I would think it is a bad idea to follow the rules if you do not understand them, or if they conflict with common sense.
I tend to subscribe to the idea that rules/laws are made as a limited loss of freedom, to protect society from greater harms of anarchy and hostile actors.
Society is a compilation of ‘what goes’, and the rules are there to act both as guidelines to the people, and to make it clear of the ‘why’ and ‘consequences’ of said rules.
My point with the man-eating rabbit is that you end in the same situation of human folly if there is no moderation to the rules, as with unhealthy limitations to anarchy.
When the ‘why’ is ridiculous, and the ‘consequences’ are out of proportion to society’s consensus, then you have a problem, much the same as when under mob rule.
People have to impose the rules onto themselves in order to have any effect, as rules are just psychological arguments.
I think the biggest dangers with rules is when they are applied unequally, as that is a great breach of the the uniform consensus. People tend to lose their respect for the rules very quickly once they realize they were being used to rig the casino against them in a unfair and bias manner.
In general, it is impossible to apply/enforce the rules uniformly onto everyone. But it is also impossible to have a organized society when the mutual trust created by the uniform rules is gone.
That it why it is important to have wisdom with the rules and rulers, which goes into the politics arena which is against the rules 
But for the people interested, I would recommend the philosophical piece Tao Te Ching, which was written as a guide to a prince in ancient China by the philosopher Lao Tzu if I am not mistaken.
