You can ruin almost any social system with enough bad faith.
It takes very little cleverness to go to a toilet with a sign reading âplease do not flush paper towels,â flush gravel until it breaks, and then declare victory.
But victory over what? You havenât debunked the warning sign or the plumbing system; youâve just abused them. You have not made a persuasive case that the warning sign should read âplease do not flush paper towels or gravel,â because obviously your wise ass is just waiting to see that sign so you have an excuse to flush a third inappropriate thing. You also havenât made a persuasive case that the toilets should be continuously guarded and all visitors frisked for non-flushable objects, because the vast majority of people arenât as big of a jerk as you.
âThis system can be broken by someone who exploits its rules in the most malicious possible wayâ is true of many otherwise fine systems, and unless the system is safety-critical or thereâs a very large group of people motivated to break it, itâs not really an important point to make.
There is nothing original, helpful, or insightful about pointing out that one person with a firehose could ruin a whole sand-sculpture competition. Yeah, itâs true, that is a risk we are taking. Please donât show up with a firehose just to prove your point.