Oggy's Disposable Theory Of The Day

Ignore me at your own peril but my latest theory is that the Steve Jobs...Henry Fords...of the world were not endowed with something special...but actually were deficient in a particular human trait that allowed them to pursue their goals under a delusional belief they were benefiting everyone when actually they were merely materializing their own selfish utopia. But they aren't all to blame because it takes the Messianic lap dog attitude of numb consumers to follow and worship these inventors although it complicates their life and brings to fruition technology for the sake of technology with a gigantic propaganda campaign designed to obscure the actual ramifications. I think everyone has flashes of inspiration about some invention or process and then their conscience kicks in and they think, "Oh, wait, that would fuck everything up for Mr. X living in Y country. I'd better not." Well, Steve Jobs wasn't afflicted by that voice of caution. He seemed to think people in China were simply waiting around to spend 14 hours a day snapping together iphone cases.

Of course, I sound like the Unabomber now so can be dismissed easily but I have been percolating all the trends of modern life and this is my latest conclusion: we are allowing ourselves to be led by autistic people. I'm no expert on autism so I use that word to describe someone who has a critical imbalance in social and philosophical and mechanical computations. That imbalance can lead to an abundance of sympathy like in the case of Temple Grandin or a deficiency like in Steve Jobs. Was Steve Jobs autistic? I think he was because he lacked a quality that makes someone consider the consequences of his actions. Modern technology development is irresponsibly destructive and criminally imbalanced toward developed nations. All the waste, impact, slavery, ecological damage is suffered by those who can not afford a publicity campaign on their behalf. They can't defend themselves. All the benefit is enjoyed by those too selfish to care, those who repeatedly bash the skulls in of the poor but believe ignorance is denial and denial is bliss. If you don't know the consequences of high tech devices then consider yourself one of the content billions of manipulated consumers who fell victim to Apple's brilliant propaganda campaign. The autistic people I've been around have a similar quality...they can not feel or express sympathy, let alone empathy. This is not to disparage autistic people. Temple Grandin's autism seems to filter out the ridiculous human/animal misconceptions that were traditional before she came along. It's a spectrum disorder with various unpredictable manifestations. Go check out Derek Paravacini for one result. Grandin's not necessarily smarter than other animal scientists but she is not immediately hampered by traditions that don't work...which in itself makes her work original. She's abundantly sympathetic to animals. Her goals cater to the conditions of livestock while humans are here only to bring those goals to life. Jobs saw people as irrelevant instruments slowly evolving into a computer chip. Maybe he's right and I'm a total asshole.