If All We Can Do Is Predict Apple's Demise, We Suck as a Society

But that's exactly where we let guys like Gundlach -- and the larger swaths of way less credible Apple haters -- off the hook. By discounting the impact of sociology and psychology on their behavior. Is Gundlach just doing his job? Is the peanut gallery just sounding off? Or is there something deeper (and damaging) at play?

I can't speak for Gundlach, but, if I had to guess, I think my neighbor (though I live on the other side of the Santa Monica tracks from him) just wants to be the guy known for calling Apple's demise. And, if he's wrong, so be it -- he's still a billionaire. His audience will not remember. And he doesn't really give a rat's ear if they do.

The larger society, however, is just serving its need to take down the man at the top. Instead of looking at a company such as Apple and saying, Man, this is something to behold. Look at what this company has done. They're the cream of the crop in a sea of mediocrity, we choose to poke holes and set timelines for their downfall. We begin to root for their failure at the same time as lamenting a perceived lack of American political cooperation, corporate ingenuity and global superiority.

That says a lot about who we are as human beings. There's a time and a place for being critical of Apple's near- and long-term future -- I'm the first to say so -- but to cross that line into literally wanting to see other people fall flat. I can't get with it.

He didn't say it quite as eloquently as my friend Gordon did, but cyclist Bradley Wiggins colorfully defended himself against doping allegations at this past year's Tour de France. Certainly, after what we saw go down with Lance Armstrong, Wiggins could be full of it, but his rant still speaks to AAPL and larger societal situations:

I say they're just f---ing wankers. I cannot be doing with people like that. It justifies their own bone idleness because they can't imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives.

It's easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of s--t rather than get off their own arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something. And that's ultimately what counts.

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--Written by Rocco Pendola in Santa Monica, Calif.

Rocco Pendola is TheStreet's Director of Social Media. Pendola's daily contributions to TheStreet frequently appear on CNBC and at various top online properties, such as Forbes.

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