Law and Order

Even in the smallest of institutions when the general rules of the establishment are not enforced, chaos threatens.

This is short and sweet today but the point is this; when a government institution, corporation, school or even a family institutes rules, laws and guide lines for behavior then does not enforce them when violated a whole plethora of issues can and will arise. you can expect the masses to take advantage of the lack of enforcement and many times one person will stand up and demand the rules are enforced. This person almost always becomes the victim of some sort of raging mob that's protecting the self inflated status of the institution but has no interest in enforcing rules. We're seeing this today with the latest POTUS expecting to enforce immigration laws that have been in place for decades. The people who are taking advantage of the lack of enforcement are pissed at him, the people who instituted the laws and ignored them are pissed at him and everyone is blaming him for the problem although the problem started years ago with no intention to enforce the laws.

This has occurred in my life a few times in a variety of situations. Back in beauty school, circa 2013, I was in a 600 hour program of advanced esthetics. One rule was no fragrances. We studied how many people are sensitive to fragrances, even deathly allergic. It was a big deal and we went over it in class for a few hours. We studied VOC's (volitile organic compounds) and talked about how fragrances and many cosmetics are not regulated for fragrance because technically they are no ingested. ANYWAY, one day someone came into class wearing a repulsive fragrance. Everyone was offended by the smell but only muttered under their breath about it. The instructor came in and said something gentle then began her class. I was freaking out. I hated the smell, it was giving me a headache and I was personally annoyed by the fact that the instructor was saying nothing about it after a whole class was dedicated to talking about it. So, in good abrupt Reba fashion I spoke up. This not only annoyed the instructor because it pointed out her negligence in enforcing rules she help implement but it upset the women wearing the fragrance, who, mind you, should have freaking known better! So, I was the bad guy. No, no.

Inverted madness.

Here's an idea, if you find yourself in a position to make and enforce rules, enforce the rules. I know it might be hard to do this when you have to single the violator out and use your authority but that is the whole point. When you don't do this, the group gets confused, harbors resentments and big problems arise from little ones. And guess what? It's your fault.

Stay tuned.....I'll be updating this post with more recent stories and examples.