RULES: A NECESSARY BURDEN?

I would like to start this essay by citing a scenario. A highway is filled with signs that
people are told to follow. Whether it would be keeping right, driving at a constant speed, going
forward instead of back… these rules aim to keep ensure safety for all motorists. Now, imagine
if this road were not to have these rules. While the motorists can surely drive in any direction or
in any way they choose, there would also be accidents, chaos, and most likely, serious injury or
even death.

In the aforementioned scenario, it is clear that rules present a restriction, and the
responsibility of adhering to these restrictions make it a burden--- a burden that falls heavily on
the people where these rules apply. Observing and following these rules take effort, but the
consequences that might ensue by not doing so might cause even greater burden.

And then again, there are certain situations that rules have become so much of a burden
that the people it applied to were forced to endure. Such as in the case of someone that I look up
to. He has carried the burden of being a journalist in a station that is controlled no less by the
government. As a reporter who is supposed to enjoy the so-called freedom of the press, this very
freedom was curtailed by an unwritten rule that prevents him from writing and reporting
government-critical news. This was a burden that he carried in his 12-year career--- a burden that
made him feel he didn’t enjoy the freedom his very colleagues were enjoying.

Another example are the rules of a local professional basketball league. A player, coach,
or team official speaks against spotty officiating--- only to have them fined heavily by the league
due to a written rule that prevents them from issuing statements that are seen as “detrimental to
the league”. It is their hope that league officials would take note of their grievances, only to have
them suffer the consequences of voicing out their sentiments.

To me, every rule, whether written or unwritten, casts a burden on the people that should
follow it. Whether or not this burden is for the greater good or the detriment depends solely on
where these rules are being applied to. But I can never discount the fact that without rules, a
system would descend into anarchy. Every inconceivable event that you have hoped will not
happen will happen. Rules are the very reason why we live in a civilized world. And not having
rules is in itself it a burden that no one could possibly bear.

My name is Carolyne R. Laguato, and this is my essay.