Thinking Different about Mr. Jobs...

By now, we've seen all the tributes, epitaphs, and all the other what-not about Apple's resident visionary, Steve Jobs. We know about the products he spearheaded into production: the iPod, iPad, all of the MacIntosh permutations, and iTunes, among many others. His influence affected industries well beyond that of his native PC industry - (iTunes to the music industry, Pixar to the film industry, among others).

This post in Democratic Underground generated a bit of controversy in that community, because it dared to highlight the darker side of Mr. Jobs, especially so recently after his death while he is being so lionized. He was much more than a taskmaster - quite frankly, he could apparently be quite the a-hole around the Cupertino campus. Nobody ever said that to get to the top required being a nice person - on the contrary, his alleged "asshattedness" is more likely the rule than the exception in the upper escelons of Corporate America. Personal grace is often set aside in the interest of the corporate prime directive of maximizing shareholder value.

I don't think people realize what a disservice it is to put people on pedestals without recognizing their foibles and frailties, as well. Above all, rainmakers like Steve Jobs are human beings - first, and foremost. When we figuratively carve hall-of-fame statues in honor of these people without recognizing their humanity, we not only do them, their memories, and their families a disservice, we do ourselves a disservice. We lose sight of the fact that it was not a god that created the Apple II, or the Mac, or the iPad - it was a human being. A highly gifted, driven human being, for sure, but one with the same challenges and quandries as the rest of us.

The best way we can pay tribute to the memory of Steve Jobs is to use his creations for constructive purposes. Use them to create, to explore, to further yourself and your fellow members of humanity and life on this planet in general.

How The Eagle Flies...

One characteristic of American politics which has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, is how our political pendulum swings from left, to right, to left, then back, over the course of the years and generations, much like a greatly oversized grandfather clock. Considering this dynamic, I can't help but wonder how our country's true owners – the oligarchy who run Corporate America – could not have seen the demonstrations in New York (and planned for Washington, DC and Los Angeles, among other places) coming. The pendulum seems to have finally swung to it's rightward limit, and is now starting it's long swing in the other direction. Many of the nation's biggest unions have signed on in support of the demonstrations, leading pundits like Keith Olbermann to note that, after all these years, we may finally be witnessing the nascent development of a politically viable left wing. This is a badly-needed development – the middle-class and working-class have been taking it in various bodily areas long enough.

There's a lesson to be drawn from our national mascot, the bald eagle. For any bird, plane, or any other thing to fly through the air requires two strong wings – a right, and a left. They must be of equal strength and dimension in order to provide a stable flight. What happens when a wing is damaged or is otherwise compromised? The bird or plane becomes grounded, sometimes suddenly and violently.

Through a variety of factors – indifference/distraction of the populace combined with the corruption of our politicians by the “true owners” of the country – we have let our national eagle's left wing atrophy to the point of it's near destruction, barely moving while the right wing attempts to compensate. As a result, the nation's wealth gap is increasing, the number of our citizens in poverty is increasing, and we are losing our superpower status. We're plummeting to earth at a breakneck speed, and only time will tell if the October demonstrations truly represent the beginning of a healing of our national eagle's left wing, in time to prevent a crash landing.