Order, Please. Not

In my experience, most people do not like being told what to do. 

"Don't tell me. . .

• what to say
• what to do
• where to go
• when to do something
• I'll be punished if I don't . . . 
• who to vote for
• when to go to bed

and so forth. 

Yet, when all is said and done, most people want to be told what to think, what to say and how to say it, and how to vote. Most of us simply want to be told in a subtle way.

TV shows tell us how to dress, what phones to buy, how to relate to others, what to think, how to say snarky things, and what to avoid.  If it is couched in either comedy or drama, our eyes glaze over and we engage the "I submit" gear more often than not.

I think this offers another powerful reason to protect freedom of speech, to protect real diversity, and to protect as many individual freedoms as possible.  One TV station, one set of writers, one kind of music subtly telling us what to do and say and how to be would lead to even worse conformity than we have today.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.