The picture of a sociecty that has lost its way

I toyed with the following status updates about my deep affinity with a computer brand, but ultimately refrained, for fear of death threats, having my house burned, being labelled blasphemous, a non-believer, a hypocrite, an enemy of the party, an enemy of designers etc

• Thanks Steve, for making my comfortable middle class world a little more comfortable. I, we, the middle/upper class in the western world, are the world. And you upgraded this world so that it is more convenient for us. We don’t care how our products are made, or who makes them, just make them please, and make them shiny. So yes, as the Apple loyalists and media are saying, you changed the world (our world that is, we are the world). Again, thanks.
• Thanks for making technology kind of a bit easier, information a bit more accessible, and providing me with nicer looking devices. These things are key to my quest for happiness and fulfilment. Without them, I’m not sure I’d cope.
• Thanks for your tireless philanthropy work and commitment to putting something back into the world. The world desperately needs your kind. You clearly saw a world beyond your own ego. You were on par with Bill Gates with your vision. Bill Gates started the Big History Project and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. You… um, you clamped down on anyone who criticised you. No wait, you didn’t waste time caring too much about the human cost of producing gadgets. No, you… um… you, actually, what did you do that didn’t have a dollar sign and copyright symbol next to it? Next update.
• Thanks for not giving me the option of owning just one of your companies products, and instead forcing me to buy all of them. I’d prefer to not have the prerequisite of owning the latest Apple Mac in order to activate my iPad, and I’d prefer to listen to the music I’ve downloaded on my iPad, on my Blackberry too. But I understand that these wishes conflict with the Empires goal of wiping out all competition and monopolising the market. I trust you. I obey you. I will buy more of your products. You know better than me. I will not question you. Make love to me.
• Thanks for creating people at bars who spend their time obsessing over gadgets instead of looking people in the eye and engaging in an old fashioned, face to face, conversation.
• Thanks for creating people who sit at bars showcasing pointless apps and video games. The video games are basically the same as the games I played when I was a kid, except, now they’re on a tiny screen.
  
• Thanks for the words ‘You cannot view this video. Your device does not support Flash’

Stuff & Shit Editorial

For the record, I don’t think that doing business according to the law of the jungle (kill or be killed), and simply setting out to satisfy your own agenda, necessarily makes you a bad person. It’s just business, and technically, good business. And it’s the climate businesses operate in. My question is, do we really need to idolise/give thanks and free advertising to this business model? The one that won’t rest until all competition is gone and where boundless proliferation of $elf is the goal. Maybe there are other things we can find to worship and obsess over, rather than gadgets and power hungry brands. And maybe if Apple put some of its infinite wealth and power back into causes other than itself, it’d be real. Basically, if you wanna ride with Stuff & Shit, you better read the Terms and Conditions, bitch.

NOW GET OUTTA MY SIGHT!

Actually, before you go… in closing, for the Apple obsessives, I quote Elaine Benes in the Seinfeld episode where she looks around and sees everyone eating Snickers bars with a knife and fork… ‘What is wrong with you people?! Have you all gone mad?!!’

*Picture courtesy of Wayne Joyce’s Facebook page, which had the caption ‘You pathetic, sad people.’ Stuff & Shit supports this caption.