How does pure discipline differ from enforced discipline
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Answer:
We live in a society amongst hundreds of thousands or even millions of other people. Behavioural laws have developed in order to ensure that our society runs smoothly. Without these laws, social interaction would become increasingly dangerous. The breakdown of these social laws is explored in many apocalyptic movies and series. A popular modern phenomenon is the zombie apocalypse genre which explores how the breakdown of social laws makes life increasingly dangerous for the survivors who have to contend violently with other humans jostling for dwindling resources.
(Incidentally to this, I suppose I should also mention that the zombie apocalypse genre also involves brain-eating zombies)..
I’ve seen some genre fans stating that they would really enjoy living through a zombie apocalypse. I do not believe that this would prove to be true in actuality. Their enjoyment factor would most likely drop considerably after surviving the first life-or-death encounter. It is a popular modern notion that to operate without laws and rules is preferable to operating under a set of accepted laws.
This is usually fine for those that like the idea of operating outside of accepted laws to their own benefit, until they find themselves the victim of someone operating outside of the selfsame laws.
Discipline of some form or other is required in order to ensure that the social laws and framework is respected. For most people, this discipline is stimulated by the threat of punishment doled out by higher authorities like the police. The majority of people are motivated to adhere to laws under threat of punishment. This is what I call external discipline.
It is essentially the rule of fear. If someone who is motivated by external discipline were assured that they would be able to break the law to their personal benefit with absolutely no chance of any subsequent punishment, they would most likely break the law. A typical example of this is a driver on the road who consciously and consistently disregards the speed limits when there is no visible speed enforcement.
Can external discipline be taught? Quite easily, in fact. It is taught by exposing someone or something to a systematic series of punishments whenever they break known laws and rewards for following laws. The key to effectively teaching external discipline is consistency in punishment and reward.
Self-discipline (or internal discipline) is a much rarer form of discipline where the threat of external punishment is no longer the motivating factor for obedience. People who apply self-discipline have themselves become the higher authority in control of their behaviour.
They are not ruled by fear. Self-disciplined people do not change their behaviour patterns if the threat of external punishment is removed. Conversely, they may not even change their behaviour under threat of external punishment. They are self-governed. They follow their accepted law internally.
Think of the great warriors and leaders of the past who operated under a disciplined internal code and who were unaffected by external factors such as death, danger, bribes or human coercion. These were self-disciplined people.
One can see that levels of self-discipline are quite low in today’s world by the sheer numbers of people who do not care for their own bodies by ensuring that they get sufficient exercise and good nutrition. Facebook is full of status updates by people who complain that they don’t have the discipline to get themselves to the gym regularly. Personal fitness trackers, fitness groups and personal trainers are more popular than ever because most people know of no other way to assert discipline over themselves other than by having an external authority to which they can be accountable.