Leaving a broken window on a building unrepaired is an invitation for further decay. A building with one window smashed will soon have a second, then a third, and soon all its windows will be smashed. Next the windows of adjacent buildings will be smashed, then the windows of all the buildings on the block. A neighbourhood where one broken window is left unrepaired soon becomes consumed by crime and decay.
The criminologists who presented this idea in the early eighties used it as an analogy for policing: if petty crimes like vandalism and littering are policed aggressively, then all crime would be reduced because of the message being sent. Despite criticism from authorities, the theory was shown to work in practice by Rudy Guliani. His ‘zero tolerance policy’ reduced crime in New York City across the board; murders, assaults and robberies all went down, and it began simply by cleaning the graffiti off subway cars.
The broken windows theory can be applied to any area of your life that you like. In its simplest form: the smallest compromise left uncorrected in any system will put the system into an entropic downward spiral.
My housemate and I use the broken windows theory for our gym training. We’ve made a pact to not miss a single training session, with the understanding that one missed session this week will be one missed again in a few weeks time, then it will be one missed every week, and soon after there will be no training done at all.
Some other examples of broken windows that can sometimes emerge in my life:
- An unfolded shirt left on the floor of my bedroom
- Getting to work five minutes late in the morning
- A small scratch on my car
- Missing one weeks homework for a subject at uni
- One beer on a week night
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such problems are derived from habits which are the reflection of what meaning we give to events in our lives.
if more people knew about NLP and the power of self-hypnosis, we can dominate our subconscious mind and prevent the onset of such habits, but also we could all not let one broken window become many broken windows in our lives. It’s all an illusion of our subconscious mind that can be controlled.
I love everything you have written so far
who do you think the mystery person is?
Wher is my comment on Futility? M.
Dear Anthony Gore Land
What I don’t understand the times I’ve used the broken window theory in my life eg the dietry guidelines, dieting/fasting and abstaining from alcohol etc, I have been accused of being too ridgid please explain !
M.