Serenity Now, Insanity Later

I’m kind of at loss for words. Not because Steve passed away but because of the world wide response. People are expressing a lot of feelings for the passing of a man few knew personally.

This really isn’t about taking anything away from Steve. He was obviously a very brilliant visionary in the space of consumer electronics and user experience. But when I logged on to Facebook yesterday, or even Twitter, you would have thought that Obama had passed on. Not Steve. In fact I actually wonder if Obama would get the same reaction.

Many great people have come and gone. Leaving their legacy to carry on their names. And I don’t mean to be controversial but is Steve really comparable to somebody like Martin Luther King? Is he really an icon? If so, what did he stand for?

As far as I know he wasn’t involved in healing the sick or feeding the poor. He built up a company that made great products that cost an arm and a leg and got away with it year after year. So where is the human aspect in all this? What was it about Steve that has left everybody so captivated and so affected?

I guess there’s no surprise here though. What are people to do when their idol of worship has moved onto higher things? 

The early death of anybody is a sad affair. And Steve Jobs is no exception. May he rest in peace, he was unique. But I would like to believe that there is more to life than iPods, iPhones and iPads. And that there are individuals out there fighting for much more important and just causes who just might change the world in a measurable and meaningful way, if they only had the same kind of attention from us as Steve did.