Saturday, April 02, 2011

Putting the clock forward and breaking rules

Each year the clocks go forward and then backwards by an hour.  Last year I got a little lazy.  The clock in my bedroom was not changed.  So for about six months it was perpetually one hour in advance.  It was actually the correct GMT time.  When this happened I had no choice but to turn off the alarm.  Who in their right mind wants to get up an hour early for anything?  No one I know of.  As the clocks have gone forward again mine is now back in tune with the rest of the world.  So my question is: is this being lazy?  The answer most likely is: yes.  OK, now I have chastised myself I feel a lot better for it.  When the clocks go back again I'll do my best to conform.  Then again, wouldn't the world be so completely boring if there were people out there who didn't conform and everyone followed every rule?  We'd probably have to walk about with big rule books and everything we did was checked in the rule book to see it was allowed or legal.  A little like ruling a country. 

Each person would be their own country.  Then we could declare war if someone broke the rules.  It would become a national disaster.  Maybe sanction them.  Not allow them to purchase essential goods and especially luxury goods.  I'd bet they would then begin to conform pretty quickly.  Unless there were others who illicitly kept them supplied with the things they were not allowed to purchase.  A little like the black market.  To tell the truth I've never seen a black market my local market always appears to be pretty colourful, especially the different fruits and vegetables. All sounds a bit dramatic.  Particularly for forgetting to change the time on a clock.  Then again there are so many rules in the world.  Thousands upon thousands.  So a few are likely to get broken everyday.  Be it a country or an individual.  Then we might ask, what is the need for rules in the first place?  It would likely be, because they create conformity and conformity means a form of stability.  For instance were there just one individual who refused to drive on the correct side of the road then this person would in one journey cause many problems.  This is all too much to think about.  It begins to border onto the philosophical and we all know what philosophy does.  Makes you grow a beard, go bald and wear a toga. 

Now is that a stereotype or just confromity?

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