Applelust.com: Editorials - America Unites. Will we?

Editorials @ Applelust

America Unites. But Will Mac and PC Users?

In light of last week's terrorists attacks, I have a challenge to the Mac Web and Mac users the world over — end the "Mac-PC wars" rhetoric now.

I have engaged in this rhetoric in the past. I will temper it in light of recent events. I challenge all Mac sites to do the same. And if Mac sites have nothing better to do than promote division when we need unity on all levels, if in following this advice it means they have nothing to say, then so be it. They need to find better things to do.

I am not saying that we should all have love fests in Redmond and ask forgiveness. No. But I will tell you this: I will be the first to light the the candle of any PC user at any rally for the victims. It simply does not matter anymore. Yes, we can talk and talk, but metaphorical talk of "Mac-PC Wars" must end now. The reality of such terms has been brought home to us — and I mean home to our very shores in Lower Manhattan. I am making no statements about the conflict or possible conflict itself; I am not making any political satmetamt the war or coming war. I am simply saying that now is a time for responsible dialogue and unity. Hell, if we can work with Tehran and Pakistan in getting bin Laden I can work with a PC user.

We have heard nothing over the last week other than the tragedy of last week has done nothing but unite us as a nation. One of the areas you hear this is in politics. Traditional camps of Democrats and Republicans are saying they stand together under the flag and behind the President. A mere week ago we heard talk of "blood in the water" for Bush as Democrats were readying for budget spending debates. Now, they hug one another in tears. They have come together. Can't we?

Another area I have heard this is in rhetoric about national identity. "We are a single nation" we are told. We are no longer divided by racial, religious, ethnic, and other conventional camps. African American firefighters helped white victims out of the disaster. In fact, black, white, brown and yellow all died in, and are helping out, with the World Trade Center collapse. People have come together for a larger purpose. This purpose transcends all dissilimilaries we may have. It has made them small, which they were all along anyway. People are unifying. Can't we?

When President Bush stood amidst the rubble of the WTC on Frida with his bullhorn, and the "hard hats" cheered in unity "USA! USA!..." I couldn't help but think, "These are union people, they probably did not vote for Bush." But you know what, it did not matter one iota at that point. At that point they — we — were Americans. Division had fallen.

Deep down we all knew that the debate between Mac and PC types was superficial. I don't mean all the debate, of course, There are issues we will all debate, and keep debating, and in healthy ways I think. But the point I wish to make is simple: America is united under tragedy, and any divisive language should be avoided and unused in light of real suffering. We need unity on a deep level right now, much deeper than any platform wars can tear down.

Unity means, in this case, a singleness of purpose, identity, and vision. The United States now has a unity of purpose — to seek rebuild what has been destroyed, to care for those with loss, and to seek out those (bin Laden obviously) who did it and bring them to their knees. (And make no mistake, that is just what we will do.)

We have a unity of identity too, as I just spoke about. We now see ourselves as a single person, a Nation, not scattered individuals. When those planes smashed into the WTC they did not just strike at New York or Washington, but at us, all of us. We were all hurt, we were all numbed, we are all injured. Those hijackers smashed into our optimism, into our hopes, into our dreams, and I mean all of ours. There was no "them" just an "us." They smashed into me, and you. And this has created, or rather, more to the point, revealed our single identity.

And vision? Yes, we have a single vision which the President is trying to communicate, and we are all trying to see. In language not unlike that of Churchill in WWII, we are hearing talk of "evil" and "evil-doers." Indeed, we had a localized enemy at that time, but it was much a war against ideas (fascism, anti-Semitism, Nazism) as much as against localized states. Today, in this "new kind of war" it is just as much against ideas, loosely "terrorism," though the states are harder to pinpoint. Well, not that hard actually, and in fact very easy - Afghanistan, Yemen, and others. In other words, the similarity of language, even in light of a dissimilarity of location, betrays a similarity in vision - to stop evil in its tracks.

So, it doesn't take much to see that promoting a more unified tone between Mac and PC users is very little to ask of us. It is very little to ask of us because the true unity of purpose, identity and vision which horror has revealed outweighs anything we dare "fight" for. No one will lose his life, his son or father, in the Mac-PC "war." The "battles" between Mac and PC users will never, never, come to the level of what we are about to see unleashed on the world. And so it is time to stop the war-like rhetoric - now.

I was horrified to see an editor at another Mac site actually use this occasion to take a stab at Microsoft. It has to do with their decision to take the WTC towers out of their flight simulators, and one Mac editor actually had the guts to say this was a publicity move. What? I don't know why exactly Microsoft did that (and neither does that editor in all truth). But I do know that taking this tragedy, and any of Microsoft's efforts in light of it, as an excuse to promote division in a petty platform war when this country needs to come together is nothing short of irresponsible and entirely uncalled for. I thank God Bill Gates gave $10 million to help. Is Microsoft an "evil" empire? Not after 9-11-01. We have looked at evil face-to-face this week; we have seen the logical outcome of hate. And the "evil," if there is any, that we accuse Microsoft of doing pales in comparison. And the language of division promotes hate, and we've seen the power of hate. Love might move mountains, but hate can topple buildings and lives (and nations).

Is there a Mac-PC "war"? There shouldn't be, not after 9-11-01. Loose war-like talk in defending or celebrating the Mac has no place in this new world, where finally the true meaning of such war-like terms has been shown to us in all its horror. These were not special effects of planes crashing into the WTC; this event is not a Tom Clancy novel; this event was not a computer game; it is not (yet) something only found in a history text. It is at our door, and knocking, demanding to be let in. More than likely, a spoiled generation such as ourselves, a generation which has not seen war and terror on the magnitude that our fathers and grandfathers did in Pearl Harbor, Normandy, and Viet Nam, now hopefully understand the true meaning and connotations such terms imply. And what is implied reaches so far off the compass of moral standards that to use such terms about a platform merely shows a writer's lack of historical awareness, lack of sensitivity to true suffering and agony, and wayward priorities. It has to stop now.

Instead of "war" or "fight" use "debate." Examples could be multiplied here. But hostile language must stop. It's irresponsible in ways it wasn't before. It's offensive in ways it wasn't before. It's now in bad taste. We are in an explosive (literally and figuratively) climate right now where even talk of nuclear weapons is being discussed. we must be careful that we do npt assimilate it and use for purposes which issue in absurd discourse.

This needs to be a time of unity and unifying. Mac web sites can help by toning down the rhetoric and actually working with others, others that own PCs (god forbid!!). We can report on the anti-trust trial, point out how much better the Mac is, praise OS X as heaven on earth, but we ought not to do it in such a way that we use language which, while perhaps meaningful and even humorous a week ago, has become nothing short of absurd and idiotic after 9-11-01.

David Schultz

What do you think? Hash it in our forums...

MacBook Pro (5-17-06) Dr. Neale Monks. A subjective review of the MacBook Pro
Freeway 4 Pro (2-28-06) Dr. Neale Monks. Freeway Pro, the Quark-like web design program from Softpress, has been substantially revised and sports a bright new look. But do the changes go more than skin deep? Neale Monks finds out.
Astrostack (1-18-06) Dr. Neale Monks. Long respected as one best astronomical image processing applications about, in its newest incarnation AstroStack now runs on the Macintosh. Has the wait been worthwhile?
Virtual PC 7 (11-23-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Virtual PC 7 is the update to the venerable Windows emulator to be entirely all Microsoft’s own work. Can Mac users expect to see any dramatic changes?
Eudora Pro 6.2 (8-5-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Eudora has been one of the most popular e-mail clients for the Macintosh for more than a decade. Neale Monks finds out how it compares with the Mail application that comes with OS X
MacAstronomica (4-22-05) Dr. Neale Monks. How does this amateur naked eye astronomy software stack up?
iKey 2.0 (3-11-05) Jeremy Young. How well does this automation utility work? How much time will you save?
Wolfram Research Publicon (3-11-05) Jeff Terry Does this new scientific word processor live up to the potential?
Microsoft Office 2004, Part 3, Word (1-28-05) Dr. Neale Monks. Are there enough new features to necessitate a jump from v.X?
REALbasic 5.5 (12-03-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Neale takes a look at the latest version of this programming package.
Office 2004, Part 2, Excel and Entourage (11-05-04) Dr. Neale Monks. In the second part of his review of Office 2004, Neale Monks looks at Excel and Entourage.
Phone Valet 2.0 (11-05-04) Pat St-Arnaud. The best question to ask might be "Is there anything that you can't do with this telephone/Mac integration tool?"
TiPaint Touch-up Kit and iKlear iPod Cleaning Kit (10-29-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Is it possible to restore the shiny good looks of iPods and PowerBooks even after years of use? Neale Monks looks at two cleaning products designed especially for Apple hardware.
Microsoft Office 2004, Part 1, PowerPoint (10-15-04) Dr. Neale Monks. In the first part of his review of Office 2004, Neale Monks looks at PowerPoint, for many people still the benchmark for presentation software.
ScrapX (9-17-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Aqueous Software's ScrapX brings the Scrapbook to OS X
CDFinder (8-20-04) Dr. Neale Monks. Finding what you want from among a stack of similar looking CDs can be a hassle, but help is at hand. Neale Monks looks at CDFinder, a budget-priced but powerful cataloguing tool.
Endnote 7 (8-13-04) Dr. Markus Geisen. EndNote 7 is a literature database that seamlessly interacts with your word processor. Is the latest version worth the upgrade?