The Authoritarian Personality.
via MacTimes
>Winsor Crosby wrote me regarding my No Civility Left in Computing piece, with a very interesting analogy. Rather than summarizing, read it in his words:
>>It has been a long time since going to school, but one of the more significant books I read was "The Authoritarian Personality" by Adorno in which the author did some social research in an attempt to explain the acquiescence of the German people to Hitler. What is interesting is that his research was done on Americans, perhaps to point out the relevence of his social research to more than the behavior of a single nation.
There are people who, to a greater or lesser degree, fear and worship authority. They identify with authority and do their bit to stamp out those who are perceived as weak, especially those targetted by the authority figure. Adorno presents a clear and logical analysis that demonstrates that much belief and behavior can be explained by this phenomenon, whether it is exterminating groups of people, burning witches, mounting campaigns to kill disco music, or as simple as voting for the political party which stands for the most institutional power(pro big military, big corporations, big morals) even when it is against one's best interests. Thus you have the phenomena of black women, or gay people attempting to participate in Republican politics, when they are essentially shut out.<<
I think when this is realized it becomes easier to understand why a billboard would be burned. It is not lawlessness that is condoned, it is the use of any means available to express your hatred of what is weak. This is the age of the corporation with advertising personalities. As long as Windows and PC are perceived as "powerful", challenges to their power will need to be defeated. Gates and MS do all the right stuff. They don't admit mistakes. They break the rules to get what they want. And their acolytes worship at the site for the construction of Bill Gates house.(Think of what kind of personality would do that? Are you interested in looking at site of Steve Jobs' house? I doubt it.) The less extreme ones push Macs out of the work place even though they are cheaper to maintain and use.
Actually Unix is getting a free ride. If Apple falls it will be the next target.<
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