Breaking the rules, aka getting out of line, aka disrupting order, as a means of social change is an entirely different issue, and even then the range of examples is far and wide. There is surely a difference between sit-ins and peaceful marches (at least until the police get involved) and the riot or mob rule.

Anyhow, I think you’re right about the haggling thing. I want structure and a set of expectations!

Besides, it can be fun- and a great way to meet people.

I’d think the question of who succeeds depends on how you are defining power in relation to the situation. And also what the perceived end result is.

Take your idea of a riot. I would assume the powerful(the gov’t) usually wins by regaining order through the use of institutional power. During the riot, though, the less powerful win be inflicting more chaos into the situation. They are willing to inflict such chaos because they have a lesser degree of investment in the order (and therefore protection) of the riot’s locale of.

And then there are sit-ins, and Rosa Parks, and Olympic Torch protesters, and….

If the OT protesters had followed the accepted order of the situation — “we accept your right to protest, but please do it in the way we have defined(no-violence, no attention-seeking acts like climbing the GGB) — then there really would not have been a protest.

I’m sensing this is going the way of the Pope — agreeing to disagree?

I’ve got 4 pairs of Exofficio boxers and while they do dry quicker than cotton (and don’t get funky smelling), the idea that you can wash a pair at night and it will be dry in the morning is a myth. Whoever came up with that idea has never been in a rainy, humid climate. They probably live in a hot dry desert and like doing laundry every day.

I highly recommend getting an apartment at some point in your travels to snuggle up with some familiar domestic items and take a break from eating out. It can actually be cheaper than hosteling! Eating out all the time, even if you enjoy it at home, does get old when traveling.

Unfortunately in some places, Ecuador and Peru come to mind, we found it’s not even worth the effort to try and shop for groceries. We saved no more money than eating out and trying to find items to put together some resemblance of a meal was just not worth all the trekking from tiny market to tiny store. Hope you like canned tuna.

And just in case you were wondering, the second most important factor is proximity to an exit.

I must disagree on one point. Order does not promote fairness. It actually promotes the agenda of those with power. Disruption and chaos, then, are the tools of the marginalized, the disenfranchised. Order forwards the rank-and-file way of operating, not the possibility of changing that means of operation. Order, such as lining up for admission, favors those who are invested in playing by the rules because they find value in those very rules. Convincing people to operate via order, is the ultimate means to indoctrinate into the rank-and-file.

Interestingly, your desire for order and your aversion to confrontation(bargaining/haggling) go hand-in-hand. I’m sure it is the same for me. Haggling, by it’s vary nature, is void of a power structure. That’s the joy of it, and also the pain.