The Modern Messiah

A few days ago, it also occurred to me how Steve Jobs is seen as something like a Modern Messiah. I admit, Apple made being a geek cool. They forged the marriage between the quirky creative world with the technical digital world, that was - at least in pop culture - previously confined to grandma's basement (I am referring to the stereotypical hacker in a Hollywood movie). Chapeau, Apple,and thanks, Steve (although we also have to give some credit to, among others, Sergey Brin, Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg.)

I thought this was just good fun at the time, a bit exaggerated, I wasn't really serious about it...

Now, look what I came across today...

www.apple.com/stevejobs

...the digital shrine of the binary brotherhood.

Millions have sent an email to 'rememberingsteve@apple.com' and they all appear on this website. Check some of these messages out. If they don't sound religious to you, I don't know what would. Here are some of my favourites:

" ... The man who changed everything. There is no part of our world and our lives that Steve Jobs did not make a huge impact on. ... "

" ... He's truly a memorable person. I'm not an Apple fan but I admire him as he brought the world the most genius design. He'll continue his Apple empire in heaven. God bless him. ... "

I read things like "heaven got a bit smarter" and how "Apple made such a big impact" on people's lives. I am baffled by the amount of devotion. Surely, Apple is one of the game changers of the 21st century IT giants. iPods, iTunes, iPhones, iPads...surely all tech revolutions. Much like Google Maps, the Kindle, facebook, YouTube...and the list goes on.

On the other hand, they have created needs where previously there were none. They are dictating what choices their customers get to make, how they are supposed to use their devices and their products are designed to be replaced by newer models frequently. Older operating systems are discontinued, plugs are unique and change from one model to the next, and software and content for its devices is monopolized. Truly not virtuous, but not unlike church.

You might say "Dude, Steve Jobs died in 2011!" and none of the above is new to you. All over the web, one can read about Steve Jobs, the Messiah, or about Steve Jobs, the super-villain (here, here and here ,for example). Yeah, that's true, but I've only just discovered Steve's digital shrine today.

I don't know about you, but I got quite accustomed to shouting out 'Jesus Christ' upon being taken aback by - oh, say - people taking Steve Jobs for their saviour. In the same awkward sense, it's could be time to honour the new saviour by switching to 'Steve Paul Jobs'!