Alienation of the Symbol from the Myth: The Case of Jobs in the False Myth of Spontaneous Enlightenment
This article analyzes a specific case of symbolic alienation — the transformation of Steve Jobs’ real-life image into a pseudo-myth about “mad genius and spontaneous enlightenment.” It illustrates how cultural figures are detached from their biographical roots and reinserted into manipulative ideological frameworks.
1. The Original Symbol: Steve Jobs as a Technocratic Visionary
Steve Jobs was obsessed with control, minimalism, stability, and precision. He demanded perfection down to invisible hardware details. He opposed chaos, improvisation, and open-source ideals. Jobs was not a mystic — he was a technocrat and perfectionist. His genius lay in coordination and discipline, not transcendence.
2. Manipulative Alienation: Detaching the Symbol from Biographical Truth
In the first stage of manipulation, the real biography is stripped away. The manipulator highlights superficial fragments — meditation, Zen, intuition — but omits the fact that Jobs used these as concentration techniques, not as a spiritual cult. The famous Apple “Think Different” slogan is extracted from its marketing context and turned into a supposed personal credo.
Thus, the historical figure dissolves, leaving behind a decontextualized symbol ready for ideological reprogramming.
3. Insertion into a False Myth: Rewriting Meaning
The next step is embedding this detached symbol into a new ideological frame — the myth of the “mad visionary” who reaches truth by shutting down reason and embracing chaos. Jobs is presented as a shamanic prophet rather than a rational designer. His authoritarian discipline is replaced with pseudo-spiritual spontaneity.
Madness becomes sanctified as “creativity.” Rationality becomes “limitation.” The result is a complete inversion of meaning — the triumph of anti-logic dressed as inspiration.
4. Implanting the Pseudo-Myth into the Audience
Finally, the manipulator implants this symbolic construct into the audience’s consciousness. The mechanism targets emotional vulnerabilities:
- Love for technology — by using an admired tech figure as bait.
- Intellectual pride — by suggesting that “only the truly advanced” reject logic.
- Anti-mainstream sentiment — by opposing “rational dullness” with “creative madness.”
The result: a new archetype of the “inspired fool” — a person who rejects discipline in favor of “flow” and “cosmic insight.” The manipulator gains the ability to steer this person’s thinking, emotions, and choices by redefining reason as a barrier.
5. Conclusion: The Danger of Symbolic Rewriting
The case of Jobs is not an exception — it’s a model of modern ideological control. A familiar cultural symbol is detached from truth, repackaged, and weaponized to promote anti-rational ideologies disguised as inspiration. It is not reverence for Steve Jobs — it’s exploitation of his image for manipulation.
Critical thinking and symbolic literacy are the only effective antidotes. The mind that can trace meaning back to its source cannot be captured by artificial myths.