Things I Learned From Movies 4: Rules

Throughout our lives, we learn things about ourselves and about the world.  We learn through what we experience.  We learn through school.  We learn through books and film.  Film is a big one for me, whether it be documentary or fiction.  There are things that can be learned through any film.

This week I’m going to look at the film Zombieland.  There is a rule that Columbus has that goes “Don’t be a hero.”  Near the end of the film, Columbus retracts the rule.  He realizes that some rules are made to be broken.  This is the lesson of this specific blog post.  You can’t confine yourself to a set of rules.  Sometimes you must do things against the rules.

Sometimes this lesson may be taken to the extreme.  If you are going to learn, you need to moderate this lesson.  You cannot lose all rules.  Killing people is still bad.  Some rules are made to be broken.  That is not one such rule.  You should never abuse this lesson by breaking the law.

The lesson this week is basically a way to keep yourself from having a stale life.  If you have a very strict diet because you don’t want to be fat, indulge in something unhealthy every once in a while.  There is no need to torture yourself to look good if you feel like crap doing it.  Break that rule on the odd occasion.  You deserve it.

Do doctors always follow the rules?  I wouldn’t say so.  Ignore the doctors who break the rules to get themselves promotions or money.  What about the doctors who know that the only way to save someone’s life is to break a rule?  By the Hippocratic Oath, “I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.”  A doctor’s responsibility is to the livelihood of a patient, not to the rules instated by the institution in which they work.

I guess that what I am trying to say here is that too many people live their lives by a self-made set of rules.  We cannot do this to ourselves or else life will be unenjoyable.   Once we restrict ourselves, we shut ourselves off to the outside world.  This will be a folly of society.  Who will be there to help people out when they run into a problem?  With rules in place, nobody will remain because there will be personal rules about not getting involved in a stranger’s issues.  Nobody will help an old woman whose purse is being stolen.  Nobody will be there when your car breaks down.  Hell, nobody will talk to you in a public place.

Some rules are made to be broken.  I picked a couple extremes here, I guess.  Especially the latter.  It also used a lot of assuming.  But it gets my point across.  We can’t limit ourselves with a set of rules.  Sometimes we need to break the rules in order to reach our potential.  That’s how life works.