I’ve been watching the speech in which Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone, and while I think it’s an awful neat phone, and Steve Jobs is an awfully impressive entrepreneur, my strongest impression is one of revulsion. Don’t get me wrong: the phone is beautiful, and I’ve already placed an order. It’s the adulation and joy coming from audience, as if the introduction of an awfully neat phone is a cause for great rejoicing in the world, as if Steve Jobs is making the world a vastly better place, that’s so gross.
I like gadgetry as much as the next technophile, and I appreciate Apply for bringing great design and new technology to the world, but I watch the speech, and listen to the crowd, and it’s as if Jobs is saying, "let them eat cake." The world’s going to hell in a footbasket (I don’t know what a footbasket is, if it’s anything, but then, I never knew what a handbasket was either), and Apple-lovers should have that somewhere in the back of their heads when they’re hoisting Jobs up onto his Everest-high pedestal.
