My brother told me about when either he or a coworker decided to play a prank at work. One of them took the soap dish that was at the sink in the break room and put it in the fridge, with a sticky note on it: “PLEASE RETURN WHEN FINISHED.” The soap dish stayed in the fridge for days, perhaps weeks. Nobody ever said anything though and they thought maybe nobody even knew where the soap was until one day they observed another coworker remove the soap from the fridge, washed with it and then carefully put it back. They ran out of the break room, out of earshot of the other coworker to bust up laughing. They observed from a distance and saw that this was not the only person who did this. This was an inadvertent experiment in human behavior/critical thinking skills and proved the gullibility of those who never question absurdity. Keep in mind that these were all educated people.
A military custom that is strictly observed is that while in uniform, personnel are required to wear a hat outdoors, but while indoors the hat is to be removed. I remember this extraordinarily well because while I was in basic training (just after we were issued our uniforms), I forgot to put my hat on when I went outside, so a Military Training Instructor posted me by the door and ordered me to tell every single person who came out the door to put their hat on. We follow those customs and courtesies without question. Some of them have valid reasons for existing as rules, while others do not – and are merely a matter of compliance. Many civilians even consider it improper to wear a hat indoors, and will even go so far as to scold others for noncompliance.
There are rules that we follow in our society that nobody ever seems to question. “That’s the way it has always been” and nobody is going to buck the system. For instance, nobody can give me a valid explanation as to why it’s “bad manners” to put your elbows on the table. There is an entire set of rules called “etiquette” that some people follow (especially those in older generations), believing that complying with those rules is “proper” behavior. Etiquette is defined as “a customary code of polite behavior in society” – many of these rules going back to ancient times. There are entire books written about “proper” behavior and there have even been classes and schools that taught children about how to behave “properly” in a public setting. These were more common in the Victorian Era, but surprisingly there are still some that exist (in some form or other) in present day.
Habits, regimens, customs… we tend to get so conditioned to how things are “supposed to be” that we never apply critical thinking skills, thus those behaviors persist for centuries and nobody ever wonders why, or even dares to do anything differently. Some of these customs have long been obsolete, but are still observed nonetheless. There are yet others that are introduced into our society that may have had a fleeting purpose, yet persist long past the time of usefulness. It’s like these people still driving around with “Reagan-Bush” election stickers on their bumpers.
We even continue with obsolete terms in our vernacular. Almost nobody “videotapes” or “films” a performance anymore. Our phones don’t “ring” either. We certainly don’t keep a light “burning” (unless you are using a fuel-powered lantern). At certain periods, these were “modern” terminology, but we’ve outlived them and we are stuck with them until somebody comes along and makes a change and it catches on.
My challenge is, as always, to be ever conscious about why we are doing things and what makes us continue in our habits and customs. Apply critical thinking skills to everything that we do and maybe even start a new trend… something different, but purposeful. We are creatures of habit, but not all of those habits are necessary and some of them no longer serve a valid purpose. We may even be following trends and behaviors that are harmful to ourselves and others without even realizing it. The way we make those realizations is by questioning… especially when it seems absurd. Change the world, but this is done by challenging the status quo and changing one little thing at a time. Who knows? One little thing you do differently may affect an entire generation or change the course of an entire culture for the better.
