It depends...

Every society in the world is made up of two kinds of citizens: the leaders and the followers. In a structural functional society, each kind has an important role to play. In fact, if you have to be strict, the followers can be broken down into smaller parts: the laborers, the business owners, etc. Each unit exists for special reasons and they need to fulfill them for the society to work. Not only did mankind evolve, the society and basic functions also evolved. Case in point, the government form.

We started from a primitive society where the idea of ownership didn't exist. Slavery gave rise to feudalism and feudalism to capitalism. So, too, capitalism will give rise to socialism (Engels and Marx said this).

But this assumes that everyone acts the way he was expected to. What happens when one of them has gone hayward and didn't actually do what was expected of him? Will society die? Will we stop evolving?

I'd like to point out that this country might be the first to suffer from stagnation if this theory is correct. Here in this country, our version of laws, rules, right, wrong and regulations are all twisted. Here, more than any other country in the world, the word "it depends" is more used. Somehow, we've learned to twist and bend every single rule that it has become a norm to expect exceptions to the rules.

I'm not playing innocent and say that I'm above this mentality. Given that "It depends" have become a subculture here, we are subjected to this at a very early stage in life. Our parents tell us that we're different and that we should be treated differently. We're allowed to eat candies when our parents are not there. We are given "get-out-of-jail" cards once in a while. And perhaps the biggest would be "I can do this because I am old enough; you're not allowed because you're young." or "Don't smoke. I'm different, I need this". These words of encouragements perpetuated and continues to contribute to this current system of thinking.

What particulary bothers me is when authorities invoke these statements like they're general truths. Here are some things:

1. Policemen on motorbikes - We know that the police are "strictly implementing" a no-helmet, no-ride policy. In fact they are doing their job in catching offenders. But when you see them drive around or guzzle their gas away, you won't see them wearing helmets. Maybe their head has gone too big to fit it. Oh, c'mon!

2. Policemen on police cars - yes, the seat belt policy has been ratified. But these law implementers are not following it. When will they buckle up? Or maybe their big bellies won't fit it?

3. Traffic Enforcers who enforce traffic more than a traffic solution. They are those who stand up, flash their light to people with eyes closed. A for multi-tasking.

4. Lawmakers who bend the rule and make excuses - it's past elections already and so i can do this and that. Uhm, Mr. Chairman, you are the chairman, you're not supposed to do that, remember? Then again, he says "i am the chairman, and the election's finished anyway."

5. Mayors who have "no corruption" signs all around his office premises but actually tells a lowly someone that things will not work if he doesn't grease his way in. He will even insinuate that he makes decisions and can deny something on no basis at all. Uhm, what for?

The list goes on and on, you know what I am talking about. But this society has become so permissive that we don't care anymore about it. In fact, we're even the ones who encourage this. We want to live in such a convenient society that we don't mind breaking the rules.

Even the gender stereotypes are slowly being broken - concept of male and female is fast turning androgynous as more women play dominant roles in the society, and men play second fiddle. Further, words are used loosely, more and more everyday. Concept of heterosexual, homosexual, metrosexual, bisexual, transexual, etc. We've coined more terms than ever to accommodate whatever twists we want to make in the what used to be just boy and girl society.

Flexibility isn't a bad thing, but in a society that admits to immaturity and abuse it can get quite dangerous. We're not asking for Batman to become our leader and lead us to success, but I dare say that we need to be more strict and stringent with rules and regulations. We need to comply by it. Rules are there to organize us, not to serve as benchmarks.

But yes, how can we do that when the leaders themselves give low regard to respecting the law?

Well, I'll close this by saying that multiply here in the office is not illegal.