At dinner tonight, I was elected to be the official “reviewer” for tonight’s evening show, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. Not because I’m a terribly witty and insightful writer, but because I am the only one with a space to put it in.
Not a very flattering assessment in the end, but I’ll concede to “write the review” not because they’re making me, but because… shit, it was really damn amazing! However, it’s going to be relatively short (at least, in comparison to the things I could say and definitely feel) and absolutely not synopsized. Mike Daisey’s remarkable performance is really very well covered by far more qualified entertainment critics, so I don’t have much to add there anyway.
Instead, I will offer something personal.
The really short version is that it was a very powerful performance, aimed at probably almost exactly our generation of consumers. Daisey’s stage presence and characterization is totally riveting and it’s really difficult not to be swayed by his persuasive passion.
I was originally attracted to attend because of the play’s title, The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs. What flair, what verve! More importantly, it almost perfectly describes my personal relationship with Apple’s products and, yes, their users. It’s well known that I am not really an Apple fan. I have an iPod Shuffle, but that’s the extent of my Apple product exposure. Yet I cannot deny (or even want to) the fact that Apple is revolutionizing our daily technology usage, so I was very much interested in this monologue which sounded like a sociological review of technology’s affect on humanity.
It wasn’t until a later that I heard that Daisey had An Agenda to go along with it, and that made me a little unhappy. For the same reason I often avoid documentaries: I prefer to not learn of the “true horror” of some subjects, because I’m of the opinion that neither I nor the cause will really benefit from my full exposure.
The actual performance was a well-balanced blending of the two topics, which pleased me immensely and made the soapboxing more palatable. Furthermore, Daisey doesn’t just “lecture” about how we’re all supporting an ecology that subsists on subhuman labor conditions. It’s not a guilt trip; it’s his obsession, his revelation, his disillusionment. The fact that he’s able to provide so many anecdotes and insights into Apple geekdom endears him and his journey to us. It moves us plainspoken mortals who are just too caught up in our own little handheld-device-powered bubbles to investigate what’s going on half a world away.
So it is with some amount of shame and frustration that, even after seeing that terribly wonderful performance and not regretting a penny of it, I’m unable to commit myself to a course that will actively work to reverse the conditions that our technology consumption has propogated. I was moved, it’s true, to a greater extent than I believed myself capable. I won’t be able to look at my electronics in entirely the same way again, even after time has slowly chipped away at my memory. But my world has not crumbled to the degree that I must turn it upside down to recognize it and restore my sanity.
My guilt over having observed this of myself has been somewhat bruising. But I realize that all I can do is hope and pray that Daisey is reaching and moving someone more than myself, someone who will want to take his crusade and make it their own.
Please, oh please, I really hope he finds that someone. I hope he finds a lot of someones.
