[lbo-talk] Jobs

Sean Andrews cultstud76 at gmail.com
Fri Oct 7 21:59:27 PDT 2011


Is this thread seriously still going? Can't we just agree there are gradations of capitalist evil, even as we'd like it all to end, and matters of taste when it comes to commodities and/or aesthetically pleasing objects? Yes it's just a prettier version of other computers out there, but the iPod and iPhone pretty seriously changed the game for many users: whatever you think of them, they were culturally significant in a broad way. You can hate them and think the majority of people are fools for liking it, but the same could be said of anything that has become popular in the past 200 years (with the exception of cheese fries and Rockabilly--that shit was genius).

There are plenty of critiques that can be made of Apple, Jobs, etc. But for the most part they weren't a whole lot worse for their bad stuff than all the other cretins in their business (or just about any business) and singling them feels right only because they were so incredibly culturally significant.

So before launching into a long winded, cock swinging, rant into how evil/derivative/overrated it all is, you have to admit Apple/Jobs was important, culturally significant, etc. and therefore understandably upsetting to a good number of people when one of its main players died relatively suddenly at what appeared to be the pinnacle of his company's ascent. Then after you've completed the necessary and, I agree, always appropriate ruthless criticism of everything (apple) existing, step back and realize that no small part of your anger over the crooning swooning response to Jobs death is a resentment that something so evil/derivative/overrated could be popular in the first place, that it disappoints you on the level of your species being--that it would be possible for your fellow humans to find this attractive.

While I'm not incredibly disappointed with people for falling for this, there are plenty of other things that fall into that category for me (neoliberalism or men wearing dress shoes with tight shorts, for instance: I just don't get it) On the other hand, we seem to have a rare opportunity to actually focus critical and collective energy on trying to shape what could actually be a popular interest: this growing occupy movement. It's not perfect, it's not anything close to what existed just 40 years ago, muchless 100, but it's the most movement we've seen in at least a decade, and this time it's targeting the right beast. Imagine if being truly leftist (as opposed to evil DNC liberal) was actually popular. Hard to fathom, but with the right direction and input it seems more plausible than it has in my lifetime.

Enough about Jobs. Between this list and the Marxism list it's getting really old. The subject line is really confusing. I keep thinking we might be talking about something relevant to the unfolding crisis of employment: instead, it's just people trying to show how much they know about the history of motherboards. We've settled this issue as well as we can. Now the only JOBS we should be talking about are the lack of jobs and their continued necessity in this sick, criminal mode of production. More jobs or different mode of production: let the Apple guy RIP unless you want to frame your critique of him in a way that lends productive fire to the possible uprising.

at least that's what I think.



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