The Weekly Attitudinal: Cultivating Pure Thoughts

Is There Really a Cult of Macintosh?

Reprinted from MWJ 1998.07.27

Like others on the extended MWJ Staff, the Attitudinal is anxiously awaiting the release of the expanded and updated Age Of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion. But when the staff was done using our library copy of this slender volume to analyze Steve Jobs's Macworld Exposition keynote speech (MWJ 1998.06.13), the Attitudinal glommed onto the book for further insights into the ways that people are persuaded, rather than informed.

Think about it. Everywhere you look, there's another one-sided message beaming its way into your brain or trying to - in an attempt to make you believe what the communicator wants, whether that's the suitability of a political candidate, the desirability of a certain carbonated beverage, or the imminent threat of persuasive communications (warning: circular reference). Even the daily newspaper in these parts, which shall remain nameless, recently told the respected American Journalism Review that they're more interested in making Oklahoma a bastion of conservative thought than in reporting the news. That's great, if you want someone else to make up your mind for you. If you prefer individual thought, these are trying times.

When you hear people talking about persuasion and Apple Computer in the same sentence, the topic is often one of alleged cult-like behavior, generally on your part. Mainstream press coverage of Macintosh customers rarely excludes words like "loyal," "committed," "adamant," or even "zealous." The impression, which the Attitudinal has railed against where possible, is that Macintosh owners are cult-like zombies who stick with their Macintosh computers despite every reasonable and rational argument to the contrary. The rest of the world has standardized on Windows, so those Mac people must be under some kind of brain cloud, right?

The Attitudinal won't dignify that rhetorical question with an answer. However, Age Of Propaganda gives us the opportunity to explore a more useful question. In chapter 35 of the original edition, authors Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson show you How to become a Cult Leader. Tongue-in-cheek all the way (the best attitude to have), the authors describe seven "proven-effective" tactics for persuading people to follow your program, no matter how bizarre and nonsensical it may become (like drinking poisoned Kool-Aid in Guyana or marrying someone you d never met before the ceremony started).

With such guidelines handy, the Attitudinal can't resist exploring the issue: is there a "Cult of Macintosh?" Is there any credible evidence that large numbers of Mac OS users believe in the superiority of their platform because they've fallen prey to messages instead of facts? Do they justify their behavior based on criteria that would crumble if exposed to logical scrutiny?

Probably not - although you might know people who do, at least in part. See if you recognize yourself as subject to any of these tactics.

Create Your Own Social Reality

People form the contexts for their lives by processing the information they take in each day - interaction with others, news from various sources, thoughts gleaned from books or weekly journals, and so on. A cult doesn't want any recruits exposed to any ideas that would undermine the cult's message, so cults cut off the flow of outside information. As Pratkanis and Aronson say, "Such censorship can be physical, that is, forcibly excluding outsiders and physically restraining wayward members. However, it is much more practical to teach members self-censorship by labeling everything that is not 'of the cult' as 'of the devil.' "

There's little evidence to suggest that Apple, or any Macintosh group, is overtly trying to keep Mac OS users from obtaining information outside of the Macintosh community. However, even in these pages, criticism of mainstream press (especially articles critical of Apple) is abundant, and Mac OS users seem to gradually take for granted that non-Mac-oriented press coverage of Apple Computer is incomplete at best and slanted at worst.

This can certainly be the case. A common tactic in persuasion is dissonance reduction - the concept that people will continue down a nonsensical path they've already started rather than admit they made a mistake, back up, and go a different direction. Some call it "self-justification," but you know the story - you make a complicated dinner that tastes awful, but you eat it anyway because you already spent so much time on it. Or you spend US$9 to see a new movie that turns out to be awful, but you stay to the end rather than walk out and forfeit your commitment of US$9. Newspaper reporters who have committed themselves, and their readers, to the concept that Apple Computer is dying (or cant survive without a merger) will find it easier to continue pursuing that story rather than to back up and admit it might have been overblown. If that s happened, then coverage from those sources may not tell the whole story, as the reporters attempt to persuade you - and themselves - that they were originally right. (Remember Stewart Alsop seeing most of his predictions fall flat yet still claim that he was right all along, MWJ 1998.06.08?)

However, as Mac OS users realize this, they must be careful not to make the same mistake in reverse, believing that only Mac-oriented coverage is factual and that all other media sources are out to get Apple, or "of the devil" in cult lingo. The mainstream press (hopefully) has a perspective larger than that of just Apple Computer - all of the reporters from major media outlets who cover Apple and all of the financial analysts who cover Apple also report on other companies, usually other high-tech firms. Just this week, the Wall Street Journal (of all places) broke the story that the US Department of Justice is investigating Microsoft for allegedly trying to get Apple not to enter the consumer multimedia market, a story that Mac-only magazines would likely not have the resources or expertise to have uncovered (and in this claim, the Attitudinal is speaking of the Mac experts on staff, not of the entire staffs of parent companies like MacWEEK's Ziff-Davis and IDG Communications).

Persuaders often use heuristics, or simplified pictures that lead to easy if not necessarily accurate categorizing of information in our minds. For example, in the high-tech world, "fast" is a heuristic for "better" (who wants a slower computer?), and "more RAM" is a heuristic for "faster," which leads to "better." Heuristics let us process our way through a message-dense atmosphere more quickly than if we have to actually evaluate all the messages were receiving. Cult behavior would file Mac-oriented press as "good" and non-Mac oriented press as "bad," using those heuristics to get you to quickly ignore information except from anointed sources. Don't fall for that.

The Attitudinal doesn't like to pick on Mac-oriented coverage because it seems like such bad sportsmanship for a feature in this journal to attack articles in publications that directly compete with MWJ. It smells faintly like the odor of negative political advertising, and the Attitudinal wants to be above that, even though there is such a thing as bad Mac-oriented coverage (even misleading stuff). One periodical that recently crossed the Attitudinal's desk blasted the major Mac OS magazines for informing readers of facts instead of trying to persuade newsstand browsers that Mac OS machines beat the crap out of Wintel computers. Another periodical purportedly features 101 "all-new" Mac OS tips, and the #2 tip on this list of newly-revealed secrets is "press option-space to get a space that won't allow word-wrapping," something that's been part of Macintosh documentation and lore since the Big Hammer Thrown By Woman hit Nerd On Big Screen. (The #1 tip was to download and install a printer driver for a printer you don't have to get a "print preview" function in all programs, a really good idea if your printer happens to have exactly the same imageable area as the printer this driver is supposed to control. If yours is different, and it probably is, then the preview will have subtle problems from line length to page size, giving you a stilted idea of your document's eventual paper appearance.)

If you want to be informed, you have to challenge and process every message that has importance for your situation, even the Attitudinal (especially the Attitudinal!). The quicker you are to ignore potentially harmful information from non-Macintosh sources, the more surprised you may be if they turn out to be true when you used a faulty heuristic or dissonance reduction to push it out of your way. You may still reject the message after thinking about it, but at least do the thinking.

Create a Granfalloon

Insert your own pun here, and then well continue.

The word granfalloon was defined by Kurt Vonnegut in his Cat's Cradle of 1963 as a proud yet meaningless association of human beings. Granfalloons group people together under the flimsiest of pretenses, and then ask the members to behave in ways that enhance the stature of the group. Pratkanis and Aronson quote studies showing that random subjects assigned to groups of people based on totally meaningless criteria consistently rated people in their group as more pleasant than equally total strangers randomly assigned to the other group.

Granfalloons in cults point out that the members of the cult are the "chosen," the "redeemed," the "saved," and that other people (the "out-group") are unchosen, unredeemed, or damned. This opens the door to behavior modification, pointing out that if you want to be part of the "in-group," you'd better start acting like one of them.

To achieve cult-like granfalloons for Macintosh users, the cult leaders (ostensibly Apple Computer) would need to be constantly reinforcing the message that Mac owners act like Mac owners - they purchase certain products, they read certain periodicals, and so forth. Apple Computer does do this, but only in a way the Attitudinal considers mostly harmless - they sell non-computer items with the Apple logo or other Mac-related icons or themes. The Apple Company Store (1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014) has a wide selection of T-shirts, watches, note pads, leather briefcases, mugs, hot plates, pooper scoopers, and electric deodorant applicators with the familiar bite-missing icon (note that the Attitudinal made some of those up; please don't write for pricing and availability); some products are also available online. Apple has in the past given away free "Apple" mouse pads to those who register their computers, and a set of Apple-logo stickers still comes with every new computer, in the hopes that you'll prominently display them to identify yourself as one of the Enlightened.

But to Apple's credit, this is about as far as they go (with a major exception noted below), and lots of businesses do this (it's quite difficult, for example, to find baseball caps that don't advertise a commercial concern). On the other hand, Apple doesn't need to do much to encourage a Macintosh granfalloon. The EvangeList is constantly full of people reminding each other that the Macintosh was and is the right choice, and Mac-oriented publications such as this one regularly poke fun at Wintel users who "weren't smart enough" to figure out what the Mac folks knew a long time ago. A strong presence in the "Mac is for winners" camp may lead people to more actively persuade others to join the granfalloon, a technique discussed more fully later on.

If you're concerned that a granfalloon is affecting you, the best thing to do is be aware of it. If you feel proud because you're a Macintosh owner - or ashamed when you hear of Wintel technology not available on the Macintosh - think about whether those feelings are based on your technology decisions or because your group pride has been stroked or insulted. Don t accept arguments that are primarily aimed at the granfalloon - for example, companies that say they deserve your support because they made a Macintosh product (or a Mac-only product), without any discussion as to the merits or usefulness of that product. A granfalloon member might purchase software or hardware of dubious quality simply because the company asked for support from "fellow Mac lovers." Someone resistant to persuasion would evaluate the product on its capabilities and features.

Even if this doesn't apply to you, don't underestimate the power and seductive nature of a granfalloon. There's something awfully persuasive about linking people like Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Jim Henson and Muhammad Ali all in one category - "Think Different" - and subtly implying that those who use Apple products are part of that same group. The "Think Different" ads place some of the world's most beloved figures squarely inside the Macintosh granfalloon, and it's no wonder that Windows users and pundits have reacted so negatively to the campaign - the ad figures are so respected that all people want to be in the same group as some of the celebrities, and those who view the Macintosh as the "out-group" instead of the "in-group" resent the drawing of granfalloon membership lines to place those figures in the "enemy"camp. Apples creation of the "Think Different" granfalloon places creative and talented people in the Mac-using group; if your purchase decisions are even slightly related to your feelings for those people in the ads, you ve been slightly persuaded. Remember to back up your choices with rational arguments to avoid being overly affected.

Create Commitment Through Dissonance Reduction

The self-protection tactic of maintaining a bad choice rather than feeling stupid about having wasted resources doesn't just apply to newspaper reporters. Cults use dissonance reduction to great effect. A persuasive leader may start small, by asking for donations of money or time. The pitch builds from there, asking you to donate even more time and money, and eventually to join the cult in an immersive state.

With a computer, the initial commitment is much greater. Even with today's lower PC prices, a purchase of a new name-brand system that includes CPU, monitor, printer, and a couple of software titles will set you back at least US$1500. Over the years, you ll invest more and more money into your system through software, peripherals, books, training, supplies, and production of your own materials (documents, movies, graphics, or whatever else you use your computer to do).

When its time to purchase a new system - and that time always comes, eventually - dissonance reduction can be a strong factor. If Apple were deliberately engaging in cult-like persuasion, marketing tactics for the Macintosh might include direct appeals to "build on previous investments" or "stick with what you know," or those kinds of messages. Instead, most of Apple's marketing seems to be aimed at the "Think Different" granfalloon or at using the "fast" heuristic to convince people of the superiority of PowerPC G3-based products. Apple has promised advertisements on other themes, such as simplicity and productivity, but the Attitudinal has yet to see them.

Self-persuasion, however, is recognized by researchers as one of the most potent forms of persuasion. Those who are asked to come up with ways to persuade other people of a given position are far more likely to adopt that position themselves than are people who are simply presented with the desired position's merits, report Pratkanis and Aronson. Apple doesn't need to deliberately provoke dissonance reduction if you'll do it yourself, and the Attitudinal would venture that a fair number of computer owners of all kinds do just that. "Well, the other system might be better for my current needs, but I'd have to purchase some new software, and I wouldn't have as many games, and I'd have to move all my documents over. I've got so much wrapped up in this platform I might as well stick with it."

Sometimes those decisions are based on economics, and there's nothing wrong with that. But if you know that a Wintel platform truly meets your needs better than any current Macintosh offering, don't talk yourself out of it just because you've "always been a Mac user."

In some cases, you could claim Apple is actually working to reduce dissonance reduction, a decidedly non-cult-inducing behavior. Apple could easily have produced dissonance by refusing to build products that played well with others - that way, if you had a Macintosh, it would have been strongly dissonant to switch to other platforms (or even to add other platforms to your existing office or home) because they wouldn't work well together, and you'd feel "better" about your Macintosh by staying an all-Mac shop. But instead of doing that, Apple has worked hard to make the Macintosh an effective player in multi-platform shops, making the computer more useful in dominantly-Windows situations but also reducing the dissonance of adding Wintel computers to a previously all-Mac installation. Of course, it also reduces the dissonance of adding Macs to a Wintel shop, but the Attitudinal will get to that later.

Establish the Leader's Credibility and Attractiveness

Every cult has a leader, and cult members need to view him (there are few female cult leaders for some reason) as someone blessed by God (or the universe, or Bill Gates) as The One who can bring peace and calm to a chaotic world. Some cults propagate stories about their leaders comparing the birth of the leader to the birth of Christ, because the parallels (if accepted) point to divine origin in the leaders presence on earth. Anyone with any sense would want to identify with a holy person, and try to be more like him or her.

There's an obvious parallel here to Steve Jobs, but its an awfully weak one, even in the Attitudinal's jaded view. While Jobs's ego is apparently slightly smaller than Montana, he still seems to be avoiding the spotlight at Apple, doing what he needs to do but staying out of the grasp of reporters at just about every turn. Perhaps that's because writers busy looking for an exciting scoop boosted Jobs to the heights of hype before 1985 and reduced his cultural status to "cow patty" after NeXT didn't take over the world. Any reasonable human being who's been through the media grinder knows to avoid it where possible. The idiots who don't are either celebrities, or politicians, or (in the most extreme cases) both.

In his recent speeches, Jobs has indeed taken credit for initiatives at Apple that predated him, and shows every sign of continuing to do so, but that's more of a sign of a big ego than of any attempt to place himself at the top of a cult hierarchy. The Attitudinal finds it more interesting that there are cults that exist after their leaders have gone on, and exercising its First Amendment rights, points out that Scientology may be one of those. Founder and science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard died several years ago, but his teachings (or, to detractors, his bad science fiction) continue to form the basis for Scientology beliefs and actions.

If there is a Cult of Macintosh, the leader is the Macintosh itself. Mac users, trying to convince others to join the group, will repeatedly emphasize that the Macintosh is not only a real computer, but that it embodied the popular concepts of Windows eight to ten years earlier. They emphasize the desirability of the Macintosh over Windows machines, using Jobs-like terms such as "elegant" or "sexy." And they routinely combat the media for displaying any other portrait of the Mac, regardless of the presence or absence of facts in such reports. While its regrettable that journalists choose to use the excuse "they're a bunch of Mac fanatics" as a reason to ignore thousands of complaints about inaccurate coverage, it's just as true (and just as regrettable) that some of those complaints are personally insulting to authors, and have at times included death threats. Lets face it, folks - anyone who sends a death threat over misinformation about their brand of computer needs some serious reevaluations of life priorities.

Does Apple encourage this behavior? Only indirectly, through means like the EvangeList (which has toned down some in the past couple of years) and through videos like the one at Macworld Expo in New York showing how much faster and easier it was to set up the iMac compared to a similarly-priced Hewlett-Packard consumer system. Again, however, that's just savvy marketing. Any company would want to figure out what qualities of their product were valued by customers and emphasize those qualities in marketing materials such as ads and videos.

If you, or someone you know, feels threatened when someone attacks the Macintosh in the media, it could be a sign that you're affected more by persuasion in this area than in the facts. It's true that anyone's going to feel threatened when their intelligence is questioned, as in statements like "no intelligent person would buy a Macintosh today," but there's a level of maturity that moves such statements into the "untrue" section of your mind and not into the "threat" section. It may be the best computer for every task you do, and one that fits your personality like a glove, but it's still just a computer.

Send Members Out to Proselytize the Unredeemed

Pratkanis and Aronson offer only one paragraph in explanation of this tactic, reprinted below:

Witnessing to the unconverted has the obvious advantage of bringing in new members. Perhaps just as important, proselytizing can ensure that members are constantly engaged in self-sell, or self-generated persuasion. The act of witnessing requires the member to state anew to many different people the positive advantages of being in a cult. In arguing to convince others, members convince themselves. Evangelical activity also strengthens resolve. Each witness is likely to elicit many negative responses or an attack on the cult. In defending their beliefs, cult members learn to refute a wide range of attacks, thus inculcating themselves against counterarguments and thereby maintaining belief in the cult.

This might be too close for comfort for some people.

Again, the Attitudinal can let Apple slide a little bit, because the company has no organized efforts to get members to evangelize the product. Also again, though, the company doesn't need to organize efforts when the users are happy to do it on their own. The Apple programs most directly related to such tasks are the EvangeList, which has done a pretty good job of hooking people up to pro-Macintosh information, and Mac user groups. Apple has all but ignored user groups until recently, reducing support for them within the company and shoving responsibility for them around to various locations. It's starting to get better, we hear, but still has a long way to go. If Apple were attempting to build a cult here, they've missed some golden opportunities - but that could just mean they're incompetent cult leaders, another unpleasant thought if a somewhat amusing one.

Windows users sometimes make valid points in criticism of the Macintosh. For example, there is more software available for Windows, and the computer prices are cheaper for initial setup. Macintosh users correctly point out that Windows still is not as easy to use as the Macintosh (though that's obviously a matter of opinion), and that the best-selling Windows programs are often applications that originated and were refined on the Macintosh. If you've made it your task to convince other people that the Macintosh is the way to go in computing, you're undoubtedly affected by some of this. You may find yourself rejecting valid strengths of Wintel machines because you're out to persuade yourself that you made the correct choice (either in purchasing a Mac or sticking with the platform), or to make the Macintosh community stronger by adding more converts.

There is some enlightened self-interest in such positions, but keep it in mind while you make your arguments. Many Macintosh users were really shocked a couple of years ago when they found it difficult to honestly recommend the Macintosh to new users, maybe for the first time ever. If you remember some of the reports from people affected, you may remember the heartfelt sense of confusion and despair in realizing that evangelizing the Macintosh might require exaggerating the perceived health of the platform, a leap some were unwilling to make. People left the Macintosh platform in these times, or stopped recommending it while sticking with it for their own use; some hunkered down and became even more zealous in pursuit of the cause.

From where the Attitudinal sits, it can see no concerted effort on Apple's part to distort anything, or to present evangelistic-style information not backed up by at least some facts or studies. Cults are usually marked by insistence on non-factual doctrine, and Apple has neither required such beliefs from purchasers nor strongly encouraged them in those who self-identify as Macintosh lovers. They haven't done much to discourage them, either.

Sometimes people recommend the Macintosh to friends or family because they know they'll be called upon to help with the new computer and need something familiar. Other times, recommending the platform boils down to wanting to work more easily with the new systems your colleagues will purchase. And sometimes, quite frankly, you're recommending the Mac to people who would have a ton of difficulty with the arcane heritage and history of Windows systems. But if you wind up recommending the Macintosh to someone without being able to list a single good reason why the Macintosh is better than Wintel platforms for them, it's time to evaluate your perspective. Enough said.

Distract Members From Thinking "Undesirable" Thoughts

Here's where you really get into cult-like behavior. Advertisers have an old slogan that Pratkanis and Aronson quote: "If you don't have anything to say, sing it!" In other words, take the attention off the message by couching it in ways that discourage direct challenges. Cult members who are required to chant or sing have difficulty focusing on matters other than the song, especially if it's a new song or chant. Stories of recruits who are not left alone or allowed food or rest for days on end are common, weakening the person's defenses against illogical messages.

While related to controlling the flow of information mentioned earlier, these kinds of distractions are almost completely against the technologic culture of the Internet with which products like the iMac are designed to dovetail. Apple has provided some services for new users, like the now-defunct Apple Personalized Internet Launcher, but those have been conveniences, not ways of keeping people from hearing a Wintel message.

The Attitudinal can see signs of cult-like behavior in some of the other tactics, but it can't really fault Apple or the Macintosh community for this - there just aren't signs this kind of distraction is going on. Apple does a good job of directing your thoughts how they want in marketing messages (for example, getting you to focus on the design and speed of the iMac instead of on the cost compared to other bargain-basement PCs), but they sometimes don't even do that as well as other businesses (like Microsoft). Either the Attitudinal is so persuaded by this that it can't see the trees for the forest, or ther'es nothing to worry about here. Some ways of keeping "undesirable" thoughts away include classifying all disagreeing messages as "from the devil," something the Attitudinal addressed earlier, but otherwise you can probably feel safe about this.

Fixate Members' Vision on a Phantom

In propaganda terms, a phantom is a choice or goal that doesn't really exist, offered solely for the purpose of influencing the appearance of other choices. For example, if Apple announced a 500MHz Power Macintosh G3 computer but said it would not be available until further notice, studies show that those aware of the phantom choice would suddenly rate the speed of existing models as the most important criteria. A phantom makes existing choices seem less desirable in the areas where the phantom choice excels.

Cults use phantoms to great effect when they're goals for the ultimate reality. A cult leader promises that if his instructions are obeyed, that world peace will ensue, or that all conflict will end, or that God will come to rule the earth with perfect judgment and fairness (and, not surprisingly, the cult members will rule with him). No matter how bad things get, the cult members see the phantom as so perfect that its worth suffering for - and no matter how good things get, the members realize they still have a long way to go. Some of these concepts are common to more accepted religions, but cults use phantoms so comprehensively that members can be afraid of taking a break lest they lose their chance at the ultimate goal (one study reports that members of a specified cult work at the cult's business an average of 67 hours per week, a level of commitment most computer users put only into surfing the Net).

To a certain degree, all computer users fixate on a phantom - namely, the Star Trek-like dream of a day when any information is instantly available without concern for the logistics of obtaining it ("Computer, analyze all stock price trends for high technology business in situations similar to Apple Computers and forecast likely outcomes for the next six months with 95% certainty"). Other than this, the Attitudinal detects no serious Macintosh phantoms that distract users from an unpleasant or illogical reality. Occasionally, one of these pops up in the community like rumors of a PowerPC chip with built-in Intel emulator that would perfectly run all PC software as well as all Macintosh software, or the rumored "killer application " that will make the choice of Macintosh perfectly obvious to everyone "again."

As much fun as it is to speculate on Apple's nefarious motives, the evidence of a phantom to back it up simply isn't there. Computer companies tend to avoid phantoms like the plague - they all remember the story of Osborne Computer [not Kaypro, a mistake in the original MWJ article], which announced the specifications on its new machine about a year before it was ready to ship. Orders for the existing model dried up as everyone waited for the new one; Osborne's cash flow went through the floor, and the company didn't survive. Computer companies, including Apple, tend to be pretty reasonable about setting expectations after that disaster.

The Cult of Wintel?

The Attitudinal therefore finds no signs of cult-like behavior in two of the seven areas, hints that the community might be creating it for itself in another three, and signs of cult-like leadership in two other areas but with no evidence that it's anything other than good business sense. The grounds for a Cult of Macintosh might be there, but Apple certainly isn't perpetuating it - only the members are.

Wintel users are unlikely to believe that, of course, but is there some persuasion going on there? What happens if we apply the same seven standards to the "other side" of the platform war? You might be surprised to see that persuasion comes in all forms.

Create Your Own Social Reality

Wintel people similarly don't cut themselves off from all information, but the Attitudinal has noticed that Macintosh coverage in PC-oriented publications tends to be oversimplified, misleading, inaccurate, or all of the above. The Macintosh has a different dynamic than the Wintel PC, and some reporters simply haven't bothered to figure it out - there's some kind of implicit assumption that anything other than the Wintel choice is somehow flawed. After all, if everyone uses Wintel, can it be all that bad?

In the creation of this social reality, logic flies out the window, as it does with any good cult. Someone employed as a professional, whose time is worth something like US$50 an hour, will think nothing of spending six hours fiddling with some addition to a Wintel computer, trying to make it work, but would totally balk at spending US$70 extra for a Macintosh computer that makes the six-hour task unnecessary. Total cost is ignored in favor of immediate cost; long-range planning suffers to the Cult of Now. Once the Wintel system is purchased, time spent making it work isn't tallied, because that's just necessary to reduce the dissonance of a potentially-bad decision ("I already committed to this thing, and now I'll make it work!"). And they say the Mac folks are cultish.

Create A Granfalloon

Wintel users don't identify as a community as strongly as Macintosh users do, for sure, but that doesn't mean granfalloons don't exist. In fact, the Attitudinal would argue that there's a highly persuasive granfalloon operating in the Wintel world, and its called "standardization."

PC users often think that all PCs are more or less alike, not even giving much though to the Macintosh because it's not relevant to them. But they can be highly focused on standards that identify who is "standard" and can communicate with the rest of the group, and who is "non-standard" and cannot. From modem communication protocols to disk file system formats, Wintel users align on who is standard and who is not. Mac users, of course, are non-standard.

Think about it. The Wintel world is constantly setting new "standards" (Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, video conferencing standards, ActiveX, USB, and so forth), and constantly getting upgrades to be included in the group of those who are standard. Many people manage to resist upgrades that enable "standards" they have no need for, but some clearly don't, and they seem to be the target of much of the Wintel marketing. Apple was wise in submitting FireWire to IEEE for certification; the PC world never met a standard it didn't like. In fact, Wintel people have adopted FireWire far more than Macintosh users have, where "standards" are usually subordinate to "useful."

It may not be an overarching granfalloon, or applicable to the entire pc community, but it has merit. Need proof? Look at this Peter H. Lewis article on the iMac in the New York Times, where you'll find this gem: "Like all current Macintoshes, it uses the Mac OS 8.1 operating system software, which is incompatible with more than 90 percent of all other computers. The Mac OS still sets the standard for ease of use and innovation, and it is arguably a superior choice for the consumer and education audience that Apple hopes to impress with the iMac." Never mind about productivity or the ease of cross-platform use; it's all "compatibility" and "standards." Uh-huh.

Create Commitment Through Dissonance Reduction

In addition to reducing dissonance by spending as much time as necessary to make a bad system work, the same principles that apply to Macintosh users apply here in reverse. They're especially present when some technology executive takes it upon himself or herself to decide that a single standard (there it is again!) is necessary for all computers in an organization. Most of the time, the standard chosen is the Wintel standard, since standards are very important to members of the cult.

However, leaving even a single Macintosh in place after that decision is made creates dissonance. You can imagine the little angel and devil sitting on the MIS director's shoulders, just like in the old cartoons, and the devil is telling him, "Hey, aren't you in charge here? Didn't you decide on Windows machines? So what are those Macs doing here? They're not what you decreed! Get rid of 'em!"

The presence of a Macintosh where Wintel has been anointed creates dissonance. If the Macs are allowed to stay, the people in the Mac-owning group may want more Macs, which creates more dissonance, leading either to the reversal of position and allowance of a multi-platform shop, or the dissonance reduction of going more firmly down the same path and eliminating all the Macs. If you've bought into the "Wintel standard," Macs are the "out-group," the non-standard choice that you ruled against. Allowing them in your organization is just an opportunity for chaos.

Most of you have at least heard stories of situations just like this, where some pinhead decides that he knows what's best for everyone and forces the issue. Perhaps next time you can suggest deprogramming by cult experts.

Establish the Leaders Credibility and Attractiveness

Insert your own Bill Gates joke here.

The leader of the Wintel cult might be the concept of standards (as on the Macintosh, the Attitudinal can argue that it not only defines the granfalloon but also the entire focus of the cult), and there seems to be an awful lot of energy expended on convincing people about standards. Why you need a Pentium II chip, why your home computer should be based on a Celeron microprocessor instead of on an Intel competitor, why Windows 98 is absolutely necessary, why Windows NT and the Win32 APIs are the future of all high-powered computing, and so forth. There are exceptions, but you'll notice that PC users tend to adopt anything Microsoft throws out there ("Microsoft" and "standard" are synonymous to some), but other standards like JavaScript or QuickTime have a hard time making inroads without Microsoft's approval (or co-opting).

By elevating standards to the pinnacle of personal computing, the Cult of Wintel can not only perpetuate itself by making new standards, but also conveniently exclude the "non-standard" out-groups. When decisions about standards are left to neutral third-party bodies, though, like ISO or IETF, the Wintel folks sometimes find that the standards chosen aren't the ones they picked, but rather the ones that make the most technical sense. For example, when CORBA picked OpenDoc as a standard instead of the competing Microsoft technology DCOM, the reaction in the Wintel community was one of dissonance reduction - they ignored CORBA until they "came around" and stopped evangelizing the "non-standard" OpenDoc.

More recently, Microsoft attempted to get the storage format for MPEG-4 based on their Active Streaming Format, but a consortium of several other companies (not necessarily married to the Wintel "standard") proposed a QuickTime base, a proposal that won. That hasn't been so dissonant for the cult members, because QuickTime 3 for Windows can almost be considered "standard-like" now that it has the same capabilities on both Windows and Mac OS machines. But standards themselves are still idolized - those who are standard can work with all the others who are standard. They're the in-group, so they're self-defined as credible and worthy of attaining.

Send Members Out to Proselytize the Unredeemed

Evangelism for Wintel isn't that prevalent, probably because most people purchasing PCs are already inclined to strongly consider the platform that 90% of other people are using. If proselytizing happens, it's probably toward standards: "Oh, man, you've gotta upgrade to V.90 or you won't be able to get good connection speeds!" "You shouldn't turn off ActiveX or you won't get to the cool Web sites that need real power." "I can't believe you'd consider that Macintosh; nothing works with it and you can't run the best games."

Distract Members from "Undesirable" Thoughts

Wintel cult members don't have many distracting thoughts, because the "computer press" tends to report on Wintel issues as if the desirability of Windows and Intel processors is a given. Reports of other platforms or other processors aren't hard to find, but they always have a "here's what the other people are doing" kind of feel to them. Reports about Macintosh issues, as the Attitudinal has noted, are often misleading or inaccurate, and most Wintel press seem unconcerned about such details, making the chances of any "distracting" thoughts less likely.

It doesn't seem to be a concerned effort to distract, but more like a self-fulfilling prophecy: "We're right and others are wrong, so what we talk about is oriented in these ways." Not all information is slanted this way - the former BYTE Magazine was notable for its balance in covering multiple platforms, having been launched in a day where "personal computing" encompassed some dozen or more incompatible machines.

A prime example, though, is the recent coverage of Apple's PowerPC G3-based machines. Apple quotes integer-only benchmarks to show the Power Macintosh systems beating even the fastest Pentium II chips by a factor about 2:1. Intel counters by claiming that other benchmarks are much closer, and that the Pentium II can often win in floating-point performance even on a MHz-by-MHz basis. Both claims are true; Apple's target customers in content creation can see common tasks go up to twice as fast on G3 machines as on Pentium II-class systems, while those doing heavy number crunching will still find Pentium II systems slightly faster. Does the computer press tell you this? No. They say that Apple's PowerPC G3 systems are faster than "most" Pentium II systems, as if there is a Pentium II chip out there that's unquestionably faster than the G3 chips. It's not the case - but it avoids the dissonance of thinking that the "non-standard" platform might be more desirable.

Fixate Members Vision on a Phantom

Not happening. But no cult is perfect.

Living With Persuasion

If you're on top of things, you noticed the subtle persuasion even in the Attitudinal's own text - the discussion of Mac persuasion was fairly balanced and deferential to Apple, not assuming the worst about the company. Yet the Wintel section was either (depending on your viewpoint) more tongue-in-cheek or more biased towards the notion that such a cult really does exist, and that the Attitudinal is simply performing the civic duty of exposing it.

Persuasion isn't a black art; its not something with untold powers that mortals are helpless to resist. Persuasive tactics can, however, catch you when you least expect it and lead you to decisions you might not make if you took the time to examine things more thoroughly. There's a touch of cult-like behavior in nearly everything we experience, from businesses to mainstream religion to school gatherings. That doesn't mean any form of persuasion is bad unless we allow ourselves to be persuaded in spite of the facts of our own situations and needs.

Attempts to classify any computer user as a member of the "in-group" or the "out-group" are probably based on unsuitable heuristics instead of a more appropriate examination of each situation. Those who decry the "Cult of Macintosh," or Mac users who respond by mindlessly slamming Wintel systems, may be engaged more in self-persuasion than they are in describing reality. Seeing through all this is difficult in a world filled with persuasive messages, but its a challenge that everyone must face. The sooner you start, the better.

The Attitudinal cannot recommend the Age of Propaganda more highly. If you're morally opposed to purchasing anything so heavily hyped (even by your beloved Attitudinal, which admittedly gets a share of any sales at Amazon.com made through this URL), that's fine - get the ISBN number and other information from the link and feed it to your local library. No matter how you approach it, don't let yourself be defenseless when so many companies, as Jean-Louis Gassée used to put it, view customers as "people walking around with our money in their pockets."

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