After the funeral oration by Fr. Antonio Spadaro, the director of the Italian Jesuit magazine “Civiltà Cattolica”, who described the inventor of Apple as a “visionary, a genius, a revolutionary,” comes a critique from the historic Jesuit magazine “America.”
“Saint” or “exploiter”? A wise life guru like Saint Ignatius of Loyola or an avaricious man, who could not have cared less about the poor - like the rich man in Luke’s Gospel?
Despite being a Buddhist, Steve Jobs became a central figure in Catholic debate. He has even caused the Society of Jesus to “bicker” over him. Indeed it is mainly the Jesuits who are fighting over him. On the one hand there is Fr. Antonio Spadaro, director of the Italian Jesuit magazine “Civiltà Cattolica” who poured praise on him in his funeral oration, describing the founder of Apple as a “visionary, a genius, a revolutionary,” comparing him to Saint Ignatius of Loyola: “His vision of life and death is very similar to that of the Society of Jesus’ founder.”
On the other hand, are the criticisms made by U.S. Jesuits. Their opinion of Jobs is the complete opposite to Fr. Spadaro’s. Through their “America” magazine, they contest Jobs’ “consumer legacy”, pointing out that Jobs’ technological gems are assembled in China, in plants that look like “prison camps, where child labour, epidemics and suicides are rife.”
A critical reading of “the world of Steve Jobs” has been given by Raymond A. Schroth in “America” magazine, which is not just any magazine: based in New York and produced by Jesuits, it is considered the reference point of neoliberal Catholicism. As such, it is influential worldwide, the Vatican included. Mr. Schroth expressed harsh opinions about Jobs: “Apple is wonderful for its clients and investors but it is also a factory of misery for subcontracted employees in China.” This is made very clear by the example of the “Foxconn plant in Shenzhen”: 420 thousand workers who produce computers for Apple and other companies.
“And what has Jobs done with the capital earned?” U.S. Jesuits ask themselves. “He placed even the last slice of liquidity, amounting to 76 million dollars, in companies that were purposefully set up in fiscally advantageous states such as Nevada.”
“America” magazine stressed that unlike Steve Jobs, the other technology magnate, Bill Gates, “invested a big part of his wealth, in improving the lives of millions of people in the world’s poorest countries.” “The man who dies rich, dies disgraced.”
Thus, the Jesuit magazine made reference to the evangelical parable of the Rich man. But the director of the Italian Jesuit magazine “Civiltà Cattolica”, fought back in defence of Jobs, quoting what the Apple founder said on 12 June 2005 during his famous speech to Stanford graduates: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
According to the director of “Civiltà Cattolica”, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, these words “echo those pronounced by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, who believed that to make a good choice in life one had to make it as though they were near death: “As if I were at the point of death, to consider what procedure and what norms I would then wish to have followed in making the present election. I should take my decision taking entirely these as my rule (Spiritual Exercises, 186).”
So “neither in Saint Ignatius nor in Steve’s case was death seen as a bogeyman, but proof that fears, embarrassment and trivialities, disappear before the thought if death and what remains is what really matters, because this is what is really important to us. No human being, whether a believer or a non believer, can make decisions in their life, believing themselves to be immortal.”
The opinion expressed by the Holy See’s newspaper “L’Osservatore Romano”, was somewhere between “Civiltà Cattolica”’s “beatification” and “America”’s “excommunication”.
The newspaper stressed that “despite Steve Jobs’ grey areas (which are an inevitable in someone with such a complex personality), he has been one of the protagonists and symbols of the Silicon Valley revolution.”
An IT revolution, of course, but also a “revolution in customs, mentality and culture.” A revolution which “rode the golden wave of the Reagan years,” as the Holy See’s newspaper put it. “Pirate or Pioneer? Only history will tell. For now, what remains are his ingenious creations. By creating PCs and putting the internet in our pockets, Steve Jobs not only made the information revolution accessible to everyone, but he also made it fun. He was bold enough to believe he could change the world, as well as possessing the talent to make it happen. Talent, pure talent.”
Italian writer Umberto Eco had already made a link between Steve jobs and the Jesuits back in 1994: “No one has reflected enough on the new religious fight that is silently changing the modern world.”
The fact is that the world is split between Macintosh users and MS-DOS users. I strongly believe that Macintosh is Catholic and DOS is Protestant. In fact, Macintosh is counter-reformist and resents the Jesuits’ “ratio studiorum”. It is merry, friendly, conciliatory, it tells faithful how to proceed, step by step, if not to reach the Kingdom up above, then the final printing stage of a document. It is catechetical; the essence of revelation is resolved in comprehensible formulas and lavish icons. Everybody has the right to salvation.”
Whereas, according to Eco, “DOS is Protestant, Calvinist even. It prescribes a free interpretation of writings; it asks individuals to make personal and difficult decisions; it uses subtle hermeneutics; it takes it for granted that salvation is accessible to everyone. To make the system work, one has to interpret the programme personally: the user finds themselves a long way away from the joyful baroque community, closed in the solitude of their own inner rage.”
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