"Good" as in "He was a Good Man"

Note: I began to write this post the very same day Steve Jobs died. Reading the huge amount of information about him and how others ponder his life gave me second thoughts. So many people saying wonderful, marvelous stories on the way he changed their lives...by giving them a device to listen to music, a really, really cool laptop or a phone to do far more than just a phone call. It allows you to play endless hours killing angry birds (let´s be honest here, that is one of the most used apps, not the mobile version of the Wikipedia). Now I am indeed tired of it and would like to add some details to balance the legacy he has left behind.

      "The man is dead. It was all over the news today. Few men more notorious than the late Steve Jobs, CEO and endless times re founder of the Fruit Logo Company.

     I am sure that he was a good man to his family, friends, even coworkers at Cupertino (even though many stories about the possibility of been fired after an encounter with him in the elevator in one of his bad days can be found out there to refute this one). Certainly not to employees in China working over the clock to satisfy the hunger for new sets coming from the Apple stores across the globe. But all that is not my point here. How people is about to describe him and make us read countless obituaries is the reason of this post. When someone dies, sad as it is, people related to him and, like in this case, many others will express condolences, say things about the deceased and comfort those who grieve the big lost.

     To wait for today may be seen as an opportunistic attempt to look for attention. One speaks or writes about whatever is in his mind and from now on is going to be virtually impossible not to think about Jobs in every available angle. One can say that almost everybody liked him because he represented the most precious value nowadays, success. Over and over again, against all odds. The best Hollywood movie is always in the real life somewhere. He gave us hope? Yes, in a way. He is a good value for our children to pursue? May be, may be not. What he characterized is one side of mankind. That one that makes it progress based on hard work of the brightest leading the way to the rest of us. But don´t look for a purpose there, at least not a higher one. Picasso, whom some call the greatest artist on the 20th century, changed the concept of art. New ways to approach to beauty are now present thanks to him and more artist like him. At the same time he also painted that scary, dragging, dark masterpiece called Guernica denouncing the bestiality of war. Probably that picture has had more impact in the hearts of people around the world than most other well-intentioned speeches against war, and for that he has my respect. But when I look to Steve, with so much power to influence in multiple different ways to an entire generation, I see him spreading hunger for consumer products, luxury devices, crammed with beauty, expensive ones that set off the purchase lust like madness all over the world.

     On a certain interview he said philanthropy is something that requires a full time job to do it properly and, at the moment, he had other priorities concerning his company. That is as much as saying no to almost everything we cannot be certain to achieve perfectly. That sends a message too. The ultimate excuse not to do so many things. For those who have spent their lives telling people that a little bit of them multiplied by millions can make the difference is not a good view to see how they have to fight "priorities". Instead of "help what you can even though you cannot change the world because many others are doing the same", we have now the "life is too short, pursuit your dream" being advertised by a far better, far cooler and far more alluring succeeder.

     Good men are those who ease suffering, struggle for peace, discover new medicines, not those who just enhance the user experience."

The Tryumph of Capitalism...Not Really

For some time now I have been thinking about what they said in 1991, following the events that dissolved that weird thing called U.S.S.R. Without exceptions the press was editorializing the whole thing as a victory: "Communism has died, long live to Capitalism!". Could have been a perfect headline for a news summary those days. While writing this I am realizing how always hated the way some people mix the words Capitalism and Democracy. It is like giving credit to the former by association to the later, undoubtedly more respectable.

Going back twenty years ago, I was a young man then, but not so young as not to care about what was taking place in front of my eyes. I recall me thinking: first the wall, now this, and broadcasted all over the world on live feed! Happy then to see that monster disappear, still happy now with the perspective of time and some white hair (not much actually) inhabiting my head. Everybody thought that was the beginning of a new era where people could mind their own business and stop worrying about the bomb or the Evil Empire (Reagan dixit).

But what do you expect to happen to Batman if there is nobody out there defying his supremacy and keeping him in shape? Yes, of course, Russia was still there and China, no doubt about it, is here now. But lacking new ideas to confront the so called Capitalism concept, they have just embraced they own wicked version of it and are more worried on the pursuit of their Eldorado than entering a discussion on where we all, and by that I mean the World, are heading. As a result we have a big fat guy with his underwear over the trousers sitting in our living room and drinking our beer while the World...well...

So the small guys took over long ago. "Don't worry, have a rest, from now on we can manage on the details". They are smart, this people. They use to work at places like Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch and believe it or not, still do, same place, same desk, just a different name on the door. They have mastered the ability to use the details of the law to betray the spirit of the law. They refer to it as Financial Engineering and for that they should be awarded because it is not small achievement to make things like putting some junk on a pretty box, label it and make everybody buy with the least clue of what was in the box. While Batman was watching the game the men with the fancy suits changed the operating system but kept the name and nobody noticed...or at least nobody took the time to explain the common citizens what was going on with their beloved Democracy.

The Wikipedia says: "Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives." I do believe this is the best way for us, human beings, to live together protecting our children against whatever is out there. On the other hand it stipulates the following: "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets." This may not sound strange at all because is a concept we are utterly used to. Nothing more and nothing less than the law of the jungle. Precisely what mankind has tried to avoid for the last thousands of years. The victory of the strongest to ensure a better ADN for the next generation.

Let's think it over. If a certain people (or country) are doomed for starvation it cannot be called Democracy even though they have non tampered electoral processes because they didn't choose such fate and still there it is. The problem is citizens on the so-called first/rich world, not being asked whether they prefer a new highway or food for a kid in who knows what poor country. As rich as we are, so eager for cool phones and new ways to read a book, when the question is presented in the correct way I don't think anybody would hesitate on the answer.

But that easy-to-make polling proposal, simple as might look, hides a more deep analysis of today's acknowledge of the Democracy concept. The idea that in nowadays globalized world it could work for only some of us. When we speak of a person no one says he or she is a good person because so far he has been nice to you. A criminal is a criminal no matter how fair treats us and so is a corporation, no matter whether it complies with the laws of one country if it uses unfair countries with unfair laws to make the things it sells to you. They will argue that they respect the law in every country they have presence but it is again that imaginative interpretation of the letter to betray the spirit.

The sooner voters agree that borders and countries should only be seen for cultural purposes and human beings are essentially the same and should be treated the same the earlier politicians will understand the notion and defend it as our true representatives.

"Democracy should be a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives ... as far as those decisions do not cause pain and injustice anywhere else around the world either directly or by omission".

Meanwhile, Capitalism has not prevailed, simply we have just lost out.