The Rules Always Apply...

Except when they don't.  What is it with selective enforcement of rules?  My parents' trainer's car was broken into.  The window was smashed, but nothing was taken.  The police refused to take a report because "they'll never catch anyone."  My motion to dismiss a modification of custody was denied because "they'd just amend the pleadings and refile."  A former husband files an emergency motion in a closed case, doesn't get a summons issued, doesn't personally serve the former wife.  The court ignores the lack of jurisdiction and grants the motion.  Really?  Is playing by the rules no longer in fashion?  Maybe we just get to selectively determine which rules and laws get enforced.   The crazy making part of this is that on a different day, in a different court, or maybe before a different judge, the result would have been totally opposite.  I feel like a rat in a Skinner box.  You remember that experiment:  B.F. Skinner created a box in which rats pushed a lever and food came out every time.  Then he changed the experiment so that when they pushed the lever, they received an electric shock.  A third time, the rats were placed in the box and when they pushed the lever, sometimes food came out and sometimes they received an electric shock.  What did Skinner find?  Behavior that was reinforced by intermittent reinforcement was more resistant to extinction than behavior reinforced by positive or negative reinforcement alone.  What that means is that when the rules and laws aren't enforced uniformly, then not only do those people who abide by the rules continue to do so, but also those people who don't abide by the rules will continue to do that as well in the hope that they will continue to get away with it.  For those of us here in the Trenches, who try always to abide by the rules, it's frustrating, just like it is for our clients when their spouses don't play by the rules.  It's especially frustrating to know that unless the rules are enforced consistently, that behavior will probably never change.  I guess we need to look at all this as an opportunity to practice our coping skills.