Civilized life requires rules to function properly. Without rules civilization would be a chaotic mess and an oxymoron. The symbol for Justice is a scale which signifies balancing different points of view and weighing one idea against another. The basic concept of balancing scales represents the ambiguity and imperfection of laws and rules. If all the laws and rules were without question then Lady Justice would be holding digital scales or price computing scales. Life is not so clear and the laws we live by often have their intentions subverted.
Rules are put in place to serve people living under them. That is the idea anyway. A red light means stop and lives are protected and saved. Often rules become counter productive or take on a life of there own. A red light at 2:00 a.m. on a deserted road still demands a driver to stop and wait, even if there are no other cars for miles around; it’s the law. In some places you can get a parking ticket during certain hours on street cleaning days; a law that has a logic to it. You can also get a ticket during those hours even if the street cleaners have a holiday. Like all aspects of life, rules require balance, they are supposed to serve us, not us to serve them.
There is a tale of two Zen monks hiking down a path. They came from a monastery advocating celibacy. The teachings were strict and required the devotees to avoid all contact with women. The two devotees arrived at a river and found a lovely woman in a fine silk dress at the waters edge. The overpass had been washed out. The woman was desperate to get to the other side, but couldn’t find away across the river without destroying her ceremonial robes. Without a second thought one of the monks lifted her on his shoulders and carried her across the river. She thanked him for solving her problem and averting the shame that would have come if she failed to show up, or the disgrace of ruining the sacred robes she was wearing. The woman hurried down the path and so did the two monks. They walked for several miles, the older monk enjoying the bird songs and the younger monk stewing in silence until the younger monk had to speak up. “How could you hold that beautiful woman in your arms and carry her across the river? It’s a violation of our devotional obligations?” The older monk turned and smiled. “Is that so?” he asked. The younger monk considered this for a moment. After a pause the older monk continued; “Besides. I set her down on the other side of the river, but it seems you are still carrying her.”
If the older monk had followed the rules precisely, he would have left the woman on the stranded on the wrong side of the river, failing his higher values to be of service in the world. Jesus once walked through a field with his disciples on the Sabbath. They were hungry and ate ears of corn. When accused of violating the Sabbath Jesus responded that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. The trials of Nuremburg relied on the notion that rules, laws and orders are not to be blindly followed when they clash with higher moral principals.
A lot of great leaders from many different institutions all try to remind us that rules and laws are meant to serve society, not the other way around.