The New Facism

Upon reflection most serious students of the contemporary American scene will have to admit that Mohammed Attta won his battle by virtue of the devastating effects upon the quality of American life created by the hysteria which was the aftermath of 9/11.  We live in a world where we are constantly directed by security to do this, do that, move here, move there, and we acquiesce.  Likewise the Silicon valley technologists have been complicit in eroding the independence and spontaneity and freewheeling behaviors that have always been true to the American character.  I speak because I am still exercised by my recent encounters with the world of Apple, beginning I guess yesterday when I went with my husband to buy a new computer.  The Apple store is housed in a gleaming new mall which is situated alongside an interstate and next to an exit, two of the most formidable forms of control in our contemporary world.  The interior of the mall, an endless succession of flat, aesthetically integrated facades that deny idiosyncracy, led us to the Apple store where a young man at the door with his Ipad at the ready entered my husband's name and directed where we were to stand and how many minutes we would have to wait.  Mission completed, today, while my husband wrestled with setting up his new computer,  I contacted Apple online because my Iphone refused to sync contact data and calendar data with my Imac.  First I went to Google to ask if there were some way to achieve this synchronicity without the hassle of contacting Apple.  Nichts.  So I went online and contacted Apple, which first asked me to check which was the problem.  Their language did not admit of an answer, so they next asked if I wanted to "chat."  To my affirmative answer there suddenly appeared on my screen a little box, a chat box, I guess, and there appeared a question about my concerns, and since there was no direction, I did what seemed obvious and typed in my reply in a box at the bottom.  Nothing happened except that every so often another message appeared from my Apple handler asking me why I did not reply to his/her chat.  Then the connection was broken.  I tried direct telephone and it rang and a man answered with so heavy a southern accent I could not understand a word he was saying.  I did finally make out that the failure to sync could be due to many things.  I did not feel I was up to going through the various solutions (push this, check that, new screen, download, etc. I was definitely feeling ill), told this man that I needed to talk to somebody face en face, and he finally understood.  We hung up.  I went to Google, checked out the website for the local Apple store, went to their menu, asked for an appointment at the Genius bar, and was told that they were not taking reservations.  Apple then sent me an email with the sadistic and degrading legend "Thanks for contacting us."  End of story.  Why does the fabled magic of capitalism not created an alternative to this controlling monster?  I read the biography of Steve Jobs and he lives on in these machines.