Interesting post, as usual, metatron. I'm thinking about this from a business perspective. Let's pretend that I work at Microsoft and I start telling people that Microsoft is a cult. I think most people would just find it silly. They'd be waiting for the punchline, a la, "You know Microsoft must be a cult because...everybody there's got to have a badge to get in!" Or something dumb like that. It's hard to imagine the company actually getting upset over something like that. So I have to agree, the touchiness of the reaction does say something about the real nature of things.
SNG