A reader writes:
Beautiful piece on Jobs and his uber-California mix of hippie spirituality and tech savvy. This struck me: “those who reflexively mock the counterculture miss its spiritual genius because they are incapable of the courage needed to understand it better.” Maybe you can recall this the next time you review some silly gay demonstration in Dolores Park, attended by hundreds of gay high-tech geniuses who work at Apple, Facebook, Google and the like, plus their families and children. I daresay many of them would think you’re missing some of the courage on display!
The “counterculture” in NorCal is a fabulous mix of high-tech and hippie. It’s self-absorbed and socialist. But a common thread in my experience is a stubborn rejection of the master-servant and fall-redemption stories essential to Christianity. We hug trees and climb mountains (because we have so many of both); we try to live authentically despite what preachers tell us will happen to us later; we build amazing products that people love; and we do a little too much yoga. Well, I don’t, but still.
After 6 years here, I’ve stopped sneering at the Silent Painting Protests and Meditation Slams. The smarty-pants me-first-but-you-too spirituality you admire in Jobs is thick in the air, and ripe for ridicule, but it has deep humanist and naturalist elements I’ve grown to love.
It’s both simplistic and simple. Maybe it’s all the religion we really need. It’s certainly easier for many people to embrace, especially those tired of being perpetually unrepentant.
All the philosophical trappings of Christianity you debate so vigorously on the same page as your Jobs tribute—the mysteries, the Truths lurking behind truths, the essential paradoxes, the doubts that strengthen the conclusions—fall away on a eucalyptus-scented stroll through a Redwood grove, snapping and emailing pictures on an iPhone.
Next time the Castro’s hairy bears in tutus poke fun at the religions that have humiliated them, just imagine they are Steve Jobs poking IBM with a stick. Several of them probably designed the GUI on your iPad J.
The Dish 