I don't know how was I able to recall most of the important DOS commands when they were taught extensively (which I reciprocated by learning in a non-enthused way) by our elementary teacher way back in my elementary days. That was always a Wednesday when we would have extension classes and we'd gather in our "hi-tech" Computer Laboratory which housed forty something computers for the use of both elementary and high school student back in those times.
Funny. Recalling them sets a nostalgic feeling inside me. Or maybe I just missed the good old days when a CPU still had a 5 1/2 floppy port and weighed a ton (for a kid my age back then).
Anyway, going back, as I said, it was always a Wednesday. So there we were on a typical Wednesday morning inserting our wobbly floppy disks in their ports, boot our computer and then look at the board to check for instructions on what to do. On what commands to use.
...on what to do.
Pretty convenient. You don't have to think about anything--but follow the instructions. Just carrying yourself there, then wait for instructions. Being quite ignorant with computers, you would most definitely spend half of your time trying to figure out if pressing on the enter button would cost you your entire year of schooling or being blown to bits by an exploding monitor. You won't have the dilemma of a decision maker worried till his guts spill on the floor on what would his decisions do to a particular program in life.
You won't have a free will you moron!
Sure you don't. I only said it's convenient. I didn't say follow it.
So what? Should we all be decision makers then?
Now this is one of the most moronic, absurd and surreal question that you can throw on this topic. And the answer is most definitely a yes...
Ok. Throw things at me. Laugh at the ironic man behind the keyboard. Gut me alive and throw me to the fiery pits. But I would still answer yes.
Imagine you are the computer. I try to input a command on you. Having memorized only the handful basic commands that were present in the internal system of a DOS computer, I tried to to input A:\>xcopy h:\*.* /a /e /k. This would attempt to copy all files from the H drive to the A drive. But, you saw that when I booted up the system, I didn't load a DOS disk which would contain an xcopy command (note: this example is an example with a setting where there are still external and internal DOS commands). So, observing that, you the computer would definitely say Bad command or file name. But you were programmed! It wasn't decided by the you, computer.
See how following instructions can cause some trouble? Instead of using only one command to copy all of the files with a much simpler syntax, I would have to use the Copy command and a whole other bunch of syntaxes before I could copy all the crap from my drive H to my drive A just because I'm missing a disk and because you, the computer stands firm with protocol.
Now, I haven't seen the progress of the MS DOS computer in the country but when I got a computer back in high school, we were already running in Windows so I figured all of the DOS commands are now incorporated within, which, in all good fortune, my friend Mr. Gates, obliged to do so. So now, I can use the xcopy command to copy all of the files without using a disk.
Finally. A change of heart.
What I'm trying to point out is, while following instructions, walking the line of obedience, and dogging to commands (a bit extreme yeah, but you get what I mean) is all good, there are times when a decision need not protocols to pass judgment. When we are all ignorant of something, then someone tells us to do this so that we can get this, we stop for a moment and asks oursleves unconsciously if the commander is trustworthy. From here on, we decide. We contemplate on something within us then extract a substantive answer. Whether you answer yes or no, is up to you.
In the case of blackmailing, nobody can coerce you into doing something. When you get blackmailed, you aren't coerced. You just don't know it but you've made the decision even before the situation presented itself in front of you. Don't tell them you don;t have a choice. It's because you chose that things are happening and circling within your life. You don't say to a kidnapper who kidnapped you son yes and yes all the time without thinking. If ever all youn said is yes and agreed to all the terms and conditions of the kidnapper, then you are 101% sure of your decision. For you, there are no other choices because, no matter what, you will choose that one answer.
Rules are for fools as the saying goes; most popular to rebellious type of people. But they don't really see that inside them, they are playing life with a different kind of rule. A gangster who always disregards the law no matter what also has rules that they follow. Personal rules if I may say. They have established an unspoken rule that no matter what, I'm going to oppose the rules. And he follows that. He opposes the rules. Yet he abides by another rule. If he decides to turn to the police and lead a normal life, once again he violated the other rule.
Life's full of rules and regulations, commands, sometimes syntaxes that are meant to be broken and swayed from. Otherwise, we'd be like MS DOS computers waiting for my pal Mr. Gates to upgrade us so that we can decide if we are to use paper towel when we poo or to use a regular toilet paper.
Somebody's going to have to bend over the rules or else the rules are going to stay with the ruler. Why were French Curves and Flexible Curves invented by drafters? Because all things drawn by a ruler are edgy. Can you draw a question mark with a ruler? Then don't use a ruler or better yet just draw it without any...tool...
huh? what?
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