a paperpin's lecture on the importance of system and organisation

"ever since paperpins had come into conception some 50 years ago, they had diversified greatly in form and function. such had their popularity maxed, that they were even picked up by the one hit wonder bill gates, one fundamental difference being that bill was a far inferior creature. not to say that the Human Being was an inferior race, it's just that paperpins associated simplicity with brilliance. Human Beings were too complicated and hadn't yet reached the oneness of mind and spirit, like the paperpins already had.

the paperpins were popular at the offices, but among people who called themselves slanted, nice-weird, loony and et cetera they were quite unpopular. paperpins were twisted and shouted at. they were called names - they were called the Commas in a Long Sentence. simply said, it meant that paperpins were like lots of Commas in a Long Sentence, like grammatical paperpins which never allowed a sentence to come to an end, making it more and more inexplicable and multilateral, holding compound meanings and contextual leanings together with a single, deftly-bent, snap-clasping inch of aluminium alloy.

however, paperpins had been created for an important reason - systematic organisation of paper. words, and the papers they were written on had to be neatly ordered and re-neatly re-ordered. paperwork would be lost without them. red-tape bureaucracy would become a carnival ribbon without them. paperpins effectively held entire nations together. could you imagine a world without paperpins?

Human Beings, however, have been known not to like discipline and order; some of them quite hate dealing with organisations which, for all practical purposes, exist on filing systems (paperpins being their basic elements). these organisations include banks, courts, schools, universities, public libraries and any sort of government-like offices, where Human Beings seem to be their most distressed, suppressed and harrassed selves.

to them, i have but one question: is life possible without system? is it possible to exist without structure, rules, foundations, regulations, stipulations? what would we be able to ever achieve without a formulated plan in life? filing systems form the core of organisation, the greatest mental ability of Human Beings, a concept so abstract it has yet to be mastered completely. we cannot, at any point in time, allow ourselves to simply.."

The so on and so forth continued for a long time that day. The paperpin was a brilliant speech-maker but became quite complicated and winding in its meanings, not quite unlike its physical structure. Its speech was given sparse applause, as predicted. But one thing remains quite unblemished, despite the paperpin's overtly preachy and quite boring speech - that a (long, burdensome, obsolete and frustrating) system is important, if only to create the purest of magic, escape, spirit and freedom within ourselves. Whenever we get the chance, it's the system we break free from, and we enjoy it, don't we?

(Picture Source)