A piece in today's Wall Street Journal (Europe) by the publisher of Forbes magazine, Rich Karlgaard, makes an interesting case study of St Eve of Jobs, the Apple man who I can't seem to stop writing about at the moment (this is the last one, I promise).
I think the article's subscription only (here is a link to WSJ.com) so I'm going to crib it and distill it down to the most important bits.
It begins with a rather strong opening gambit: "The greatness of American democratic capitalism can be summed up in two words: Steve Jobs".
But there is, always has been, a dark side to his genius. Once again we see it. Angered out of scale by an unauthorized biography, Jobs went nuclear last week. He banished iCon from Apple stores. You might say, fine, that is his prerogative. But is it wise? Apple's shareholders, not its CEO, own the stores. The dummy here is Mr Jobs.
The genius, idealism, charisma, salesmanship, obsession, paranoia and cruelty that come together in Steve Jobs and other great American icons such as Henry Ford and Howard Hughes also combine in history's worst tyrants. The cult of personality built around Lenin and Mao is not unlike the cult Macolytes have built around Mr Jobs.
But, says Karlgaard, the beauty of America is that "it takes would-be Lenins, redemms them in the crucible of capitalism, and turns out Steve Jobs".
PS: Please forgive the rather dodgy Photoshoppery, but it was too good to miss.
