Have you ever heard of the rule that certain punctuation around quotes should be inside the quotes? For example:
He said, 'I always follow the rules,' in a sanctimonious tone.
or:
She replied, 'You should think for yourself.'
In the first example, we see that there is a comma right before the closing quotation mark, and in the second there’s a period in that same spot. Why is that? It turns out it’s a U.S. standard. From the colonial era around the 17th century until the late 20th century, printing text required manual typesetting using metal to imprint ink on paper. Commas and periods outside the quotes were a challenge in those days, and so it became common practice to keep them inside for aesthetics. This makes no sense to perpetuate now. We are far removed from manual typesetting, and including in quotes punctuation that doesn’t belong there only serves to distort source material one would wish to share.
Even before I knew this was a vestigial practice from several hundred years ago, it just made total sense to put the punctuation on the outside, and I believe this type of purposeful disobedience says a ton about one’s character. In the same vein, the lack of this disobedience actually says volumes more.
If you see something you don’t agree with but you’ve been taught differently in the past, and there are no consequences for making either of 2 choices, if you choose the one that was taught to you solely because of that fact, is that not but a sign of cowardice and laziness? Maybe it’s the engineer in me speaking, but if you’re so easy to control and influence, and you completely lack the critical thinking to make an easy decision on the fly, I believe you are part of the entropy that seeks to bring all of existence to chaos.
It’s crazy I see sheep-like behavior everywhere. Maybe it’s my RAS (reticular activating system) which has gotten good at identifying sheepism. Just the other day I went on a run with my friend, and afterward we stopped by a falafel/schwarma joint to refuel. I wanted to avoid excess carbs and increase the protein content, and so I asked the server/cashier if I could get a slightly customized order. I wanted rice on the side which my friend was going to eat, and the main dish to be just the salad and protein. He couldn’t wrap his mind around deviating from the menu, and said that he was not allowed to do that. The main platter dish came with rice, salad, and protein. He could remove the rice but would still charge the same price, and could add it as a side which would increase the price of the new order to 150% of the original one.
Because we weren’t big fans of the food for the price and nutritional content, they did not get our patronage which could have been easily won. Mind you this place was basically deserted, and was not fancy. It’s not like they were unable to accommodate deviations. The dude could not cater to a very simple request and lost easy business.
Of course we could be cynical and suppose that he wasn’t an owner of the establishment, and he was just saving himself the hassle. In that case, he would be a subpar employee who is not thinking in the best interest of his employer. Him not doing his best would be a poor decision in a series of poor decisions that led him to giving dissatisfactory service at a job he is not fond of. Whether it’s his inability to think outside the box or his laziness, it’s sheepism at play—and it’s precisely why I will never include unnecessary punctuation inside my quotes.