tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post8502438127630121242..comments2024-03-18T22:39:50.137-07:00Comments on A Kindle World blog: Steve Jobs, 1955-2011 Advice to those "New" before clearing the "Old"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-29060257083676305562011-10-06T12:03:44.478-07:002011-10-06T12:03:44.478-07:00Mike,
There's hype and there's hype. Co...Mike,<br /> There's hype and there's hype. Comparing Jobs's "unreasonableness" as it was often described (entirely appropriately) to Hitler's or Stalin's is entirely INappropriate, in my view.<br /><br /> Little motivational speeches often have large grains of truth to them and of course too much of the easy-think cannot apply to the 'common man' but that's not what we were talking about yesterday. It wasn't the death of a common person. It WAS the death of someone who had accomplished a lot and while doing so could be quite 'unreasonable' to others.<br /><br /> For SURE, Jobs could be more than unreasonable in his expectations of others, but in his case he created what many would consider very positive results, whether or not we might like the person, and nothing in that statement, no matter what its source, deserved the comparisons you made.<br /><br /> As you know, I was not a fan -- that doesn't mean I don't see what he did accomplish and that was quite a history.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05109282436243758435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-872447660964013545.post-81754318973133122202011-10-06T09:24:35.031-07:002011-10-06T09:24:35.031-07:00Cain remarks, quoting Shaw: "'The reasona...Cain remarks, quoting Shaw: "'The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.'"<br /><br />That quote comes from Shaw's "Man and Superman," which should give you some hint of its real meaning. Most of the horrors of the twentieth century were committed by unreasonable men, each of whom tried "to adapt the world to himself" in the pursuit of what he considered "progress." Most had no trouble attracting millions of well-educated followers. Stalin grew so disgusted with their pilgrimages to the Soviet Union that he sneered at them as "useful idiots." Who Voted for Hitler found that the more affluent and better educated a neighborhood, the more likely it voted Nazi.<br /><br />Hitler wanted a world without Jews, whom he considered less than human. Stalin wanted one without kulaks (independent farmers). Abortion legalization was justified as a way to create a world without "unwanted children." And those destructive points of view go all the way down to the mugger, who wants a world where he has your money, the transfer of wealth being his idea of progress.<br /><br />That's wrong. No man, reasonable or unreasonable, has a right to "adapt the world to himself." Over six billion people live in this world. No one of them has a right to dictate to the rest of us what sort of world we live in, much less whether we live or die.<br /><br />Sorry for the rant. I'm quite aware that silly people use that quote for silly purposes rather evil agendas. But I have a particular dislike for the "motivational quote" sort who blunder through life with mottos they use to sell home siding without any awareness of what those quotes actually mean. A universe centered around a shallow personal ambition is as warped as one centered on a hideous global one.<br /><br />You can see where that sort of self-focused agenda leads in the news. Virtually every giant high-tech corporation on the planet seems to be caught up in lawsuits against the others. The world not only must be shaped their way, it has to carry their trademarked logo on it. All of them need to learn to be more adaptable to the world as it is rather than as they might want it to be.<br /><br />--Michael W. Perry, editor of Chesterton on War and Peace: Battling the Ideas and Movements that Led to Nazism and World War IIMichael W. Perryhttp://www.inklingbooks.com/noreply@blogger.com