All human social interaction implies limits, agreements and a set of rules of the game. This is what we call rules: to guidelines that regulate human behavior in the social, political, moral, sports, or whatever field, and whose non-compliance entails some type of punishment or retaliation from the community. The latter is called sanctions.
Many theorists have explained how society as a whole enforces the enforcement of its rules through the monopoly of violence (the state), putting the collective good (in theory) before the individual but, often, the perpetuation of the system. above all things. Thus, changes in these social rules are slow, painful, and often faced with excessive penalties.
On the other hand, the anarchist dream of a society without regulations and monitoring bodies for those regulations is, for now, a utopia that can often lead to anarchy: the lack of the adequate stimulus for the incorporation of the norms of coexistence as a proper and internal pattern of the beings in coexistence.
Between those two poles: the liberalism and the surveillance, contemporary politics is often debated and legal theory is constituted. However, rules and sanctions exist in virtually every area of human life.
Examples of rules and their penalties
- Rule: In Olympic competitions, athletes must be clean of drugs and substances that interfere with their bodily performance, such as steroids or metabolizers. This, also, because they are supposed symbols of effort and perseverance, not of the use of drugs and easy solutions.
Sanction: Athletes who fail the test anti-dopping they are fined and lose their opportunity to participate in the Olympic competitions, and may even cut short their sports career prematurely.
- Rule: A seller should not offer a product through lies and false arguments, being aware that what they are trying to sell does not deliver what they promised or is defective or potentially harmful to the buyer who ignores it. This is called cheating and it is a crime.
Sanction: Scammers must be prosecuted and sentenced according to the penal code of the country where the scam occurred. According to the provisions of said regulations and the seriousness of the scam, you can go to prison for years or you can simply be fined and publicly denounced.
- Rule: According to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, a Christian cannot desire his neighbor’s wife, much less indulge in the pleasures of the body with her, or have premarital sex or sex outside of marriage.
Sanction: According to Catholic mythology, there is a circle of hell, the place of eternal perdition and punishment of sinful souls, in which the lustful will give especially. Sinners, according to the Church, lose earthly paradise as a penalty for their sins. Another sanction, lighter, is the recitation of a number of prayers determined by the priest before which the Christian confesses (to do so).
- Rule: Players in a soccer game can hit the ball with any part of the body except their forelimbs, that is, their arms. They should never use their hands or arms, except for the goalkeeper, who can use whatever he pleases.
Sanction: If a player touches the ball with his hand, a foul is declared in favor of the opposing team. If he does it in his own goal area, the sanction will be the collection of a penalty against him. If you commit this offense repeatedly or with all treachery, the referee may also sanction you with a yellow or red card.
- Rule: The participants of a debate must respect the right to speak of others and speak when their turn is awarded, not when they see fit, nor imposing themselves through violence over others.
Sanction: A participant who cannot respect these participation rules will be expelled from the debate, even removed from future exchange opportunities due to their bad behavior.
- Rule: In a building, good neighbor rules include not playing loud music especially in the early hours of the morning. Not letting the neighbors sleep is a gesture of poor coexistence.
Sanction: The first sanctions can be called for attention and the immediate enmity of the neighbors, who could also call the police to force the neighbor to lower the volume of his music. If the matter is repeated, they could even file a lawsuit to force the neighbor to move out of the building.
- Rule: At city road intersections there are usually traffic lights, whose three colors dictate the pace of traffic flow to avoid collisions. Drivers are obliged to respect the shifts imposed by the device.
Sanction: Drivers who violate the code and pass, for example, at a red light, are often chased by a traffic prosecutor until they are caught and fined. If the offense is repeated, the sanction may amount to the revocation of the driver’s license, or even, in certain countries, imprisonment.
- Rule: Library books are a public collection for use by the community, so the loan of the material is free and its return, therefore, mandatory. For this, there are stipulated loan times that should not be disobeyed without notifying the library. On the other hand, the material must be returned in the state in which it was loaned.
Sanction: If the books are not returned on time, the user will be implemented a temporary suspension of the loan service in the library. If the fault is repeated, the service could be revoked entirely, and if the damaged copies are delivered, they could be required to replace them or pay as new.
- Rule: In a 100-meter dash, runners start in fixed positions on the track, and must wait for the starting shot to start running.
Sanction: Starting to run before the starting shot results in the immediate disqualification of the competitor from the race.
- Rule: The students of a school must attend dressed according to a specific uniform code, generally identical for boys and girls. Certain customizations are allowed, but none that disrupt the established dress code.
Sanction: A student who comes to class without a uniform may be rejected and returned home, or a warning may be issued on his / her record. If the conduct is repeated, the summons to their representative or even expulsion may be applicable sanctions.
- Rule: In Islamic countries with more radical religious governments, women should not show their bodies to men, only to their husband after marriage. Therefore they must wear a burqa every time they go out.
Sanction: Women who violate the dress code are accused of provoking lust in men and can be severely punished, from prison to public stoning, as they commit a serious moral crime.
- Rule: In the game of dominoes, you cannot go over if you have any tiles that can be played. You can only “pass” if you have no available moves.
Sanction: If it is discovered that a player has “passed” and can play (which invalidates the calculations of the other players), the game is considered void and, on the other hand, if it is recurrent and intentional, it is possible that the player in question will not you are never invited to play a game again.
- Rule: The signatories of an employment contract are contractually obliged to comply with the commitments acquired and stipulated in the document, as long as they do not go against their fundamental rights as a person or violate the law.
Sanction: A person who breaches his contract can be sued for breach of contract and sentenced to financially compensate the other signer, and may even be forced to go to jail.
- Rule: Catholic priests and nuns must be celibate at all times and renounce the possibility of having a partner or forming a family. This, for the moment, is an ecclesiastical mandate that is part of the codes with which the Catholic Church operates.
SanctionIn principle, a priest or a nun whose violation of the celibacy mandate is known and denounced will be punished by the ecclesiastical institution, being able to be forced to hang up their habits and abandon the priesthood.
- Rule: No human being can freely end the life of another, except in conditions of war or personal defense in which his own life is threatened.
Sanction: Ideally, murderers are sentenced to prison for years and, in some countries or states of federal countries, they can even be sentenced to death.