67/366 – Cult of Mac!

March 7, 2012 – Today was an Apple Event Day. Always highly secretive, and there is always huge speculation about what will be released when an event is called. No major surprises today, the new Apple TV and the new iPad were launched.

Is Apple/Mac really a cult?

A quick search finds that a cult does not have to be religious, but it does imply some form of coercive persuasion that involves some key steps:

– People are put in physical or emotionally distressing situations
– Their problems are reduced to one simple explanation, which is repeatedly emphasized
– They receive what seems to be specific teachings and unconditional love, acceptance, and attention from a charismatic leader/group
– They get a new identity based on the group

Well, people on PCs are put into emotionally distressing situations everyday, but Macs never do that. People’s problems can certainly arise from Microsoft, but rarely from a Mac. Macs take anyone from a terrible experience and wrap them in logic and ease, and they are now identified as “Mac people”.

Soooo, maybe….but they only meet two of the four criteria. Rather I’d say that Mac people are more like reformed smokers. Most of us are converts who have survived PCs and then realized there was an alternative to having the life sucked out of us, that we could own a machine that didn’t require constant upgrades and actually “worked” to a degree that doesn’t make us long for a new machine or curse the one we have within two or three years of ownership.

No, not a cult, just a nutty contingent of people who have made a computer company the hottest stock on the market  right now. If “only” we’d bought in 2008 when it was $79 a share….who knew?!?!

I do however know of other groups/organizations that I would say are close to being cults, Amway comes to mind, so do some other groups/organizations/”professions”.

But Mac people are just obsessed with simplicity, and that’s hardly a cult, even if we are annoying.

(Saw someone else do this sort of shot and it stayed in the back of my mind, figured today was a good opportunity, all things considered)