After spending a lot of my day at work watching the US election online and then witnessing some of the online discussions about the result, it got me wondering, “What makes people so passionate about their political views, religious beliefs and product loyalty?” Really, some of the tripe that I read about Obama winning the election was beyond belief. Ignorance is alive and well it seems. What drives people to hate the so called opposition in all aspects of life? I can, to a point, understand it in politics and religion, after all, they can have a profound effect on our lives. And I know that when I was younger, I was probably guilty of an intense dislike of people who didn’t agree with me, but these days I would like to think I am a little more tolerant of people with different beliefs to my own. Sure, I still find it hard how people can believe their lives are in some way controlled by a higher being, but I don’t hate them for it. As long as they don’t push their ideals on to me, I am fine with them having their beliefs.

Having pondered the political and religious idea for a few hours this afternoon, tonight it struck me. I was sitting, looking at where our kitchen used to be, will be again in a week or two, but isn’t at the moment, and it came like a bolt of lightning. People have the same fervent beliefs regarding products. You see it so often on internet forums, PC vs Mac, Intel vs AMD, Microsoft vs Apple and the list is longer than a politicians lunch. But what purpose does it serve? Do people really get such a kick out of bagging a product that they don’t use, and sometimes, have never used? Again, it wasn’t long ago that I was bagging Macintosh computers myself, and yet here I sit, plugging away happily on my 16 month old MacBook Pro. These days I wonder why I didn’t make the move years ago. I know it was because I used to play a lot of racing simulations that wouldn’t run on the Mac, but it doesn’t stop me thinking about it.

So we come to photography, after all, it is what this BLOG is supposed to be about. I saw a forum post today that went along the lines of…Anyone that uses a Nikon is a piss poor excuse for a photographer! What? I mean really, does the camera make that much difference? I would say no. This person had a link to their gallery in the forum signature, so I went off for a look at this Canon super photographer. To say I was under whelmed, well, is an understatement. Piss poor would best describe his photographic achievements. Now I am quite happy using a Canon camera, but if I won the lottery 3 months back, I would have traded the lot for a Nikon D3.

So help me understand this blind faith. Do you know of instances of it where you have read something on the net and shaken your head? Why do people need to degrade a person because of their product choice? Is it purely insecurity on their behalf? Its got me beat.