Mexico-Is It Safe? Marathon Man
Generation RX · Apple · Android · Identity
TrialsIs It Safe?
A Marathon Man interrogation becomes the perfect operating system for technology, politics, brand loyalty, and foreign-port connectivity.
Before discussing Apple, Android, politics, or identity, the question had to be drilled into the room.
Not whether it was fashionable. Not whether it was progressive. Not whether it belonged to the Daddy Party or the Mommy Party.
Was it safe?
The Asymmetric Equation
Ambiguity + Repetition = Interrogation Ask the wrong question often enough and certainty begins to masquerade as truth.Drilling for Facts
Tell Me What “It” Refers To
The Marathon Man exchange becomes a model for every vague argument about risk, identity, and technology.
I do not know what you mean. I cannot tell you whether something is safe unless I know specifically what you are talking about.
Is it safe?
Tell me what the “it” refers to.
Is it safe?
Yes. It is safe. It is very safe. It is so safe you would not believe it.
Generation RX
I Took a Bite Out of the Apple
The forbidden fruit becomes a phone, a political signal, and a tiny device carrying an oversized identity.
I took a bite out of the Apple and bought an iPhone. Was that PC?
In a Santa Monica Starbucks in 2008, a barista saw my G1 Google Android, rolled his eyes, and called me a Republican—the Daddy Party.
My English teacher, G. W. Stroud, later advised me to go all the way: buy a hybrid, get a prescription for medical marijuana, and join the Mommy Party, the Democrats.
I know both sides because I am both sides.
Thus spake FriEDrich REIF Nietzsche.
Apple
The Forbidden Fruit
A product becomes identity before the first call is made.
Android
The Other Tribe
Technology becomes political shorthand in a coffee shop.
Ed
Both Sides
Brand loyalty becomes less useful when you can see yourself inside both camps.
Foreign Ports
Landlines Are Places. Cell Phones Are People.
The device becomes less a phone than a portable identity system moving through foreign ports of call.
Android users were mostly guys. iPod Touch owners were overwhelmingly young. People carrying iPhones were far more likely to lust after an iPad.
Landlines are places. Cell phones are people.
My phone was not so phoney anymore. It did almost everything except make a simple phone call—at least in foreign ports of call.
In the shootout at the “I’m OK, You’re OK” corral, I decided to see other people. Google, like Arnold, I would be back.
Identity Equation
Device + Tribe + Projection = Digital Self The hardware is small. The identity attached to it is not.Breaking the Tape
Is It a Crime?
The final trial is not choosing Apple or Google. It is crossing the caution line placed around identity itself.
