Applelust.com: Skewed Mac

Skewed Mac

Are We Normal Yet?

The last week has shaken our normalcy. Let's hope it keeps us shaken, but allows us to appreciate our freedoms without wasting anyone else's time on this planet. That goes double for Mac sites.

Where did the smart anger go? I'd hate to think we lost it in the sea of "normalcy" we are all trying hard to swim in right now. I'd hate to think that in a matter of minutes cynicism died in exchange for anger and blind trust. I agree with much that this government has done and is trying to do now — but not all of it. And I don't have to. I in no way see the last week as a political white-out for those in office now. Bush had a press conference Monday that he stammered through like he was drunk... I'm calling it like I see it here... and we are to hand further control to the shadowy protectorate we were skeptical of days ago. Of course I think we will find those responsible. But we also found Richard Jewel. Of course I want justice. But I also want my freedom and privacy. Of course I love America, land of the free. But I wince at the America where a WASP tosses words and bullets at an Arab American, as if they both weren't transplants to this land. I have a distinct love and trust for leaders, and have had the pleasure of knowing many (both realized and yet-to-be). But I have a fear of puppets. We can only pray that the loved ones of those lost are avenged by the people that caught McVeigh, not Peltier.

While we were asked to go back to "business" by the Commander-In-Chief, I think most of us found it hard to do so. We teeter in our normalcy between trying to forget and trying to forge ahead, two very different tasks asked of one people. The bizarre community of the Internet provides strange solace; between the normal influx of commercial Spam is tucked the newly tailored mass emails, such as the photos of a crumbling WTC with the devil's head and Nostradamus' predictions remixed by Puffy Combs for public consumption. PowerPoint presentations of horror headlines fill up office servers while list-serves, message boards and social groups chatter and attempt to find electronic community. One of the least-religious generations asked to spend a weekend sport-less. For that matter, one of the least-greatest generations asked to swallow an event some say is greater in effect than Pearl Harbor. The least-greatest, most-pampered generations tackling what everyone is calling the worst terrorist action ever, some the worst event ever. Nobody compares it to Hiroshima. I'm not sure if they should. But we shouldn't isolate our comparisons. I'm angry right now because a group of human beings killed a lot of innocent people. Some people are angry because a group of Arabs had the gall to attack the greatest country in the world. We preach about freedom and immediately close our borders to the south. We don't understand why anyone would protest a museum exhibit on the Nuclear age, complete with the Enola Gay rebuilt; yet surely we'd be furious if a Terrorism Museum cropped up in an Arab country featuring celebrated replica's of the WTC jetliners. The video and reports of dancing in the streets in foreign lands enrages us, yet for many it is the first "world news" they've paid any attention to since Diana died. And when Jerry Fallwell gets a chance to speak into cameras he announces that it was the sin-loving gays, liberals and their ilk that brought about this horror, making God angry...he had an audience. While we were asked to go back to business as usual, I certainly hope we wont.

For many, the last week focuses their eyes so sharply that they see how insignificant many things are. How we fret over inconsequential things. How we aren't heroes. Blood Drives swell so big they can't handle all those that wish to donate. But if those donors really wanted to help, they'll come back two months from now, when we assume the patriotism will have waned (but pray it won't). And with our day jobs come the side jobs like this writing gig I attempt here at Applelust every now and then. Returning to this may be the "normal" thing to do but everything has changed. As if I needed to be any more jaded, the microscope has finally been turned on my own life. It was hard to "get away" at any point last week due to the volume of work that escalated in my day job, and free moments were mostly spent staring at the same videos of crashing planes and squinting when my eyes welled up. It was hard to read the book I've been reading for weeks and I've now considered not finishing it at all. I didn't want to listen to any music for days because nothing could match the mood. It all seemed like poor replacements for the bare wood floor I was walking now. Mac news carried on, but to be honest I didn't care. Getting worked up over The Register's G5 story didn't seem important to me. Not because I wasn't interested or the story wasn't any good, I just couldn't bring myself to swing my mind to the ledge. I was and am stuck. Reading a smattering of Mac headlines didn't help.

Apple cancels its Expo and because they waited until Monday to announce it, there were people that sneered at the decision. Had they said it last Wednesday, I figure we wouldn't have heard a peep. Apple did donate, which I think was good, and the iBook donation to the families of rescue personnel is a classy effort I think, and a hefty donation as well. Microsoft unloaded a large chuck of cash too, in fact, one of the largest, which was good and appropriate of them. The whole PC vs. Apple "war" does seem ridiculous, just like our site's honcho suggests. Yes, let's keep blowing our horn about the lack of LCD iMacs, Windows XP, whether the Apple Stores are a good idea and whether Steve really meant he wasn't going to intro new hardware at the Paris Expo (guess we know the answer to that now- did anyone at the rumor sites predict THIS?). Let's be critical but savvy and tempered with the notion that we actually write when we have something to say, not just to get hits, rehash other's already hashed articles, or hear ourselves talk (and that last one goes especially to me, too). Screw what anyone else says, just shut up and enjoy what we like, whether that be our PC or our Macs. As new badges go up for nonprofit reasons (always been nonprofit here and at my own site, SkewedPerspective.com) and articles begin to emerge again, we try to normalize. But even a scan of recent Apple events leads me to think of the last week, particular my still-fresh trip to MacWorld New York 2001: The Javits Center now a stronghold of volunteers organizing to help sift through building and human debris; the same streets I strolled now blocked off by barricades. My own originally scheduled trip for Maya Press Training was to put me in the air between Dulles and L.A. on the morning of Sept. 11, and while that consoles me not at all in dealing with the loss of innocents, it did alarm friends and family of mine. How in the hell do we normalize our position in the Mac world as readers and writers and those who don't just use Macs, but bother to study up and round them?

Or, more pointedly: What the hell do we do now?

For once, I'm not going to do the "normal" Dean thing and safely posit these flighty questions then close out with some clever analogy, never having answered a thing. I'm going to tell you what to do.

Get mad. Be as unhappy as your body feels it needs to be, and forget just pretending at work. No one in America that really cares about what just happened wants you to fake your way through this. We need you to express emotion. But express it, and when you are empty begin a study of yourself and your fears. Your likes, dislikes and worries as a simple citizen. Be happy someone other than you will have to look another human being in the eye, who is possibly guilty, and pull a trigger that fires a kill shot. Be sure to be thankful that there are people that will do that. These are people that will act on this country's behalf because they were asked, not because they felt the need to act out some perverse bigotry-inspired hatred. Question those that carry out your justice. The best doctor is one who causes you the least harm and bothers to humor all your dumb (and smart) questions. Our jobs matter, no matter how small, but it's understandable if we have a hard time getting into them. Most of the petty crap Mac related sites have been shoving about doesn't matter at all. Let your anger be focused where it matters. The same country that will succeed in this war on terrorism may be the same one that pisses us off in a hundred other ways. Uncle Sam has many faces, and it is not unpatriotic to point out the inconsistencies. In fact, it's safer. The people of this country are Uncle Sam's checks and balances. And right now, like any good team, we need to be angry and informed. In some ways we might appear like the least-greatest generation but the points haven't all been tallied yet. I'd argue that the generation that makes this country better by curing its ills and promoting its strengths will win the true greatest title. A generation is not marked by greatness merely because something great or burdensome happens to it. It is marked by greatness because it does great things regardless.

When our Applelust Tyrannical Overlord cracked the whip and demanded we get back to work, and double-time, I was at first peeved. After all, I normally only cranked out a small handful of Apple articles a month (yet write a weekly story on my own site). But that's just it. Nothing is normal anymore. We have absolutely no excuse for not using, breathing, squeezing life for every ounce — not because it might be taken away from us — but because we have been given a horrible, holy, uncompromising glimpse of what matters. Let us never forget that image when we close our eyes.

-Dean

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