I second Barbara Wilson-Clay's excellent synopsis of the importance of
rules when we are learning/making our way, etc.

In Sociology, those who follow the rules without thinking (they replace use
of the rules for the NEED to think independently) are called "ritualists".
A classic description of this is offered in a discussion of bureaucracies:
what they are and what they can become.  Most of us think disparagingly of
bureaucracies because of WHAT THEY HAVE BECOME.  When first developed, they
were designed to ASSIST people, believe it or not!

The problem arises when the rules designed to assist people become so
important in themselves that those who apply them need not think about what
they are doing.  Consider any branch of the federal government with which
you are most familiar and you will likely be able to identify someone who
applies the rules to assist and another person (or more!) who is so
rule-bound that they can not seem to think beyond the ruler they use to
follow the rule they are reading!!!

I am not suggesting that novices in a profession are ritualists.  Rather,
it is persons beyond the novice stage who persist in applying the rules
willy-nilly who are ritualists.  These also are the persons whose reading
has probably stopped with acquisition of their terminal degree and whose
rules they are still following have long since been consigned to the
(clinical/theoratical/professional--your choice) dustbin by those who have
remained current.

Let's hear it for staying current, learning from one another, contributing
to the collective knowledge base, and for knowing when and when *not* to
apply those rules....

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