
You are sick, get some perspective
The Apple
infected US press has gone wild over the fact that Steve Jobs has actually
admitted he is sick.
A sentence like, and I kid you not, "The most famous
pancreas in America is the one belonging to Apple CEO Steve Jobs" are being used
throughout the news wire. Hacks throughout the world are googling the word
Pancreas to find out what is ailing the Apple Messiah. It is worth mentioning
that Jobs didn't mention the C or the P word in his entire email to the world.
Instead he just said he had been sick because his hormones were a little out of
balance. Apple shares, which took a dive on the news, recovered and everyone
was happy.
However as the Google hacks point out Jobs had surgery in 2004 to
remove a malignant tumour in his pancreas, an organ responsible for producing
hormones and enzymes that are vital to the digestive and metabolic
system. According to Jobs his hormone imbalance was "robbing me of the
proteins my body needs to be healthy" and all he had was a nutritional
problem. The question is why does anyone give a monkey's about Jobs being
ill. The only story that tabloids should be writing that involve the word
hormones and Steve Jobs is if he decided to have a sex change.
Yet more
tabloid spaced is being spent looking at the head of what is after all a
technology company. What has made the head of a technology company so famous
that people are about him more than perhaps Patrick Swazie who has the same
illness and at least has an element of being really famous.
Really the head
of a technology company should be able to step down when he is feeling a bit ill
and rest up a bit. However Steve has pushed the Messiah button, not only among
fan boys but also amongst the increasingly Apple motivated press. He has
created an image of 'cool technology' which as made a generation of people feel
good about themselves. There is no logic behind this, because as I have said
before, Apple is just as evil as Microsoft and other technology companies it has
just convinced people it has their best interests at heart. But while Jobs
probably does not want to be a Messiah, there are legions of people with no
perspective on life, who believe he really is.
Unfortunately the shelf life
of Messiahs is really short. There are few messiahs that retire after their job
has done to their palatial mansions. Normally the way is feet first, on the
job, sometimes nailed up by a ruling dynasty. The problem with Steve is
that, like many of his shareholders, he does not believe that his empire can run
without him. It is as if he has believed his own marketing and thinks he will
continue always.
Personally I would have a lot of respect for Jobs if he
quit. It would mean that he would set aside the legions of fanboys, the Apple
gizmos, and do something that is more important. Enjoying life and the
squillians he has earned.