Figure 1 – The chains of human bondage. Kennebunkport, Maine. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I went this morning to post my blog.  Indeed, I was anxious to get it out since it had been a few days since my last post.  So I turned on my computer and guess what, Windows had forty-one thousand seven hundred and fifty updates to the operating system to install and perform. This is cyber-tyranny. Was I given any choice?  Was there any thought given to the fact that I might have something better to do with my time then wait for my computer to reboot. How many hours, both business and personal, are stolen in this way.

Well, stolen might be a strong word because I am pretty sure that when you install your operating system and are asked whether you accept the terms and conditions that buried somewhere in there is a statement where you relinquish all rights to ultimate control of your own cyber-life.  But I do reserve the right to object and moan about it.  Isn’t there a better and more gentle way. On day one your computer asks you to perform the update. On days two, three, and four it nags you, sounding increasingly like your mother. On day five it begs you to do the right thing, stressing the importance of the update, the impending danger if your don’t, and the compelling social correctness of the act. And finally on day six, again like a good mother, it finally guilts you into submission. You and your father are going to C-drive me to an early grave if you don’t install the updates.

You see there are better ways. I know that someone is going to suggest that I spend significantly more $ for a gray case with and apple on it. The significantly more money part is the tyranny of branding. This, in the end, is an entirely different story with shades of Orwellian mind control.

I am frustrated, but back on line now. I try to find contentment in the fact that the cyber world is a lot better than it was say ten years ago, when it was insanely difficult to do anything, especially to connect your computer with the internet, and when the blue screen of cyber death was oh so much more prevalent.  But, friends, I want to emphasize that 41,750 is a very large number. How did we get into this tyrannical mess in the first place. How did my computer, which I nurture daily, become so outdated that it needs so much updating. Protest! Computer users of the world unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains.