On the Justifiability of Laptops

St. Thomas of Aquinas says that an unjust law is no law at all, that no one is duty-bound to obey it. I’d like you to examine with me a new policy of my seminary. At 10 o’clock every evening, all philosophy students are to surrender their laptops to their respective moderators. Only from 7:45 in the morning can they be able to enjoy them once again. Apparently, the root cause for such an implementation is to be credited to the previous seniors, who, by staying late at night even up to the wee hours of the morning stumping letters on their keyboards to form words corrigible enough to complete their theses or God knows what else they do, are not able to attend liturgical celebrations. This certainly requires a specific sanction, but what happened? The slow formation team imposed what ought have been the former crammers’ sentence. Instead, we are made heirs to an evil we did not even expect to come. They have obviously tolerated their absences until graduation that the very task of forming them is reduced to rubles. Nakataga sa bato. Are you imbecile enough to forget that even stones perish? What would come of them? Deformed ex-seminarians.

And so such a policy has been in force for about a month now and has it changed the way philosophers regard liturgical celebration? Hell NO! Absenteeism is still gaining popularity. Late comers are in bloom. On a side note, I admit that I am a regular late comer myself. I take a bath in a God-forsaken comfort room, excuse me, where water is slow enough to climb up a four-floor, high-ceilinged building only God knows when it will trickle down on my water-hungry body. Notwithstanding that, atleast I do. Do they?

Here’s another problem that arises, what if after surrendering, a theologian comes knocking at your door borrowing it? OMG, they are allowed whole day of everyday, nose-to-nose with their laptops. But this poor fellow does not have one. So he comes regularly borrowing it. I would love to say no with emphasis but I do not. I always tell him to ask permission from the moderator. And that son of a bitch agrees. What else can I do? I am left with no choice but to lend. You do not reckon I would frankly say: Ah kuya, hindi pala puwede. Ayoko, kasi naiinggit ako. Isusurrender naming para hindi magstay late at night ‘tas ikaw mag-eenjoy ‘til you want? Unfair diba? Saying din. Binilhan ako for my use and ikaw magpapakasasa? I would love to see the horrified look on that poor pig’s face. Now tell me, just or unjust? God help us.