You need to be more agreeable guys and gals!
But seriously folks, that phrase irks me something horrible... No i do not NEED to do anything.
If you wish to make it a suggestion... I'll listen, tell me what I NEED to do, and you've just about killed all the credibility you have with me.
The agree to disagree, no, no problem there, I don't see it as an order that i have to disagree.. I just see it as an intellectually lazy person trying to get out of a good conversation... Which is fine by me, because if they use that line, they're not even listening anymore.
I will follow laws, if i have to, when i have to OR when I find them valid. And they are only valid if they are to prevent harm to another directly or indirectly. 90% or more of laws are not for that purpose... They are to control. I won't be controlled.
I think a lot of NT's do like being told what to do... For millennia people have let their fathers, priests, kings, etc tell them what they SHOULD/MUST do/think. It's in the normal person's genes to do what they're told, so that they don't have to think for themselves. Why should plain old run-of-the-mill folk like NT's be any different because they're "modern" than the peon who served a lord in 10th century BCE Rome?
The other issue, is that because our brains are wired differently, we see things in different order, we notice things others don't, and don't notice things that they do. That means that to perform a specific task, that the best way for us to do it, may very well NOT be the best way for another (NT or Aspie) to do it.
I went through childhood doing what i was told to do, because of my fear of controversy, and my much bigger fear of eternity in hell. That obedience bore a horrible cost upon me. Internal conflicts were constant, and I hated who I was, because who I was, was a lie... But "I needed to" do it!
The advice I got as a child for the most part didn't lead me to find the best ways for me to do things... That usually came not even by modification of what i was told to do... it came when i was alone, and out of prying eyes watching me to make sure I behaved, It was when i was able to think for myself how would be the best way to do something. When i figured out for myself what was the best way for me to do it. I always sought the "why" in things, then I work backwards from there. What I see of NT's is that they do things via "conventional wisdom". Are Aspies conventional? No! Then why would conventional wisdom work best for us? It doesn't!