Yes, I enjoyed your quotes. But I have to admit, I lost track of them (maybe because the post moved around ;)).
The first quote made me think of my “former life” as a manager in business. I used to have to train managerial personnel, and one of the things that was always difficult to teach was “bending the rules”.
Young trainees would typically learn the company “rules” (as written in the company manual) very well. However, these sorts of “rules” are designed as guidelines, intended for use in the most “ordinary” or “usual” situations, but are not necessarily applicable to every single situation that might arise. Inexperienced management personnel tended to view the company manual as though it were “the word of God”. :lol: In other words, ‘this is the only right way to do things. There is no other way.’ They’d often blindly follow the guidelines and totally forget common sense.
There were often situations where a customer had a legitimate request or complaint, but because accommodating the customer would have meant “breaking the rules”, the young trainees would end up blindly saying “No” to the customer, often making a minor problem much worse.