You Can't Do That

Back in high school I had a Spanish teacher who tried her absolute hardest to enforce rules. In her class we were supposed to sit quietly, not cheat, and speak only Spanish from bell to bell.

We did none of that.

She was dealt the worst possible hand: me and my friends + a row of cute girls we were desperate to impress + her rigid insistence that rules were rules.
Perfect storm.
Great memories for us.
Nightmare semester for her.

We played pranks on her and on each other. She’d get flustered, break out in hives, and instead of pulling back, we doubled down. The stricter she got, the more we pushed. And we learned almost no Spanish.

Contrast that with Mr. Muñoz. Same group of idiots. Same impulse to mess around. Same “authority figure.” But the classroom dynamic was the opposite.

He set the tone:
• He opened class with a joke.
• We laughed and instantly paid attention.
• Lesson began.
• Someone cracked a joke (usually me).
• He rolled with it, hit back harder, we laughed again.
• Then he landed the actual lesson.

We still acted out, but in short, contained bursts. With him, our misbehavior wasn’t the point of the class. It was the spice. With him, we didn’t push against a wall; we bounced off a trampoline.

The broader point:

Whenever an authority tries to impose restrictions on people’s perceived free will- speech codes from the left, bodily rules from the right, moral legislation from either -people don’t comply.
They rebel.
Even when they know the thing they’re doing is stupid.

Tell people they can’t say a word → they say it louder.
Tell people they can’t believe something → they double down.
Tell people how to live → they do the opposite out of spite.

If you want to challenge someone’s worldview- your partner, your friend, a coworker, a stranger -don’t tighten the screws.
Don’t moralize.
Don’t rigidify.

Use humor.
Use flexibility.
Invite them into truth instead of forcing them toward it.

Rigid authority creates resistance.
Playfulness creates openings.

So humor me, and yourself, for your own benefit.

Have a great Sunday, y’all.
D.R.

Below is my latest interview with Vicente Calderon, the Editor in Chief at The Tijuana Press. We speak about drugs, illegal immigration, and the complex power dynamics in Mexico primarily between the government and cartels.

This was filmed onsite in Cartolandia, Tijuana a location most known for being a deportee slum of migrants kicked out of the US, awaiting their next attempt to cross illegally into the US