There have been a number of threads started here on the subject of the organization’s seemingly arbitrary rules for daily life. From moustaches to car choices, we all know that there are written or tacitly understood rules concerning almost everything. I have noticed that there is a common element among many of these “rules” and wondered if anyone else noticed it as well.
This is the fact that the organization’s most important rules are those for which compliance can be easily measured.
For example, “love your brother” is pretty vague. Who can tell who is a loving person and who is not? Better off ignoring this one to be fair. But “don’t grow a beard” is much more concrete. It is easy to measure, and easy to determine compliance. Same with smoking; ANY smoking is bad, EXCESSIVE drinking MAY be bad. The first is easy to measure; a single cigarette or a cigar to celebrate a special occasion, and BAM – you are on the list of the damned. But the whole drinking thing is just too hard to measure.
And of course, reporting one’s time in field service goes without saying. You can make charts and graphs with that stuff, and rate people on a scale of their worth as human beings. You could even rank them on a bell curve, with the doomed to the left and those to the right receiving everlasting life. Easy as pie (or pi, depending on the chart).
Skirts X-inches above/below the knee. Four door cars. High school education. Shirts and ties. Compliance with any of these rules or practices is something that anyone can see – there is no deep thinking involved in determining if someone is toeing the line. Good or bad – that’s the choice.