This is terribly offensive for a variety of reasons. The first being that it depicts angels/heavenly beings as consumerist beings that all own Apple-wear. I know this is hardly the first example of religious iconography meshed with pop-culture, but for some reason, this particular example grates heavily on me. Perhaps it is because this was presented, not in a comedic or satirical context, but of one paying homage to a man. Perhaps it's simply because the joke implied here is so fucking lame. Seriously, was that the best punchline you could come up with?
But I digress. That's not really the important issue here. The important issue here is that Steve Jobs wasn't a Christian. The man was a Buddhist. I went and confirmed that after literally 2 seconds on google. How can you claim to be honoring a man when you couldn't even take the time to learn what faith he belonged to? Honestly, it's this kind of ego-centric assumption that gives America such a reputation of arrogance and narcissism. Love the man, hate the man, say whatever you want about him, this is America, you have that right. But don't sit there and try to pretend like you're paying him an honor when you couldn't even give him the respect of learning what faith he prescribed to.
*Also, Steph, my last post is actually in a table, just in case you missed that.
I like that you took the time to figure out what religion Steve was after seeing this picture. I believe you have a point when you say that they can't really pay homage when they don't even take the time to find out what Steve Jobs believed. However, you're grouping America as a whole when you write about ego-centric assumptions and that's not fair. I don't think that they made it a comic about heaven because they assumed he was Christian, I think they made this comic because most people associate death with heaven. It's not that they were trying to be disrespectful. It's almost like being mad at the people who tweeted #iheaven or #icloud. They didn't do it to be disrespectful, this is just what people think of when someone dies. Even so, I do think that it's good that you seem to really care about this subject. It's nice to see a blog that is really creative.
ReplyDeleteI already had the idea that Jobs wasn't Christian in my head before, but a quick google search was all it took to confirm it. If my writing came off as lumping America in a broad generalization, that was not my intent, more, I was expressing how I feel that this could be a possible reason for other countries to view us as such.
ReplyDeleteYou talk about them not meaning disrespect, but that's exactly what it is, even if it is not intentional. Steve wasn't a Christian, and he didn't want to be a Christian, but, as you say, people associate Heaven with death- because they themselves (and generally those around them) are Christian. There's nothing wrong with that, but that wasn't who Steve was. When you're paying honor to someone, it isn't about what you believe, because it isn't about YOU. It's about the person you're honoring. So if the person you're honoring isn't Christian, why place him in a Christian setting?