Disorder, Discipline, Order and Obedience

Discipline is what our lives begin with and lead into. We are driven into it from the day we're born: a long set of rules that are 'good' for us. It starts when we're way young. Fold the blanket. Do the chores. Get up regardless at a certain early hour, and many more. The theme follows through with set times using set things that are sold to (or enforced on) us.

Fast forward and you'll find that these habits enable you to easily fit into a set world (which explains the "good" thing about them). It seems that the whole idea is to fall in line early so that we don't have a tough time fitting in when we need to later. It helps us get up early for school/college/work, keeps our rooms neat, and makes better use of our time and resources, and they don't just stop there.

This kind of order also brings in some form of justice and merit - like rewarding the trouble taken to be early with first come first serve where people actually keep to queues. It allows for predictability when you need it - like traffic moving in one direction so you are confident you won't run into oncoming surprises on the road. But that list runs short of valid reasons once you advance a little bit into them. 

We believe that if we set the habits early, they will take over and we can reap good results far more easily. That much is true but it only works for habits that have their purpose and stay relevant like brushing your teeth before anything else. There can't be anything possibly good about unbrushed teeth in the morning. It doesn't always work for things like getting up at an early time every morning. What if you end up working odd, changing shifts for most of your life? Or if you end up becoming a writer and turn into a nocturnal being to get your best creative work out? All this discipline won't work for you. It will work against you.

Of course, no one knows what anyone will become and what form or lack of discipline you need that will help them. I'm not nearly saying that you should have erratic sleep schedules, irregular eating times and whimsical diets growing up. Their purpose is to give you good health, especially when you need it, which you should keep. I'm saying that you should probably chill out with those rules that diverge with your personality as you discover you. Pick the ones that work best.

Discipline need not have a one dimensional definition that didn't ever change since your grandfather's time. It should be purposeful and discarded when not. When we don't get the hint and enforce it at home, at school or in the world, we only enable a system that serves no one in the end. 

Unless the goal is to serve individuals, first, it is a pointless, self-serving, and selfish exercise. Anyone who's a part of it will lose. In addition, over time, they get disappointed, make the disappointment "a part of life" and reinforce those rules till that disappointment becomes life itself. Life that never serves its own interests - and so the cycle goes on. In lack of context, the rules only enforce meaningless obedience, for its own sake. 

We need to live in a world that facilitates who we are, not one that makes us what we should be. The order we follow must be based on - you. If that's the case for everyone, it will be based on - us. It may be a little more chaotic than we're used to but way worth the result. Think of the variety we'd be giving way to. Imagine the way that that variety of people can feel about themselves by being just being able to live it out. Imagine the natural tolerance we'll develop and exposure of ideas we'd get. We need less order, more respect all across and far less authority but Order! Order! Order! is what much of everyday life screams so instinctively (oh the irony!).