urltea.com/wdp -> ostroyreport.blogspot.com/2007/07/apple-is-creating-generation-of-itards.html
The Ostroy Report The Ostroy Report is a fresh, aggressive answer to the powerful Right Wing spin machine. We take on Bush, the Republican Party and the conservative media. Our mission is to help Democrats regain the White House and Congress. Monday, July 02, 2007 Apple is Creating a Generation of iTards I received an email from my pal Nathan Dean the other day. It included some biting commentary about our dispassionate, distracted and disconnected citizenry--especially young people--in America today. "Not a young man that is so passionate about his fellow youngsters fighting an illegitimate war, or a corrupt executive branch," Dean railed, "but the face of the majority of our youth and much of our country." A subculture of bazillions of disciples of their guru and chief Tard Steve Jobs, who've become fallen-down drunk on the "i" kool-aid. A whole generation of iTards who seem to care more for the state of technology than they do the state of America's domestic and international health. They'll wait on line for days to buy this newest of i-gadgetry, but just ask them why we're in Iraq. Their political apathy and indifference can be mind-numbing. Victory for them is not bringing our 150,000 soldiers home from war without any further casualties. No, for these iTards victory is scoring two of these frighteningly efficient toys that can do just about everything but wipe your iAss. This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the fabled Summer of Love. Yet in 1967, students and society in general were rabidly curious about, and passionate for, national and world affairs while their 2007 contemporaries are essentially comatose. No wonder the Busheviks have been able to trample on the constitution with reckless abandon. The nation has been too busy making Steve Jobs rich to notice.
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Among the admittedly small sampling of technology users I know, I think liberal political values and outrage over the ongoing debacle in Iraq has a higher incidence among the Apple folk than among the Microsofties. I'm inclined to interpret this as a case where someone who happens to be outraged at one group (Bush followers) as well as at another group (Apple fans) decides to lump them both together for convenience' sake, rather than because there's any real connection between the two targets. you're welcome to spout off about anyone you like and in whatever manner you like. But it's not very persuasive for people who don't start off agreeing with you.
I wouldn't be too hard on Mr Jobs and his company, since this phenomenon has been apparent in our society for quite some time, and the iPhone is just the latest occurrence. It's clearly a sign of our ever-burgeoning consumerist society, where what you are isn't defined by what you do (either as a vocation or an avocation), what you say, or what you think, but by what you consume. In a society where the acquisition of trendy, fashionable material goods is paramount, anything dealing with abstracts is relegated to a position of lesser importance. In the past, we've seen many occurrences similar to the iPhone hoopla with Cabbage Patch dolls, Windows '95, Playstations 1 and 2, the XBox, and the iterations of "Tickle Me Elmo" to name just a few. Unfortunately, we'll probably continue to see many more such triumphs of consumerism and materialism over quality of life and ideas, not to mention over our political future.
I find my company provided cell phone and my personal cell phone a distraction. I'm sick of people constantly talking on their cells and worse yet are the people that have Black Berrys. Try and hold a conversation with a "Crack Berry" user and all they do is constantly muck with their phone, checking emails and messing with the internet.
Linking idiots who stand in line to be a first-to-own a technical gadget to today's political disconnect of our youth is totally random. You could be making the same statement about the idiots who stand in line to see your wife's or any Hollywood actor's movies. The detachment from America's political process has as much to do with Democrats as it does with Republicans. Independent people are disenfranchised because neither party is representative of their value system. If you are tired of today's political system, stop voting for Democrats and Republicans. Research third party candidates and give your vote to the best candidate. If nobody is worth your vote, don't give it to anyone - abstain from the presidential election or write someone in. If every American actually did this, Republicans and Democrats could not take advantage of us.
And let me apologize (though I know I don't have to) for at least three of the people here who opened their mouths before they thought logically about their retorts. a bunch of morons who haven't the capacity to think for themselves so they spout ignorance and stupidity instead of just admitting the truth of the world we live in today. Yes, technology has done wonderful things for us over the course of the past 20 years. But in many ways, it has turned many people into complacent, lazy, irresponsible idiots who should really get a life. and I was intelligent enough to figure out THAT was your point. My sincerest apologies on behalf of the last person here who spoke about your wife's movies. The world is full of the wrong kinds of people - as Ellen DeGeneres so eloquently says - and so often they rear their ugly heads in unwanted directions. Your wife's legacy will live on through all of the beautiful work she did. either get some damn manners or keep your filthy mouths shut.
As someone who respects Nathan up close and you from afar, I do think you are both drawing a fairly facile link between apathy and technology. My husband and I are rabid technophiles and we marched against the war (with a lot of tech-head pals). I agree that culture is increasingly "dispassionate, distracted and disconnected" and that our attachment to technology and entertainment has the ability to distance us from each other, BUT our activist brothers and sisters in an earlier generation were junkies and drunks and sex addicts (so reports my much-older sister). Moreover, according to Gallup, more than half of America hadn't heard the word Watergate in 1974. I cautiously assert that an overwhleming majority of the people who stood in line for an iPhone are oppossed to the war and vote. I would further posit that they are more likely to have taken action - made a donation, campaigned, protested - than the average sample of Americans. Yes, we have some very profound issues to deal with in our culture. Yes, the seduction and isolation of technology is among them.
I think the point ostroys making here is not simply that everyone who was on line to buy an I-phone is an apathetic moron. or that none of them ever protested or campaigned for anyone. rather, hes merely saying that this particular kid in the picture, unlike the young man who stood before the Chinese tank in Tiannenman Sqaure, is symbolic of the general apathy that inflicts our young people today. Are you really going to compare the 60's children to those of...
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