ARTiculation: Ruling out rules
Rules play a large role in every aspect of
the world, but where we notice it most is in
our individual lives. In general, rules are
established in our lives in two ways: they
can be imposed upon us by society (or ourselves)
without realizing it, or we can intentionally
impose them upon ourselves.
If a rule is imposed upon us by an outside force, it feels limiting for two potential reasons. The first of which is that you may not even realize it's even there. In middle school, I didn't know it was an option not to go to university. I was taught that you go to elementary school, high school, and then university. That's all there was to it. So, rather than carving out my path according to what was best for me after high school, I tried my hardest to stay on the straight-andnarrow and get in to the best school I could. It wasn't long before I was so stressed and unhappy that I dropped out of high school. In hindsight, had I understood that there are many different paths to take and I should do the one that was right for me, I would likely have been more motivated to finish high school.
The other reason it could feel limiting is because while you may know that the rule is there, you can feel helpless and stuck because of it. Maybe your family doesn't have a lot of extra money, but you have a dream of being a famous soccer player. Your parents tell you they don't have enough money to put you in a league. There are certainly solutions: create your own league, practice with your friends, do chores/get a job and save your pennies, all which could have been reached with a little bit of creative thinking. But as a child, you likely don't see past the initial “no.” This happens to us throughout our lives. You can't wear black because you're not a goth; you can't be in theatre because you're a jock; you can't possibly be creative because you couldn't draw a dog in Grade 2. Limiting rules are so easy to accept, or completely overlook.
On the other hand, self-imposed rules can be creativity-enhancing. There are artists who place arbitrary rules upon themselves because they like it. A story I heard on CBC comes to mind: There is a Canadian band that put out a few albums but began to feel like their music wasn't as strong as it had been before. The band travelled to Morocco to play a couple shows, and while there, fell completely in love with their local music. So, when they returned home and began to write their new album, they decided to make every new song have a different Moroccan beat behind the music. This created a new, interesting challenge for them to find ways for their traditional rock instruments to fit in with the African drums.
Arbitrary rules are sort of like a creative math equation. People are natural problem solvers. If you have a problem, you're more likely to try to solve it than sit dormant. For example, when your significant other breaks up with you, you may very well be devastated and want to stay in bed the whole week. But once your friends catch wind of what's happened, they rush in with reinforcements... and a plan. They spoon-feed you four pounds of ice cream and tell you you're better off, or concoct a scheme to get him back. They try to solve your problem. It's like when you're sick and antibodies and white blood cells rush to the injured part of your body to combat the virus.
Great things can come from rules. Being challenged to work around some kind of base idea forces us out of where our brains would normally go to solve the problem, and to come up with other solutions. It gets our creativity flowing.
The difference between limiting and enhancing rules seems to be intention. If you understand that the rule exists, and realize that it could be an opportunity to exercise your creative muscle, innovation is likely to surface.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
If a rule is imposed upon us by an outside force, it feels limiting for two potential reasons. The first of which is that you may not even realize it's even there. In middle school, I didn't know it was an option not to go to university. I was taught that you go to elementary school, high school, and then university. That's all there was to it. So, rather than carving out my path according to what was best for me after high school, I tried my hardest to stay on the straight-andnarrow and get in to the best school I could. It wasn't long before I was so stressed and unhappy that I dropped out of high school. In hindsight, had I understood that there are many different paths to take and I should do the one that was right for me, I would likely have been more motivated to finish high school.
The other reason it could feel limiting is because while you may know that the rule is there, you can feel helpless and stuck because of it. Maybe your family doesn't have a lot of extra money, but you have a dream of being a famous soccer player. Your parents tell you they don't have enough money to put you in a league. There are certainly solutions: create your own league, practice with your friends, do chores/get a job and save your pennies, all which could have been reached with a little bit of creative thinking. But as a child, you likely don't see past the initial “no.” This happens to us throughout our lives. You can't wear black because you're not a goth; you can't be in theatre because you're a jock; you can't possibly be creative because you couldn't draw a dog in Grade 2. Limiting rules are so easy to accept, or completely overlook.
On the other hand, self-imposed rules can be creativity-enhancing. There are artists who place arbitrary rules upon themselves because they like it. A story I heard on CBC comes to mind: There is a Canadian band that put out a few albums but began to feel like their music wasn't as strong as it had been before. The band travelled to Morocco to play a couple shows, and while there, fell completely in love with their local music. So, when they returned home and began to write their new album, they decided to make every new song have a different Moroccan beat behind the music. This created a new, interesting challenge for them to find ways for their traditional rock instruments to fit in with the African drums.
Arbitrary rules are sort of like a creative math equation. People are natural problem solvers. If you have a problem, you're more likely to try to solve it than sit dormant. For example, when your significant other breaks up with you, you may very well be devastated and want to stay in bed the whole week. But once your friends catch wind of what's happened, they rush in with reinforcements... and a plan. They spoon-feed you four pounds of ice cream and tell you you're better off, or concoct a scheme to get him back. They try to solve your problem. It's like when you're sick and antibodies and white blood cells rush to the injured part of your body to combat the virus.
Great things can come from rules. Being challenged to work around some kind of base idea forces us out of where our brains would normally go to solve the problem, and to come up with other solutions. It gets our creativity flowing.
The difference between limiting and enhancing rules seems to be intention. If you understand that the rule exists, and realize that it could be an opportunity to exercise your creative muscle, innovation is likely to surface.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
