Roshs all round

Rabbi Chayim Friedman, Rosh Yeshiva of YHSTC, was perusing through Irving Bunim's english translation and commentary of Pirkei Avos. I sat down across from the Rosh Yeshiva, and he said a little thing that he claimed would, if internalized properly, lead to the obsolescence of educational facilities as we know them today.
There was once a guy who came to his Rabbi with a problem. "Rabbi," he said with a frown, "I have a big problem." The Rabbis invited him to elaborate. "Well you see," continued the man,"I captured a Cossack recently, and now he's constantly beating me up!" The Rabbi inquired, "Why don't you just let him go?" The poor man said, "I would love to, but he's in charge now!"
So too a person starts to sin, and it's great. Eventually, the sin takes the person over, and he can't escape. As the Rosh Yeshiva pointed out, if people would only realize this then no one would sin. Of course, Tanya says that if people would only realize that their sinning separates them from G-d, then they wouldn't sin.

On Thursday night Rabbi Manis Friedman answered the people's queries at a Q&A at Beis Chana. One of the participants asked, "Why is it that Jews fight so much? Isn't it terrible?" Rabbi Friedman answered, "Yes, it really is terrible. Infighting is the one thing which is destroying Judaism. There's no reason why everyone can't just all get along. If they all became Lubavitch then there'd be no problem." The whole audience laughed. Rabbi Friedman said, "Actually, even if everyone became Lubavitch, it wouldn't solve anything. In fact, it would probably make things worse."
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I discussed the recent cellphone ban by Lubavitch Yeshivos with Rabbi Mottel Friedman, dean of YHSTC, and he clarified a couple of things. First of all, he thought it was only for Mesiftas, not for Zals. Secondly, his Yeshiva will continue to not allow any cellphones, not even so-called Kosher ones. Thirdly, he said that the problem is not one of distraction, but rather of who the Bochurim are talking to. When he told me this I refused to believe it, because in general I trust people to do the right thing, but he said that the major issue here is that Bochurim have girlfriends, and that we're not only talking five or ten percent. If the problem is systemic, then I suppose that the ban is not necessarily a bad thing. As in all issues, though I may not agree before a decision is made, once it is set in stone I hope that it's followed through and strongly enforced. The only thing worse than a rule is a badly-enforced rule.