I don't want to suggest that I am some sort of heartless ogre who is addicted to TV and spikes into incandescent rage when I don't get my GMTV or Eastenders fix, but the fact is I did not know this woman. If I had died under the same circumstances would she have shed a tear for me? Clearly not. This not because she was a callous bitch either - just because she doesn't know anything about me and that's the reality. You could argue that through her good work and duties she touched many lives and these were the people that were expressing their emotions - and I get this, but I would argue that in truth these people were in the significant minority and the rest just jumped on the band-wagon and formed a gang of faux-maudlin rioters spreading their grief through the streets like a fire.

 

It's sad when someone dies and death should be respected and reflected upon by the family members and friends who knew the individual on a personal level, and with a nod or passing glance by those who did not but were affected by their lives. Often in the case of celebrities death breeds superlatives beyond reason. This angers me - especially if I can't watch telly due to yet another discussion about an exceptional life (forget any negative traits or controversy for now, because y'know she's dead n tha'). In human context was she anything more than a nice but dim, rich woman who married into celebrity and chose to use this celebrity to aid good causes? Maybe she was, but I don't know that because I didn't know her and I refused to pretend that I did.

Thursday 6th October 2011, today in fact, it is announced that Steve Jobs ex-CEO of Apple has sadly died and after an hour or two Twitter and Facebook are starting to remind me of Princess Diana's death and the outpouring of emotion by people who cannot separate their own lives from those of someone they feel they should mourn because everyone else is. I am a big Apple fan as I have stated on here many times and I enjoy their technical innovations, products and general approach. I am aware that Steve Jobs was a driving force behind many of these innovations and deserves our respect as a highly creative and ultimately very successful business man. The iMac, iPod, iPhone, iPad and whatnot have all added to the rich technological tapestry that form our existence here in the 21st century and other distinct innovations in the past have fundamentally changed the scape of the market 49th floor operate in. The big thing is that companies are more than one man and this is particularly the case with a global behemoth such as Apple, even 49th Floor has 2 utterly separate individuals at it's core. Steve Jobs might have been the man standing at the front delivering exceptional keynote speeches and he might have been the man that had a say in the companies success on a major scale, but is he alone responsible for the flagship developments of recent times that the general public appear to hold so dear?

Let me break this wide open - no. He might have attended the meeting, approved the financing or established the development schedule, but the fact is that Apple on the whole produced those products by working together and engaging with the keen skill of a multitude of people. It's the combined application of the organisation on the whole that I respect not a lucky fellow who made talented friends and rode his gravy train as far as it would take him flying the flag for everyone beneath him. I'm sure he worked damn hard - but who doesn't, especially in big commercial companies. To those that have written something along the lines of "We'll miss you Steve' I would like to ask this; why? Did you know him? Did you speak to him? Share a beer? Talk about the game? Do you have such little respect for Apple on the whole that you think that his unfortunate and early demise will change ANYTHING about how that company operates? You may as well say you're going to miss Tom Johnstone, CEO of SKF when he dies. SKF make ball-bearings and they impact all of our lives to a huge extent. He is a successful business man working hard to ensure his company remains at the top of the tree, but you don't care about him because he hasn't manufactured himself into a palatable package ready for media consumption.

People have started saying things like 'he changed my life' but really they mean 'insert iProduct X changed my life' and even then is that really true? Where would we be without the incredibly expensive techno-junk that they have created? In exactly the same place doing exactly the same thing with equipment that is virtually the same. Let me put this into perspective;

Language
Antibiotics
Anaesthetic
Printing Press
Birth Control
Light bulb
Telephone
The Internet
iPod - it's OK, we have CD players, Walkman, MiniDisc players and a million different MP3 Players
iPhone - dry your eyes, go and grab yourself a Motorolla or Samsung
iPad - buy a paper or read a book
iMac - get another computer - there's a bagillion and there'll ALL be cheaper

I DO think that Apple products are great but they aren't Earth shattering ones on their own - but are expensive developments or re-designs of established concepts and saying they define your life is just plain stupid.

Steve Jobs has died early and that is sad, but please don't remember him like he was a God - he was a very, very rich and successful business man and to get to own that crown he also need a ruthless streak which might well tarnish some of those po-faced quotes that are being splattered all over the place as I speak. He was a master of marketing and this is best observed in the public perception of the man himself who managed to carve out the visage of a charismatic innovator and approachable boss beyond that of a cut-throat business mastermind. By all means mourn Steve Jobs if you knew him or if you feel he touched your life, but do so privately and bare in mind that I expect you to write quips and quotes when the following people die:

Mohamed Al Fayed
Ken Bates
Mark Thompson
Sir Clive Sinclair
Allan Sugar
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
Tony Blair