February 18, 2012

Annals of Childish Behavior™ (continued)

"At the root of the reality distortion field was Jobs's belief that the rules didn't apply to him. He had some evidence for this; in his childhood, he had often been able to bend reality to his desires. Rebelliousness and willfulness were ingrained in his character. He had the sense that he was special, a chosen one, an enlightened one….Even in small everyday practices, such as not putting a license plate on his car and parking it in handicapped spaces, he acted as if he were not subject to the strictures around him."
                                                             Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson



Is modern culture being overwhelmed by an epidemic of childishness? JosĂ© Ortega y Gasset, writing in 1930, thought so. Annals of Childish Behavior™ chronicles contemporary examples of that epidemic. The childish citizen, Ortega said, puts "no limit on caprice" and behaves as if "everything is permitted to him and that he has no obligations."

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