People really underestimate the word "no."

How?

My favorite example is the dress code.

I was badly sunburned at a mandatory golf tournament on Thursday and would not like anything touching the backs of my knees. This is why, on Friday, I seriously considered wearing a pair of entirely dress code innapropriate shorts to school.

Obviously, I couldn't. I would be either sent home to change or sent to ISS.

But this got me thinking. What if I had worn the shorts, and been told to go home or go to ISS. Could I not just tell them "no"?

They, the authority, could tell me to go home and change, but I could refuse to do that. So they would tell me to go to ISS, which I could also refuse. What could they do then? They couldn't drag me to the ISS room; they couldn't legally lay a finger on me. They couldn't physically force me to wear longer shorts.

Someone pointed out to me that they could, however, suspend me. The threat of that would scare me into changing clothes.

Okay, this is trickier. When I was first told this, I lost faith in my argument. "No" only works up to a point. But I realized that all suspension is is a document. That document doesn't create a force field keeping me away from the school. If I were to be suspended, I could still drive to school (although I have no license, but, obviously, if I'm destroying the power of documents, I don't need a license), park, and walk inside the building.

Then, my friend told me, I could be arrested. This is wear my argument faltered. If you refuse to be arrested, the police have the "right" to abuse you. They have this "right" simply because they say "no." They disregard the rules and take advantage of their power, and in this way prove my argument correct.

Obviously, in a true life situation, this would never work. I am lacking in the courage required to exert this power, and I am not the only one.

If, say, every girl in my grade were to wear shorter shorts on the exact same day, and every girl who did this were to refuse to change or go to ISS, then the authority would have a problem on it's hands. But not every girl would do that. People are afraid of the power that the authority has, even though this very fear is the only reason said authority has any power.

People are only powerful because we make them that way.
People underestimate the power of themselves and their language.







Wow. I know that was really inconsistent, but it's the first thing that isn't boy/drama related that I've written here in a longgg time.
I'm proud!

I think that we might have a dress code, but everyone here is so lax about everything that it's hard to tell. Nobody gets detentions or suspensions because the teachers never assign them, and if we do have a dress code I've never seen anybody making a fuss about breaking it...

I think everyone here is so focused on academics that the rules really don't need to be there anymore...

By the way, what's the ISS?
» randomjunk on 2008-03-30 07:35:30

Sorry, you do not have permission to comment.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.