"You can't do that!"

"Why?"

"Because of the rules!"

I think rules and their purposes are misinterpreted.

"Rules are instructions that must be followed." is probably the first definition that comes to mind. Technically this is true, but a second question reveals the flaw: "Why must they be followed?" "Rules are made to be followed."

This allowed writers to come up with the phrase: "Rules are made to be broken."

The most apparent reason for following rules is avoiding punishment that must be enforced onto violators. So people start hiding that they broke the rules to avoid punishment. This is known to lead to disasters.

"Rules are written in blood."

Rules are safeguards that prevent certain events from happening, but the legal system manages to obscure this fact to an incredible degree. There are members of society who like finding flaws in phrasing and cite them for things the rules were never meant or designed for.

Unfortunately interpreting rules doesn't change the reasons behind them, when rules fail, one should fallback onto the reasons, not the wording.

People are brainwashed from a young age that rules and laws must be followed, which is good because you can allow stupid people to do stuff without breaking anything. Explaining all the reasons to everybody would be far to complicated so Rules are an effective proxy: you don't need to know why, you just follow them and bad things don't happen.

But no Rules wrap perfectly around reasons, they stick out and leave gaps, and it is a flaw of modern society that the excess is taken seriously and the gaps are ignored.

The World's Greatest Criminal

Some say Albert Einstein broke Newton's Laws, but he just fixed them as flaws revealed themselves.

Some Rules are wrong, their meaning is twisted beyond reason, so be the criminal break the rules and follow the reasons. But remember, rules are there for fools like you and me, so just in case: Failsafe

Don't wear a helmet because it's the law. Wear a helmet because it's your life.

- very qualified rule expert