“Rules are Rules”

In stories we often read about unfair tragedies on good characters. They accidentally make slight mistakes because they were baffled or scared, but are punished too severely and unfairly because "rules are rules." In Herman Melville’s The Adventures of Billy Budd, Billy Budd accidentally struck his enemy dead, and he was hung because of the rules. Hester Prynne of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlett Letter was jailed, humiliated, and forced to wear the letter A for adultery while Bigger Thomas in Richard Wright’s Native Son went to the electric chair for accidentally smothering his boss’ daughter while he was helping her hide her drunken state.

Situations similar to these are happening more and more in real life. When innocent people make harmless mistakes out of confusion or fear, they are severly punished, because "rules are rules." However, why is it never "rules are rules" for criminals and unpleasant people or actions? For example, in Gone in Sixty Seconds the police decided to forget "rules are rules," and not punish the car thieves.

In schools, when good students defend themselves, they are punished. However, the real troublemakers get away with their wrong actions and bad intentions. The staff is blaming the victim. At the same time, police officers cite people for minor and harmless traffic violations instead of focusing on the dangerous crimes. At TheOneRing.Com, the moderators stalked and banned us innocent members (and place unfair restrictions) for slight mistakes and misunderstadnings, because "rules are rules." However, for the real offenders they just gave them a warning and tried to clear things up, rules or no rules.

"Rules are rules" is just an excuse to harass innocent people and blame the victim. I think it’s real purpose is to promote the corruption of society.