“Here in the U.S., culture is not that delicious panacea which we Europeans consume in a sacramental mental space and which has its own special columns in newspapers – and in people’s minds. Culture is space, speed, cinema, technology. This culture is authentic, if anything can be said to be authentic . . . . In America, cinema is true because it is the whole of space. The break between the two, the abstraction we deplore, does not exist: life is cinema.”
– Jean Baudrillard, “America,” 1989
Dear Steve Jobs:
I can anticipate your response to the Baudrillard. Point to the global sales of your iPods, and iPhones, and iTunes, and iTouches, and iPads, and soon to come, iTVs. When did Baudrillard publish “America” in America? 1989? In the digital age, that’s ancient history. If there is a “sacramental mental space” in Europe, then I’m not convinced – you’d say – that it subscribes to Apple Inc. What we couldn’t bring about with military or trade agreements, we’ve managed through technology and style. Indeed, space, speed, cinema and technology is culture. But not just in America. Everywhere.
Full disclosure: While an American citizen, I am culturally a Canadian. Not that makes me any way superior. I think the social philosopher George Grant has it right. Canadians live next to a society that is the very heart of modernity, and, given that nearly all have shown they think modernity is good ( ie, you, Steve Jobs, are god. Not God but small “g” god), then nothing essential distinguishes them from Americans, Grant wrote.
Suffice to say that I agree with you, Steve. And Baudrillard. And Grant. Where I part ways is the reaction to these truths. I wouldn’t be writing to you if I didn’t feel that we each had an epiphany as young men when we saw in use our first Walkmans. I admit I come to this conclusion in an unscientific way. But we are the same age: you turned 55 in February, I’ll be 55 in October. I’ll hazard a guess that your first glimpse of a Walkman – mine happened when I was 19 in 1975 (see Running Without Headphones) – was an important memory for you. But while my gut reaction was opposition, yours, undoubtedly, was opportunity.
Which is not to say that my reaction is any better than your reaction. And, as they say, money is a damn poor measure of success, but in America – and yes, Steve, in Europe and Canada too – it’s all we’ve got.
You’ve certainly got me there. What has my savage eye brought me? A lifetime of running, reading and writing. In your case, chasing those opportunities has led you to become an obscenely rich man, a god of our times.
Me, I put my inside out. You, you keep your inside in. Your mystique, your genius is in keeping us guessing as to what is coming next. Your eye’s on the prize: being the world’s social director. Leisure time is Jobs time. What did Curt Schilling say about aura and mystique? That “those are dancers in a nightclub.”
Steve, like Curt, I’m not buying it. The ear buds, the iFocus. It may not happen right away, but there’s a backlash brewing. Think Carthage, Rome, England. Empires don’t last forever. Discover slowness, choose analog, try technology-free weekends.
Steve, I know you will not answer me. But others will. That’s how it starts.
Next: Running for Your Life: Week Four
