Their shops spread across the world, the internal decoration of these shops reminds temples, the temples with unavailable for a mere mortal ''altar'', with visual symbols for worshipping, with noisy crowds of sanctified zealots. The staff of the shops - from the simple salesmen to the top-managers bears a resemblance to ministers of religion, with joyful excitement they ready to share with you the secrets of knowledge of happiness. The goods they release are usually the subjects of religious idolatry for millions of people on the planet. It drives them into mass ecstasies, at first days after the opening of the new shops or new release of a product, the information about it promptly spreads among the parishioners, and it turns into the shapes of universal holiday.
Who I am talking about? Maybe about Apple, or maybe about McDonalds? Or possibly about Adidas? Ferrari? Procter and Gamble? World of Warcraft? In the modern world, all global manufacturers aimed on the satisfaction of the people's needs, bearing a resemblance to churches, or even to sects (though I see no major difference between churches and sects). The difference of the bestselling computer brand Apple is enormous, because not only its production gained popularity on the planet, but the owner of this brand personally got this famous too. His name is Steve Jobs.
Does he deserved this popularity? Yes he deserved it. Talented.. not an inventor or a programmer, but an organiser who throughout tens of years gathered his team for the known objectives. He's a genial promoter who precisely knew how to hit the bull's eye in the people's needs and how to ''charge'' the people making them tremble during their expectations. The same person is Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft - a friend and competitor of Steve Jobs.
But still, why these two ''computer genius'' famous everywhere we go on the planet Earth, yet almost no one knows surnames of the directors of famous corporations which produce material goods like cars, clothing, food? Why among the global business tycoons the two most popular figures are creators of the ''virtual universe'' which absorbed perception and life times of billions of Earthmen?
Possibly it's because Apple and Microsoft are ideal examples of a stunted growth, or it would be more correct to say they are examples of a ''zero-growth'' and ''ceased development'' the process of ceased development has began to strengthen in the end of XX century. Created in the bosoms of globalization the general idea of it implies re-orientation of the science from the crucial ways of its development like researching the nuclear fusion, secrets of deceases and death, space development, creation of the teachings about the social harmony etc, on the narrow tracks of ''development of the information-oriented society''.
This great substitution was supported by the ruling elites and tycoons of the global business, because it opened a whale of opportunity for manipulation of the society's consciousness. The informational technologies are the basis of the ''technocratic totalitarism'' in the best traditions of the mottos like ''Big Brother watches you!'', which allows the governments of the countries to control their own citizens. And mainly on these technologies was built the society of consumption, which gives the greatest profits to the transnational corporations.
But the worst thing is that this decoy was taken by people. Got tired of thousand years working, building the planet and disapointed by the science, feared by the world wars and nuclear weapon people ran away from the real world to their virtual reality, getting perverse satisfaction from the degradated artificial world. Instead of dealing with the most important and really significant questions of existence, people started to build their imaginative air castles.
Instead of building the truth and real relations with living matter - society, nature, challenging threats - people turned into persons who with self-admiration create their alter ego on the hard disk drives in the computer networks. And such questions like ''to be or not to be?'' as not wanted were put aside, the only question now is where to get some extra RAM, new hard disk, bigger screen, smarter notebook or to download some ''useful'' program.
Gradually the virtual world absorbed even the ''Big Brother'' and ''consumption society''. With the wide spread of social networks, authorities don't even need to keep expensive counter-intelligence: people are on their own, from the bottom of their heart, publicly share all the information about their secrets, their personal life, their dreams, their plans. As for the consumption boom which thanks to the computers transformed from the shop counters into the financial sphere, interfered the market of derivatives and inflated the bubbles of loans and futures.
Now the bubbles are blowing, turning into the bankruptcy entire countries. But people don't give a fuck. Potential space travelers, universe discoverers, settlers of new colonies on the planets of the solar system or beyond it turned into the players with phones. A lot of scientists care only about how to upgrade their computer, giving a hope medics are currently beyond this universe, instead of creating cures against new deceases they concerned only in how to break through the crowd of the people in the day of ''new sells''.
And the world tops in the society of consumers have taken by ''computer Empires''. They manage to sell people not just ''commodity'', but ''fake commodity'', virtual code of the program, new setting in the eternal architecture of chips, cards, codes, online-subscribes. On this trade fair of fake goods, Apple went far than others, it managed to turn into the bestseller a naked brand, which has nothing behind it, nothing except human vainglory and unquenchable thirst of get the bitten apple.
Of course I feel sorry for passed away Steve Jobs, as well as I fell sorry for every passed away person. But does his ingenuity fits with the current world? With the dark times where the world sinks into. Unfortunately, we will never find this answer in the core of the new iPhone.
