence. But nevertheless, they already fit in the category of man-made rules.
Man-made rules are necessary to maintain social order, peace, and prosperity. In other words survival of the people and individuals. But very often they are also serving a purpose of certain people – usually to exercise power over others. Very interesting was Nietzsche’s view of the evolution of morals. What he called „slave morality“ was basically a moral code written by the „weak“, the lower classes of ancient societies. They were envious of the successful aristocrats so they turned their virtues into vices.
So we have 3 types of rules: first, we have natural rules (set by the universe, nature, or God – whatever you want to call it), then man-made rules based on natural rules (rules our wise ancestors created so that we can survive as a species) and then we have purely man-made rules (cultural conventions or tools to control people).
„I don’t wanna go to school
I just wanna break the rules“– Charli XCX
So in some cases, it is justifiable or even morally correct to disobey rules. But this begs a question: how do we distinguish between genuine rules and made-up rules used for control, obedience, and maintaining power?
There is not a clear line, it is rather a spectrum. With natural rules on one side and completely deliberate man-made rules on the other. So one has to have a good moral intuition and follow the rule of thumb: the more universally applicable the rule is, the closer it is to a natural rule (Yes, we just sort of re-invented Kant’s categorical imperative). These rules don’t change much between cultures and classes. We should not do any harm to each other, steal from each other, and we should be kind.
Crossing the street at the red light stands somewhere in the middle (it really depends if you are in dense traffic in Germany or crossing the street in an Italian village.) And on the other side of the scale are the purely man-made rules – obeying them might or might not cause harm. Depends on the circumstances. Sometimes they are harmlessly enforcing social hierarchy and following them is convenient – but this is also the kind of rules enforced by totalitarian regimes and bullies in schools. Then they are in direct opposition to the natural rules. And we should break them.
It is not rocket science. If we want to survive and thrive, we need to help each other. Then we are all better off. Even though it is very often difficult because most people are stupid. Unfortunately.
