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Either or
NMB, Florida December 20, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
EITHER OR, X OR O AND SEEING ALTERNATIVES
When I was a child I always hated the two choices offered me. They were not
expressed this way but they usually meant "My way, or the highway." Other
people had choices but I was expected not to introduce looking at whatever
it was waved in front of me from some other angle. I usually can figure out
simpler ways of doing things - for myself. Other people would rather I do
things the way they see them. It is very much like the simplistic computer
thing where the choice is either an X or an O.
I think that is why computers will never supplant humans. This is despite
the screen that greets me when I "boot up". I find that there are
"shortcuts" on the screen that tell the computer to skip the intervening
steps and go right to the program I need. It is like that with people,
except when I point out the shortcut that will make it easier and more
comprehensible for me, there is usually a condescending nod if the person is
not a relative and a "scene" if that person IS a relative.
Remember when you were told to count to ten before you responded to
something that made you mad? I was never able to do that. I explode and
then it is over for me. But, of course, it is not over for there is never a
simple yes or no or an X or O or an either or. Life is an endless succession
of choices but people are contrary. Computers do not work like life works.
I suppose that we humans never learn but continue to do what our cave
dwelling ancestors did over the eons. For uncounted generations they looked
down at the ground as they hunted food. Then someone pointed up and they
saw stars and the heavens and they began to speculate that there were other
ways of thinking about things. Of course, their elders told them to shut
up, sit down or go away.
I do not like to be told what to do unless I am in a new situation and then
I beg for directions. Most of the time the owner of the directions assumes
that they are immediately understood. It doesn't work that way. Sometimes I
think that all the X people want to be first when the O people would rather
be first. Funny - "or OR either" doesn't sound right either.
Carol's Evaluation: 9 out of 10.
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