Itunes and Apple Come Out as Anti-American and Anti-God

OF THE MANY MILLIONS OF SONGS AVAILABLE ON ITUNES, it is more than just an accident that this one is being given away free at present in the "Alternative" category** : When The President Talks To God

When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he's not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?

At the link above are the complete lyrics to this jejune and uninspired rant that catalogs the ever-revolving whines of the "oppressed" lunatics that pass themselves off as a genuine opposition party. We expect this from them. They literally have nothing else to offer other than unceasing blather in the same well-worn ruts. It's one thing to sell this song, but it is quite another to pander to these sentiments by giving them away in the midst of millions of others that you sell for 99 cents. That's not marketing, that's a statement of corporate policy.

And in any corporate policy coming out of Apple, it is axiomatic that it will either have the express approval of Steve Jobs, or be known to be something of which Steve would approve. That's the core of that Apple.

It never ceases to amaze me how many multi-millionaires that have been made by the growth of computers and the Internet have so little awareness of, or loyalty to, the forces of freedom, captialism, and religion that have created a society in which they have grown wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. It seems to be part of the too rich too early and too easily syndrome that afflicts these people. Still, I well understand how the possession of several hundreds of millions of dollars can set a person free of such mundane concerns as duty, honor, and country.

When you don't have to live anywhere, you start to think of yourself as a 'citizen of the world,' which -- in the end -- only means that you live nowhere, nowhere at all. Instead, you live on your yacht chosen by a yacht consultant, your jet decorated by a jet consultant, and in one of many house and apartments and houses surrounded by furniture you didn't choose and art you've been told to collect. You own a lot and are possessed by all of it. Whatever was originally you has been given so many designer window treatments you can't see into it. You have everything before you. You have nothing before you.

You purchase things and donate to charities not always because you want them, but because you accrue tax advantages from doing so. And besides, its what all your other peers have done, so why not you? And along with buying all the accessories, you also buy into the opinions and politics lest you not be invited to those special conferences, meetings, and functions that the wealthy toss up against the vacancy of their days to convince themselves that they are, indeed, worthy of their wealth. It's a shabby lifestyle, but it feels and looks good. It might even get you mentioned in the magazines. Preferably Vanity Fair, but People will do in a drought of self-affirmation. In time, you'll either get rid of your old friends or they'll get rid of you if they are not the kind of people that enjoy being a sycophant. Then you'll have all your new peers, employees and servants around you to tell you how brilliant you must be as long as you keep the donations or paychecks flowing. At that point, you'll be "in the bubble" and you won't be able to live outside it.

I've seen "being in the bubble" happen at least ten times to people I know. It is almost as if the granting of such immense privilege for so little effort instills in our microchip millionaires a compulsion to degrade and denigrate the source of their privilege. In another, more innocent, age this would have been called the nouveau riche's nostalgie pour le boue ("yearning for the mud"). In this age of harder edges we can call it what it is: arrogance and ingratitude expressed in a series of gestures that diminish the one making them more than their object.

In this small and spiteful gesture, Jobs, Apple and iTunes have revealed that, at bottom, they're not exactly for America or for God. Perhaps they have forgotten their earlier lessons in hubris. Perhaps America and God will soon remind them.
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**To locate the free offer, search iTunes music store with "When the President Talks to God".

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Posted by Vanderleun at April 2, 2005 3:33 PM | TrackBack
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