If I can beat it to death, you have three possible courses of action with 22-55 in early position. You can raise it, call it, or fold it.

Now, consider 3 tables:

1. 3 betting pre-flop is common, and the two players to your immediate left each re-raise 30 percent of the time when faced with a pre-flop raise. Further, the aggression continues post-flop-- they bet such a wide variety of flops that until the turn or even the river, it is always very difficult to pin them down to a usefully narrow range.

2. The table is passive. You can raise a pot pre-flop and you will tend to get the same number of callers as who would limp if you did not raise. Further, the two players to your immediate left are calling stations who will call your post-flop bets at least until the river with any made hand or even overcards.

3. The table respects raises. Normally, when someone raises pre-flop, that player takes down the pot. In those few instances where a pre-flop raise was called or re-raised, the caller / re-raiser always turned over a monster pre-flop hand such as pocket queens or higher. The pre-flop raise also affects post-flop play-- players are very cautious to even call the continuation bet of a pre-flop raiser. The two players to your left are especially likely to fold to pre-flop aggression either pre-flop or on the flop in response to a c-bet.

Now, obviously, each of these 3 tables are an exaggeration. But ask yourself, should you be doing the same thing with your small pocket pairs in early position on each of these tables? And if your answer is "no", then you shouldn't be relying on an inflexible rule in playing your preflop hands and instead should be starting with what you expect the response will be when you play a hand pre-flop and then figure out how you will play hands pre-flop in the specific situation you are in at that table.