Here we go again with the 'Mac people' are more open and liberal
than PC users trope.
Last week, IDG News Service's Elizabeth Montalbano stated in
'Mac
People' More Open, Liberal Than PC Users? that:
"People who prefer Apple's Macintosh computers over
PCs have long been considered to be on the artsy, hip end of the
personality spectrum - and now a study proves that 'Mac people' indeed
are more liberal and open-minded than average folks."
Oh, really?
Ms. Montalbano noted that according to Mindset Media, people who
purchase Macs fall into what the branding company calls the "Openness
5" personality category - which means they are allegedly more liberal,
less modest, and more assured of their own superiority than the
population at large. Mindset Media's service is helping companies with
strong brands develop ads targeted to people based on personality
traits (or "mindsets") and does research to that effect.
So here we go again with the "Macs are the liberals' computer"
trope, to which I, as a conservative veteran Mac aficionado, take
umbrage, especially when one examines the list of traits and qualities
this particular survey attributes to a liberal mindset.
Mindset Media's "Openness 5" category describes folks who "tend to
seek rich, varied and novel experiences . . . believe that
imagination and intellectual curiosity are as important to life as more
rational or pragmatic endeavors . . . are receptive to their
own inner feelings and may experience life with more emotional
intensity."
A Negative Image of Conservatives
In the mindset of Mindset's profilers, conservatives must be people
who seek impoverished, monotonous, and boring experiences; are
unimaginative, uncreative, and incurious intellectual dullards; and
emotional zombies. I wonder if it ever occurs to these doofuses how
superciliously insulting the implied caricature is? Or do they care,
since one gets the impression that many liberals simply consider
conservatives to be irrelevant ignorami of little account.
I protest. In terms of intellectualism, conservatives don't concede
an inch of ground, with examples of conservative minds like
philosophical giants Edmund Burke,
Abraham Kuyper,
Alexis de
Tocqueville, Clemens
von Metternich, Alexander
Hamilton, John Adams,
and, in a more recent context,
Winston Churchill, G.K. Chesterton,
C.S. Lewis, Richard
Weaver,
Milton Friedman, Friedrich
Hayek, Irving
Kristol,
Leo Strauss, Thomas Sowell,
Canadian philosopher George
Grant, Conrad
Black (a towering intellect notwithstanding his current legal
contretemps), and William F.
Buckley Jr., to name a few.
Smug
Then there's the suggestion that Mac users are "less modest, and
more assured of their own superiority than the population at large."
Unless one is a narcissist, that isn't exactly flattering - whether one
fancies him or herself a liberal or a conservative. I like to think
that using a Mac is a smarter choice than a Windows PC both because it
is objectively a superior tool for a whole raft of functional reasons,
as well as because it's a quantifiably more pleasant and satisfying
environment in which to spend one's time.
I guess that's partly "emotional," but I don't think it has much to
do with narcissistic posturing or one-upmanship. I believe humility is
a virtue, and my attitude toward folks who use Windows is more one of
mystified and compassionate bemusement as to how they manage to put up
with all the trials inconveniences and vicissitudes, not to mention
wasted time, that are part and parcel of the Windows computing
experience.
I choose to use Macs because "it just works" is more than just
ad-copy sloganeering, not because it makes me feel personally
"superior" or "cooler than thou", although I contend that the Mac OS
itself is demonstrably superior to Windows. The Mac is simply an
excellent machine, which does not commend it as a liberal's device
according to the late American philosopher Richard Weaver, who noted
the liberal "tendency to look with suspicion upon excellence, both
intellectual and moral, as 'undemocratic'..."
As a Mac-using conservative I can make the rough, anecdotal
observation that a larger proportion of my friends and acquaintances
who are political and social conservatives use Macs compared with
people I know in general, and I know a fair few liberals who are dogged
Windows PC-advocates.
Conservative Mac Users
Then there's arch-conservative TV and radio talk-show host and
commentator Rush Limbaugh,
who has been an enthusiastic Mac fan since the 1980s.
Laureen Teskey Harper, wife of Canada's Conservative Prime Minister
Stephen Harper (both Harpers are a "small-c" conservatives as well -
not all Conservative Party members are), is a graphic designer and
reportedly a big fan of Apple computers, which she uses in her
work.
However, in a general sense, I'm obliged to concede that the Mac is
indeed popular with the set that fancies itself liberal. The terms
"conservative" and "liberal" have become so broadened and hazily
defined in popular perception as to have ceased conveying more than a
general indication of ideological belief and conviction. Labels
sometimes tend to obfuscate more than they enlighten, however they do
provide a sort of crude shorthand of categorizations that we can hardly
do without.
Inverted Definitions
Part of the confusion lies, I think, in the fact that the classical
definition of "liberal" has been inverted over the past century or so
to mean what most people now think of as "conservative", at least in
terms of economics, while what most people perceive as "liberal" now
pertains more to neo-Marxist, socialist, radical existentialist, and
postmodern nihilist schools of thought.
Today's Marxist/socialist-influenced neo-liberals illiberally preach
big government and planned markets. Having abandoned the historical
liberal principle of opposition to state interference in the affairs of
individuals, neo-liberals now affirm a new political orthodoxy of
protecting the weak and oppressed (as defined by neo-liberals) against
the supposed evils of private interest through mechanisms of top-down
state intervention, favoring collective remedies over individual ones -
surely the antithesis of "thinking different". Surely there can be few
more aggressively fundamentalist mantras of conformity and sameness
than the so-called "political correctness" movement, which advocates
nominally liberal causes and positions.
On the other hand, when business-oriented neo-conservatives beat the
drums for unrestricted individualism and unregulated capitalism, they
are affirming the principles of classic economic liberalism - not
classic conservatism. In that sense, neo-conservatives like Rush
Limbaugh, William F. Buckley, George Will, and the
Bush administration are not really advocating classic conservatism at
all, but are actually right-wing liberals.
Modern Liberals and Conservative Share Many Core Beliefs
In a contemporary North American political and economic context,
both nominally "conservative" and nominally "liberal" beliefs are
somewhat adulterated downstream products of the post-Enlightenment
liberal ethos. While they disagree on a number of important nuances,
neo-conservatives and neo-liberals share in common the essentially
liberal notions that individual self-interest, material comfort and
acquisition, and economic growth are the correct and self-sufficient
ends of human endeavor. Both place their faith in science, technology,
and industrial prosperity as the satisfactory means to achieving these
ends.
Their biggest disagreement is over who or what will be in control -
government bureaucracies or individuals operating in a free market.
The late Canadian conservative philosopher George Grant observed
that:
"Americans who call themselves conservatives have the
right to that title only in a particular sense. In fact they are
old-fashioned liberals.... Their concentration on freedom from
governmental interference has more to do with 19th century liberalism
than with traditional conservatism, which asserts the right of the
community to restrain freedom in the name of common good."
Mapping Mac Use in the US
Anyway, last fall, Net
Applications posted an interesting analysis measuring the usage
share of all Macintosh operating systems in respective US states -
the resulting breakdown bearing a striking resemblance to the US
red/blue election map from 2004, with Mac usage in general being higher
in demographically more liberal "blue" states, with heaviest Mac
concentrations being in the Pacific coast states (and Hawaii), New
York, and New England, and the lowest in the southeastern, midwestern,
and plains states, albeit with a few "red state" exceptions (notably
Colorado and Alaska, which are among the top ten Mac-using states).
The ten states with lowest concentrations of Mac-usage are in West
Virginia (3.47%), Mississippi ( 3.70%), Alabama (4.52%), South Carolina
(4.61%), Arkansas (4.70%), Louisiana (4.85%), South Dakota (5.37%),
North Dakota (5.38%), Kentucky (5.46%), and North Carolina (5.74%).
The ten states with the highest concentrations of Mac users are
Hawaii (15.89%), Vermont (15.14%), California (12.83%), Oregon (12.72
%), New York (12.33 %), Alaska (11.87 %), Maine (11.19 %),
Massachusetts (11.19 %), Washington (10.3 %), and Colorado (10.09
%).
Other Factors
Of course, these phenomena may be attributable to something other
than political leanings per se. Economics, education, and even the
number of Apple Stores in a region could presumably play a role. In
general, states with a lower concentration of Mac users also tend to be
ones with lower per capita incomes, and there's that famous Mac price
premium. Education demographics and the number of colleges and
universities located in a state look like other factors that might
impact the findings besides political affiliation, although there is a
considerable degree of crossover.
The late Mac Web columnist and commentator Rodney O. Lain once
observed:
"I've often thought of the Mac as a liberal computer
myself. Until I started rubbing elbows with a wider variety of Mac
users. Sure there are many people who choose the Mac because they are
left-brained romantics (or is that right-brained?), but I'm seeing that
just as many buy Macs after their right-brained analysis (or is that
left-brained?) - removes any doubt that the Mac is superior to Wintel
PC."
A couple of other reasons for the Mac being characterized as a
"liberal's computer" are its low penetration of the business computing
market (conservative) and the fact that it is spectacularly popular
among members of the entertainment industry and with other creative,
artistic types, who more often than not tend to be liberal in their
political views.
Conservative Christianity and Windows
Then there's the availability of Bible study, commentary, and other
religious software, which has historically been much more flush on the
Windows platform than the Mac, which inclines many conservative
Christians (who tend to be more highly concentrated in the southern and
midwestern "red" states) to stay in the Windows camp. This is
improving, however, with more religious software programs being ported
to or developed specifically for the Mac these days, along with ones
that have been there all along such as Accordance, Mac Sword, Bible Reader Free, and
others.
Conservative or Liberal?
I'm a political animal, and in my role as a newspaper political
commentary columnist in Canada I have been referred to as "the best
known social conservative in the Atlantic provinces," which may or may
not be true. Actually I ruminate a great deal myself over where I fit
in this dialectic, and I find myself personally embracing a tapestry of
classic conservative and classic liberal values. For example, I am a
strong advocate of free speech and expression for everyone - including
those whose opinions I and/or others may find offensive and
objectionable. Does that make me a conservative or a liberal?
I believe that every person is of equal worth in the sight of God so
there should be no social, legal, or cultural obstacles to anyone
realizing their full potential based on merit and hard work. I have no
patience with racial or ethno-cultural prejudice, but I also strongly
oppose the reverse discrimination of race and/or gender preferences and
quotas in employment hiring and educational opportunities. Conservative
or liberal?
I also believe that the "invisible hand" of the market operating
with a minimum of government intervention is the most powerful and
efficient engine of economic prosperity for the greatest number, and
I'm a free trader, but I'm also a staunch environmentalist and don't
object to government environmental regulations or antitrust initiatives
(a la Microsoft) to ensure the maintenance of market competition.
Conservative or liberal?
I agree with Abraham Lincoln and Margaret
Thatcher that the state ought not do for people what they are
capable for doing for themselves, and I am generally opposed to
indiscriminate and dependence-creating welfare entitlements, but I
believe that the better-off in society have a responsibility to help
the genuinely troubled and needy, preferably giving them a hand up
rather then a handout. Conservative or liberal?
Think Different
Finally, I like Macintosh computers (and especially the Mac OS), and
I celebrate the inclination to "think different" - with the accent
strongly on the "think" part.
One of the things I think is that Apple Computer is ill-advised to
cultivate the "liberal computer" stereotype by identifying strongly
with the Democratic Party (perhaps Al Gore's Apple board membership
could be balanced with a high-profile Republican). Much better to
project a more balanced philosophical perspective rather than
implicitly diss a substantial proportion of your customer base.
However, I wonder if the demographic constituency Apple chooses to
cultivate would ever stand for having someone who thinks that
differently from the liberal/left boilerplate representing their iconic
computer. It begs the question of just who is more open-minded, doesn't
it?
