Friday, February 06, 2004
The "Literal" Society
A recent blurb on News of the Weird:
In December, for example, the Bossier Parish, La., school board voted to uphold the year-long expulsion of a 10th-grade girl for "drug" possession, specifically an Advil tablet. And in January, a Rio Rancho, N.M., middle school student was drug-suspended for five days for possession of a Gas-X tablet.
For a society that is as individualistic as the United States, I'm always surprised how literally we apply our nation's laws. Obviously, the "zero tolerance" policies weren't intended to suspend kids for having tablets of Advil. However, that is way the RULE was written, and we will apply the law LITERALLY as if it was they were the word of god sent down on stone tablets.
When I returned from a Christmas vacation with my family a month ago, I got held up at the Dallas check-in for American airlines because the RULES stated that if I didn't hold a European passport, didn't have a return ticket back to America, and lacked a work visa, they couldn't let me on board. The problem, of course, is that you don't NEED a work visa to work at the UN. So, I don't have one.
Now, I've flown back and forth to Europe for years, and I knew for a FACT that Switzerland barely registered that I even entered the country, much less required me to have a work permit. Yet, the hysterical ticket agent was of the opinion that she would be fined 10,000 dollars (as the rule states) if she were to let me on board the plane because the RULES CLEARLY STATE that I needed a work permit.
Perhaps our literal approach is a result of our hyper-litiginous culture. Americans are bound to hew close to the literal interpretation of the law when roving bands of lawyers make the penalty for failing to apply the law literally particularly high. Similarly, there is the whole christian fundamentalist movement which is of the opinion that a 2000+ year old document should be taken LITERALLY as a guide for modern day life. Once the habit is formed in one part of your life, it's hard to change it in others.
I'm not sure what it is. But when I see kids getting expelled from school because they had some Advil in their backpack, you start to wonder why someone doesn't rediscover that lost font of eternal wisdom: Common Sense. You don't HAVE to apply laws literally when the outcome is stupid. Of course, if people start to think that way, judges would outright refuse to apply mandatory minimum drug sentences to college kids whose lives will be destroyed by them.
Oh, what a horrible world that would be.
A recent blurb on News of the Weird:
In December, for example, the Bossier Parish, La., school board voted to uphold the year-long expulsion of a 10th-grade girl for "drug" possession, specifically an Advil tablet. And in January, a Rio Rancho, N.M., middle school student was drug-suspended for five days for possession of a Gas-X tablet.
For a society that is as individualistic as the United States, I'm always surprised how literally we apply our nation's laws. Obviously, the "zero tolerance" policies weren't intended to suspend kids for having tablets of Advil. However, that is way the RULE was written, and we will apply the law LITERALLY as if it was they were the word of god sent down on stone tablets.
When I returned from a Christmas vacation with my family a month ago, I got held up at the Dallas check-in for American airlines because the RULES stated that if I didn't hold a European passport, didn't have a return ticket back to America, and lacked a work visa, they couldn't let me on board. The problem, of course, is that you don't NEED a work visa to work at the UN. So, I don't have one.
Now, I've flown back and forth to Europe for years, and I knew for a FACT that Switzerland barely registered that I even entered the country, much less required me to have a work permit. Yet, the hysterical ticket agent was of the opinion that she would be fined 10,000 dollars (as the rule states) if she were to let me on board the plane because the RULES CLEARLY STATE that I needed a work permit.
Perhaps our literal approach is a result of our hyper-litiginous culture. Americans are bound to hew close to the literal interpretation of the law when roving bands of lawyers make the penalty for failing to apply the law literally particularly high. Similarly, there is the whole christian fundamentalist movement which is of the opinion that a 2000+ year old document should be taken LITERALLY as a guide for modern day life. Once the habit is formed in one part of your life, it's hard to change it in others.
I'm not sure what it is. But when I see kids getting expelled from school because they had some Advil in their backpack, you start to wonder why someone doesn't rediscover that lost font of eternal wisdom: Common Sense. You don't HAVE to apply laws literally when the outcome is stupid. Of course, if people start to think that way, judges would outright refuse to apply mandatory minimum drug sentences to college kids whose lives will be destroyed by them.
Oh, what a horrible world that would be.
