We're building a heartless, mindless society, and the impacts are becoming increasingly obvious, absurd, and horrifying.
If I were to write a story about a person being fired for helping a child rescue an abandoned animal, critics would likely pan it as unrealistically sentimental and melodramatic. They'd probably argue that the story's premise is so absurd that it could never reveal any truth about people or society. It would barely pass as a children's story, much less something of value to the adult mind. Until recently, I would have agreed with such literary analysis.
A few weeks ago, Cynthia Morgan, a bus driver in Maryland was fired because she stopped a bus and let the one child on board out to rescue a kitten that had been left on the side of the road. I'm not sure what rule the bus driver broke, but rule-based logic can only go so far without reaching absurd conclusions. The people of the school district recognized the absurdity of this ruling, launching an effort to reinstate the bus driver. The child's mother supports the reinstatement.
It's pretty hard to have a society without rules, but blind adherence to rules in any and all cases overrides the heart as well as the mind. People cease to feel or think, and as a result, rulings become ridiculous and then illegitimate. In applying the rules, people lose track of what they are supposed to be doing, and compassion and thought are stifled, shackling the society and depriving it of the humanity that provides the lifeblood of social systems. At that point, it's pretty hard to have a society with the rules.
If all a society has left are illegitimate rules with no heart or mind to guide their application, things can get ugly pretty quickly. Suddenly, the most preposterous stories can take on profound meaning, revealing that instead of rules serving people, people are serving the rules. Given that the mother of the child who rescued the kitten opposes the firing of the bus driver, who is served by this ruling? No one was hurt, and a child rescued a kitten, but what should have a been a positive story turned dark and frustrating.
Rules, rules, rules: It's time to stop, think, and listen to our hearts.
