Rules were meant to be broken.

I had the privilege of conducting our small-town paper's first streeter today, and realized no one, nowhere, likes their photo taken. While it makes my life difficult at times, I like getting out and talking to people to find out their opinions!

Here's the question: "Should town council implement their proposed curfew at 11 p.m. for youth ages 16 and under? Why or why not?"

Just to be fair, I also asked youth under 16 their thoughts... and the general consensus was that their implemented curfews were before that anyway, so it didn't matter.

One kid's comment was interesting, though:
"No, I don't think they should have a curfew because people are just going to try and break it then. If there's no curfew, there's nothing to break but if there is then people will try and push it."

What an interesting thought. Don't put rules in, because it'll just make people break them.

Here are a few other things I've heard that sort of match that idea:

• Give Grade 7-12 children condoms because they're going to "do it" anyway, so why not protect them?
• Let's have "safe grad" for all the underage youth, bring out the police to monitor it and have the parents buy the alcohol. They'd be drinking anyway so we may as well monitor them.
• If we legalize soft drugs, the black market sales will go under because it won't be illegal anymore and therefore people won't pay astronomical prices to get their weed. Plus, then it can be taxed.
• I let my child decide when he/she wants to go to bed, because I feel it gives the child responsibility and teaches them how to understand their body. If I tell them when to go to bed, they'll just stay up to spite me anyway.

So the more rules there are, the more likely they are to be broken? Taken too far it's almost anarchy. But too many rules and the pendulum effect takes place. People in general don't want to be tied down, but I really don't think rules compel people to misbehave.

...thoughts?