Heard the Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians song "Balloon Man" on XM this morning, and it dawned on me that it pretty well summed up the Occupy Wall St. crowd.

Offtopic, Alkonesque (Alkonian?) treat.

A colleague of mine who used to poohpooh Apple and Jobs recently had his eyes opened, when his severely autistic son was able to communicate to others for the first time using a specially designed app on the iPad.

But Steve Jobs wasn't just about healing the lame!

He also turned water into wine. (But only when asked VERY politely.)

Plus, he turned the desert into a fragrant flower garden, with languid pools of playful Koi and breezy shade trees.

______


Y'know, the fact that Steve Jobs never seems to have given a moment's thought to charity is something to keep in mind when thinking of him. He lived in a tier of wealth that few men in history could even have dreamt of, let alone aspired to.

I'm tired of hearing that 'Money wasn't important to him, Man..." His feelings about wealth, or about anything else in the world, pale in significance to the amount of suffering that others will felt across a lifetime (and not only after a liver fails in midlife)... Especially given his distance from hunger.

This was what I was trying to get with the earlier comment. Bungled it. Here's another shot—

Look up Bill Gates on Wikipedia, or any other middle-grade biographic source. William Henry Gates III was born into money. But not only that, he was born into a tradition of intensely focused performance, in business and in every other facet of life. He only looks like a geek... This guy's aggressive instincts were honed by generations of refinement. His was the kind of family –or at least the kind of tradition– that had seen young men turn pompous through success many times before.

In Western cultures, especially American ones, families like that learn to instill a sense of responsibility in their young achievers, as well as a hunger for success. (This is more than noblesse oblige.) For the first two decades of his preeminence in the most exciting industry of our time, Gates bluntly disavowed charity, promising to make time for it later. And then he did! He retired early to administer his charity.

Gates understood that what was needed from him wasn't just simple (if enormous) financial sacrifice: He was expected to bring his leadership to the problems faced by the less fortunate.

People who prattle that Jobs' superhuman insights excused him from responsibility to the less fortunate have got it exactly backward: It's for the blessing of those very powers that he was expected to help other people. And no one acquainted with this guy's career can deny that he was a master manipulator, and not just a gifted lab rat. Maybe this assignment got lost in Jobs' adoption... Such children, arriving in loving homes, are "chosen" in a way that regular people aren't. But it doesn't much matter.

It's great that autistic kids enjoy their Ipads... Other people like them, too. But let's not pretend Jobs' talent was thoughtfully, or even warmly expended. He gave his (public) life to capitalism's competition and to nothing else.

That's not a small loss... Especially if you admire his work.

"But let's not pretend Jobs' talent was thoughtfully, or even warmly expended."

I think that's part of the point, Crid. Developing the iPod Touch and its application environment wasn't an act of charity -- Apple and Jobs expected to make a lot of money, and they did. Apparently, the device has been versatile enough and cheap enough even to help children in the autism spectrum, no alms needed.

I won't join the chorus of those worshiping Steve Jobs' godlike intellect and insight. I don't know enough about him to do that. But it was his business acumen that produced things like the iPod Touch and helped create an environment where people could create applications for it.

> Apparently, the device has been versatile enough
> and cheap enough even to help children in the
> autism spectrum, no alms needed.

One anecdote and it's "apparent" to you that a $600 gewgaw answers the communication needs of the
disabled? If you see a world with "no alms needed", for ANYONE, we're on different planets.

This is, has GOT to be, part of the usual Apple arrogance. It's not that people would claim that bye for themselves... Oh gosh-golly no, perish the thought! But they can't resist the dream that there's SOMEONE out there, some darling creature, who's so darned adorable that the humility of explicit sacrifice isn't required.

See Ben-David in the previous comment and elsewhere: That's not how it works.

Seriously, who knows what this guy could have done for a charity if he'd made it a priority?

It wouldn't even had to have been organ donation.

"If you see a world with 'no alms needed,' for ANYONE, we're on different planets."

Didn't say that. Point was, the Apple device seemed like a clever, useful, and very profitable idea. It's too bad that we'll never know what philanthropic stuff Jobs could have done, but that's another matter altogether.

Cute link on the Apple arrogance, by the way. I tell Mac users that I prefer computers, myself.

> that's another matter altogether.

Not at all. It's PRECISELY the topic. Fucker thought he was excused from caring about others.

He wasn't, whether or not he ever got around to it.

His wife gives lots to various cahrities--I'm guessing that she's the designated giver. Most private foundations are tax shelters.

"His wife gives lots to various charities--I'm guessing that she's the designated giver."

http://on.wsj.com/nc6Gcx

There's a point you don't want to take here... Can she be one of the most acclaimed business leaders of her generation, too? Like, FOR him? In his place? 'Cause I know a shop that could rilly use a craftsman of that magnitude this week....

These responsibilities are not transferable. Not for Steve, and not for you or me.


Ten people will read these words. Seven will have whistled a Beatle favorite within the last ten days.

Have any of you, or with your each three closest friends, or plus each of THEIR three closest friends, ever purchased a Yoko song?

Go out six iterations; that's 2065 people.

Anybody?... Even one performance from the most famous widow in show business?... A sun-warped cassette on the rear window deck of some long-stalled Chevy in a dusty garage somewhere?

Anything? Anything at all?

Thank you for your sermon and demonstrating to the world how morally superior you are to everyone else. You've made it perfectly clear that in your world view, anyone who doesn't publicly and loudly give a cash handout to a charity is a douche bag, no matter what their other accomplishments are. You've set me at last on the path to true righteousness. Thank you again!

> You've made it perfectly clear that in your
> world view, anyone who doesn't publicly and
> loudly give a cash handout to a charity is a
> douche bag, no matter what their other
> accomplishments are.

No, Bunny... I've said it twice now, each time in short sentences and long ones, and you STILL can't take the point: No one on the surface of our goofy little globe is excused from charitable participation.

...But yes, certainly/certainly/CERTAINLY, no one is excused from charity just because they're so darned good at moneymaking itself. This insight is one of the pillars of Westy Civ. (It ain't mine. If I tried to claim credit now, even on this blog, people would know better.)

Now, maybe Mr. Jobs sold super-stylin' products which, like, TOTALLY accentuate the hip and proficient lifestyle by which you've chosen to swagger your way through a world of clumsy pretenders...

That doesn't matter.

Capiche? Be sure and get back to me on this. I'm good for a few more rounds if you want.

Hiltzik wrote this, but read it anyway

Anybody still reading this thread?

Well, you unabashed Fangirl you, what do you make of this?

Too late for the joke: You're a SJF