Saturday, February 7, 2015

Fight in my High School's Hallway

Probably one of the best examples of social order being lost that I’ve experienced happened while I was in high school.  I can remember the event very vividly.

It was my sophomore year of high school, and for the most part things seemed to be going alright, at least for most of us.  However, one of the kids in our school was having a rough time in his life.  The hard times in his life led him to be pretty angry and obstinate about most things, and this particular day I’m thinking of he was pretty angry and pretty obstinate.

My best friend had never gotten along with this kid very well (to be honest, I don’t think many of us got along very well with him).  One particular day, apparently some unkind words were exchanged, and they started fighting in the hallway during regular class time.  I was in one of the rooms right next to where they started fighting.  Everyone heard the noise from the fight starting, and within seconds all of the students on that floor were out of their classes and watching the fight.  We all gave them just enough space to fight, and the fight probably only lasted for a minute or two.  Quickly after the fight began, it ended.  If I remember right, no one stepped in to stop it, it just ended on its own with both students walking away.


What was remarkable to me was how the teachers were helpless to stop it.  We all decided that we would just watch the fight and let it happen, and the teachers (and all of us really) felt powerless to prevent the fight.  It was an eye opener to me to see how just two students could decide to fight and make it very difficult for there to be any order.  How safe are we really if social order can be broken down by just a few people?

1 comment:

  1. I you make a good point in that it is really hard to control social order since a small amount of individuals can really do quite a bit of damage. I don't think it is possible to control everyone, but I think having good systems (e.g. government, rules, etc.) in order to control the few people who riot. That way, if a majority of the people are inherently good, at least they can have a somewhat common consensus on a course of action because of the rules that have already been put in place.

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