UK's chief rabbi blames Apple for 'egocentric culture' [u]
A spokesman for Sacks has followed up with a clarification to note that the rabbi meant no criticism toward Steve Jobs or Apple as a company. Instead, he said it's the "potential dangers of consumerism" which can be taken too far by some individuals.
Sacks made the comments in the presence of the Queen at an interfaith reception last week, reinterpreted the "i" in Apple's popular naming scheme as an indication of an increasingly selfish society, as noted by The Telegraph.
âThe consumer society was laid down by the late Steve Jobs coming down the mountain with two tablets, iPad one and iPad two, and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i, i, i," he said. âWhen youâre an individualist, egocentric culture and you only care about 'iâ, you donât do terribly well.â
The rabbi went on to say that the consumer ethic fosters ingratitude because it makes people unhappy with what they have. People should instead spend their time thanking God for things they do have, Sacks said.
"The consumer society is in fact the most efficient mechanism ever devised for the creation and distribution of unhappiness,â he added, singling out consumer desire for new iPhone models as an example.
Sacks called on the devout to observe the traditional Jewish day of rest, the Shabbat, in order to avoid the trap of materialism. "Therefore the answer to the consumer society is the world of faith, which the Jews call the world of Shabbat, where you canât shop and you canât spend and you spend your time with things that matter, with family," he said.
At least one of the audience members present at the meeting was an iDevice owner, as reports revealed earlier this year that Queen Elizabeth II was so impressed with her grandsons' iPads that she ordered one for herself. The Queen is said to be a "big fan" of Apple's products and reportedly owns two iPods, including one given to her as a gift by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.
For his part, Jobs was considered for knighthood in the U.K. 2009, but the plans were said to have been scrapped because he declined an invitation to speak at a political conference. However, Apple's lead designer and U.K. citizen, Jonathan Ive, has received the title of Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, one step below knighthood.
116 Comments
Sacks made the comments in the presence of the Queen at an interfaith reception last week, reinterpreted the "i" in Apple's popular naming scheme as an indication of an increasingly selfish society?
?flying in the face of the past fifteen years of the real meaning behind the lowercase I.
Correct, but not very relevant.
Anyway, I imagine this thing will be moved to PoliticalOutsider in short order.
spend your time with things that matter, with family
And if you use the iPad on the other six days to communicate with family, does that suddenly make it holy? I love religious "logic".
Lots of Jews work at Apple.
I do think that modern day Apple users are insatiable and materialistic to the point of ridiculousness. It makes me when I read users posting that they sold their iPhone 4 so they can upgrade to an iPhone 4S. Seriously? Are you that dissatisfied with your life? I believe that it is the newer bandwagon Apple users that are like this, though. The old school fellas like myself tend to be loyal and stick with our Macs like we do with our underwear- until it is absolutely necessary to upgrade.
I suggest rabbi reads on wealth of nations and how caring about your own interest translates into good for all. Than he should study up on communism and how collectivst societies fail. After that he should read somephysics and coding textbooks to see how many people it takes to make an idevice. Finally he should pull his head out of the gutter and see that we are living in the best of times, people are much more tolerant and caring than they have ever been, and apple has recently started an employee confrubution scheme.
I give the same suggestion to muslims and every ofher religious leader complaing about modern society.