Should there only be one company making gear?

Nrchy,

I didn't think you took offense to what I said, and I appreciate your comments. When it comes to audio, I just happen to have an appreciation for all the brands, simply because I just like jawing about the game.

However, what your clarifying post did alert me to is in the multitude of ways in which I am remarkably intolerant. My response was a case in point. So I thank you. Your post had quite the unexpected effect from a place I don't normally look to find such an education. That's what I meant.

What, Nrchy, you prefer SS???????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You never said that before.
OK, forget everything I said.

...just kidding.

Nrchy, I saw some of the posts that were exchanged before they were deleted. I think I caught a glimpse of what inspired this.

I had the feeling you were trying to prove something, you Ancient Provo Car Door (or something like that).

Marco, very good post.

We are wired to fear anyone different from us. Outside the family, the clan, the tribe. It's a survival trait, and one that we have to consciously aware of, now that our world has expanded beyond a copse of trees or a handful of caves.

The biggest dangers arise when demagogues try to (all too often successfully) to use those tendencies to govern, and give organized focus to such hatreds. So the best way to defend own desire (and in the US, we hold this desire to be a Right, most of the time) to be individuals is to ensure that others have the same privileges.

One of the most powerful expressions of this, in the context of those masters of the divide the different and rule the masses approach, the Nazis:

First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.

Niemoller

I've always appreciated that. I've had the (ahem) privilege of living under both Communist and Fascist regimes. Castro and Franco. They liked to use labels to conveniently dump anyone they felt should be marginalized, and therefore dehumanized. "Contra revolucinario," "revisionista." I see it (on a far less dangerous scale, but there nonetheless) in today's political frolicking. Isolate your enemies, paint them as a minority. Get the masses to see them as a danger to the tribe.

KP

Beautifully put, KP.
When some people start to take their hobbies too seriously they exhibit a primitive tribalism.
Whether the hobby be hifi, attending football matches, golf etc etc. I think that some of it comes from insecurity, which itself is fed by modern society's consumerist rat-race.

No two pieces of my system are made by the same manufacturer, so I'd be a bit stuck if there were only a single manufacturer !

How these tensions manifest themselves reflects the values of the society.

We express it in merchandise or sports loyalties (the bread and circuses) because that's what occupies much of our lives. This is far better than the ethnic and religious expressions that these fears forms in most places. If you are looking forward to your favorite team's next match, you are not very likely to want to strap a box of TNT to your behind. Seen in that light 'bread and circuses" are not the luxuries as they may appear but vital ingredients to the peaceful functioning of a complex society.

We deal with threats in two forms: fight or flight. You either kill it, or run away from it. Well, that doesn't work all that often anymore; we are dealing with more than gazelles and leopards. So we internalize it (anger, depression) or lash out in acceptable equivalents. Angry phone calls, letters, posts.

It's another survival trait we have to learn to control. It leaves very little middle ground. We will treat a small problem, say, a key sticking on your keyboard) with the same intensity that we would deal with something like a lion stalking us. It can be a great ability. We tackle all problems with intensity. So we can put a man on the moon or make music from a hole in the ground, a stick, and some banana leaves. It can also cause suicide over a change of some numbers on a balance sheet, or murder over a parking space.

Btw, yes, my keyboard is sticking. And it's one of the good "switched" keyboard that are so hard to find now. Roarr...err.. I mean... oink! oink!

KP