The Anarchical State of the Parking Lot

Total anarchy

So, I'm in this international relations class right now, and we recently discussed the idea of anarchy, and that the international community is an anarchical state. That is, there's no higher authority policing all the countries. I mean, there is, to an extent, but those institutions only have so much power. Ultimately, the countries can do what they want, if they have enough power or military might. For example, let's say the government of Sweden begins killing all people in its country whose names start with "A." The international community is, naturally, horrified by this random killing and tells them to stop. The Swedish government says, no, what are you going to do about it. I guess the UN or someone could go in and try to stop them. Would they start a war? How hard would they try to stop Sweden before they just gave up, before they were losing more than they were gaining? At some point, too many people would die in this war with Sweden, and someone would surrender. Maybe. Anyway, I guess you probably get the point now, right? It's a pretty scary idea.

I have been thinking about this a little bit lately and noticing the many mini-anarchies that exist in my world. There are so many instances where you have a problem and there is just no one to call to fix it, or if there is, no one knows who it is. It happens a lot with bureaucracies, I think, or big organizations. There's some rule that a company has, and normally it makes sense, but in your case, it doesn't, and there's no one you can talk to about making an exception. Someone must have made this rule, you think, and someone must be able to change it, but who it is, no one knows. It's like the rule has taken on a life of its own. For example, I think I mentioned before how over Christmas break my brother and dad and I tried to buy a Christmas Tree from Home Depot. The man at the store casually mentioned that they were about to throw the last of the trees away, and we said, "hey, in that case, can we just have the tree for free," and he said no, he could only give us a discount. The company had allowed for discounts in their budget, but not for free trees, but if they threw the tree away, they could write it up as a loss. There was no one to talk to about this ridiculous rule. Whoever had made it was in some Home Depot headquarters a million miles away.

Anyway, the other major, annoying anarchy in my life is the parking lot in my apartment complex. Listen to this: A few weeks ago, a car parked behind me and blocked me in. There's a towing sign in our lot, so I called the number on it. The towing company said that they had stopped towing for us years ago and couldn't come get the car. Then I called the police. The policeman came but said there was nothing he could do about it. A parking lot is private property, and he doesn't have any authority over it. He suggested calling the towing company. Hah. Additionally, all the apartments in my complex are privately owned, so no one really owns the parking lot. It's anarchy! A free for all! And it's a small thing, but it really is so frustrating. I mean, I can get trapped in my apartment and there's nothing I can do about it. Most people in the complex are pretty good about not having too many people over it, but my neighbors totally take advantage of it and will have like ten random cars parked here. My landlord said that he would get the towing company to start towing for us again, but we all know how good he is at getting things done. (The answer is: Not good.)

In other news, our dishwasher is broken. Now the only major appliance in the apartment that hasn't broken is the oven. Also, last night, another person got robbed on the street and my neighbors once again kept me awake till 2 AM with their loud thumping rave music, so loud it sounded like their speakers were inside my house.

And yes, I know there are worse problems, and this is all first world problems, blah blah blah. But you know what? It's really annoying. At least there are only three months (or less) between me and move out day.

Can you think of any mini-anarchies in your life?

PS. On the bright side, since I'm frequently trapped in my apartment, I am able to get a lot of reading done. I have posted a few reviews on my tumblr, one of If I Stay by Gayle Forman, and one of Secrety Society Girl by Diana Peterfreund. Soon I'll be posting some for Harry: A History and City of Bones (!!!), so look out for that.