"Holy War" for an Apple?

Apple’s ‘holy war’ was a feud that made the Valley fertile

Rivalry may stem from vanity but it is often extremely effective. Jobs was a master 

 A financial times article


This device (war) is fundamental to historical human psychology - divide and rule - and is presumed natural and inevitable to any mind that subscribes to it. It has all the ramifications of 'evolution through competition' - and of course there are aspects within the whole in which this holds some truth.

A friendly rivalry is of an entirely different nature to that which is fearful, hateful and vindictive. The latter is no longer connected in relationship, but rather in a distortion field that subsumes or uses relationships and communication itself as simply means to a personal agenda. "It's all about me".

Any movement that attempts to grasp or hold on to power, will involve assertion of its 'self-concept' - a sense of itself as an entity over and against anything that is perceived (interpreted) as threat, and to that end it utilizes the reactive nature of fear, grievance, threat and victory over or vengeance to bolster or replace the natural energy that rises harmoniously as the inspiration to participate in an inherently meaningful and exciting purpose or goal.

In one way of another I write about this all the time - but in this particular context there is a clear example in Apple's early history where the ground-breaking individual and teamwork flowered out of a sense of being at the very cutting edge of a new era and making a positive and significant contribution to humanity that was joyful at the same time as very demanding and challenging in itself.
The rivalry with IBM was a precocious self belief in a changing paradigm that they 'got' and IBM did not, and this led to an inflated sense of self while riding the crest of the wave. The idea of 'getting it' or reading the energy of the times became part of Apple's identity and consequent arrogance, such as to become computers for the elite rather than computing 'for the rest of us' (The 'Apple catchphrase that was really differentiating from the paradigm of Mainframe programming and command line interface of the earlier modality).
The Microsoft marketing mentality was less proud, and more than happy to fit humanity into a machine than the original Apple idea of developing machines that interface with a personal creativity.
This polarity is deep in our consciousness as the tension between creativity and coercion, and historically creative endeavour is harnessed or subverted to political and therefore personal agenda. That is to say it is inhibited, suppressed, controlled and feared by the mentality that doesn't 'get it' - that sees chaos and confusion as threat to a personal sense of control.

So one of the 'evolved' results of the warring rivalries and power games that have ever more deeply mesmerized humanity, is that of hard wiring - or at least flashing our consciousness with a deep conditioned imprint of a left-brained 'command and control' mentality. A mentality that is so filtered and conditioned to its own thinking that it can only 'see' its own thinking and cannot 'grok' that the more control is applied, the more uncontrollable the system becomes - because we - as Human Consciousness, are not a machine within the very limited sense of the idea of machine that we have.

The seduction of the machine age is of inviting such a personally vindictive and hatefully driven sense of self into unrestricted to the subtler 'machinery' of the biology of our planet, our bodies, brains and psychologically manipulatable functions.

There is very little awareness that the nature of growth has been cancerous in that it grows the self-idea - be that person, corporation, state or financial system - at the expense of the Host Environment - and of 'other-self'. Even when the 'self-idea' becomes increasing potent to a tiny elite over and against an increasing impotent population.

There IS a healthy growth of expanding polarities that are held within a unified consciousness. Humanity has this as a potential future if it can wake from a mentality of fearful 'control' to a presence of discernment and trust.

It remains true, even within the distortions of division and conflict, that discernment and trust operate as the way decisions or outcomes are arrived at and committed to. There may be a superstructure of approach that engages analysis and forecast - but the rational stuff is often sought to justify the gut feeling from the point of being aware of all that is present and pertains to the situation.

While we have hidden fears or betrayals relative to the passion that we identify as our righteousness, we host a 'saboteur' that will bias toward the 'goal' of private warring 'solutions' at the expense of participating and enjoying being part of What Works for All.
To merely 'think about' a Universal connected consciousness - is to maintain the private agenda that cannot  'get it'. And though one may 'enjoy' a state of disconnect in which to indulge and follow a sense of private power  - over and against Life - as if such IS Life, there is an almost complete forgetting of what Joy Is - as the unified movement of Consciousness in which all polarities can be recognized and allowed to harmonize.

The term 'Holy War' is an oxymoron. A contradiction in terms. It is the substitution of wholeness and shared innocence for the dynamic that worships 'self-power' and then works via divide and rule to maintain such a reversal as the basis of our conscious experience.

Perhaps the 'getting mentality' is what brings caterpillars or grubs to their pupate stage.
I hold the sense of our potential to rise from a 'prodigal wasteland' in a re-wakened sense of working in truly shared purpose. The 'powers that be' believe one has to have, invent or create a terror ENEMY to induce such shared purpose. I say they have only become the very thing they hate - and have become trapped in the idea of 'control'.

Yielding to a wholeness of self honesty, is mentally and emotionally humiliating - but it is also the 'adjustment' from which a humble but truly connected perspective operates. The 'boom and bust' is the result of trying to grasp, own and control the movement that inspires, enlivens, creates and guides successful conscious endeavour. It makes us 'stutter' instead of sing!

The responsibility for consciousness and AS consciousness cannot be imposed from 'outside it' - as a mode of coercion. True responsibility is awakened, uncovered, and gratefully appreciated as the 'capacity TO respond'. All else is conditioned automaton. Not in the sense of 'others beings' - but in the sense of self- definitions and their structures of thought and action.
One may become addicted to playing power games on the world stage or on a game console. Against a puzzle that challenges or an adversary that brings one to a sense of adrenaline and focus when natural love of life is no longer allowed to operate as being and feeling Alive all the time.
But at some point, every addict 'bottoms out'.
Those who are getting high on it have no eyes or ears to see beyond it - and yes they can still serve a role in an awakening consciousness, if we really want to be free of guilt, hate and fear as the motivating force of our existence.