I admire some of what Jobs said/did/lived - love his "crazies" piece:
and at the same time he perpetuated the oligarchy's power/control wheel and allowed Third World workers' lives/health to be put at risk in manufacturing the products he created...
But then, we're all hypocrites at some level...
I guess if your iPad is worth more to you than the lives of human beings and other lifeforms on this planet, then yes, it's appropriate to have a huge public wake for a clever man...
Personally, I think we're better off spending our time doing this:
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... and for anyone wondering: no, I dont use any Apple products, or any Microsoft products either... I have a fairly basic month-to-month Motorola phone, an older PC that runs Linux/Ubuntu and I use open source software...
ReplyDeleteI've been reflecting on the points you raised here. This is a good time to realise that no one should ever be put on a pedestal and worshipped unconditionally. We are all human and so all have our positive attributes and our flaws. Our task then has to be accentuated one and working to minimise or eliminate the other. Blind worship of any human is foolish. Yes, your points about Jobs are relevant. Yes, he believed in a number of thing that I disagreed with. That doesn't make him right or wrong or me right or wrong. Yes, the conditions in the Chinese factories that make Apple products are a major issue. And so on. He was, after all, a product, and member, of the US capitalist society.
ReplyDeleteThe case can be made, however, setting aside the issues in the Chinese factories, that he brought a different face to capitalism, through his focus on absolute quality, the blend of art and technical excellence, that now distinguishes Apple products and which is still beyond competing companies, driven solely by profits to shareholders beyond anything else. Jobs did it differently and showed that quality is vital, incorporated into a far bigger vision of the world than those of the majority of his contemporaries, and those that came before him in any commercial field. I was asked yesterday who I would compare him with, and couldn't really find anyone. Henry Ford was somewhere in frame, again in spite of many not so nice qualities, but because built cars with a vision to make them affordable to the masses, and not just the elite. Edison, while influential, doesn't come into the picture at all, because nothing he did couldn't have been done by others. Jobs, on the other hand, is responsible for the information technology world of today. Communicating with you, like this, was part of his vision in 1985. And so on..
He has also shown us where to take education, not in his view of schooling, but in his demonstration that arts, technology, creativity, innovation, and risk taking can work together. In a world that will be increased dominated by technology, that's a pretty good foundation. And, finally, and I've not seen anyone comment on this yet, his success is a tremendous illustration that, once again, formal school 'achievement' is not the pre-requisite to a successful life. I'll do a blog on this at some stage soon.
Can't disagree with anything you've said, Alan!! Thanks for taking the time to think it through, and for expressing it here...
ReplyDeleteIf you do do a blog post, let me know and I'll link to it...
Namaste
Sahila