Let's Calm Down About Steve Jobs

The tributes to Steve Jobs have taken on a "quasi-religious tone," writes Hamilton Nolan, who suggests it's time to dial things back a notch or two. Jobs' death is "certainly a devastating loss" to his family, his friends, and his company, writes Nolan at Gawker. As for everyone else, especially those posting on Facebook that they "can't stop crying," it's time to "calm down."

Jobs was terrific at making and selling tech products, but "there's no need to further fellate the man's memory," writes Nolan. Consider that a genuinely heroic civil rights activist also died yesterday, but the death of the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth barely registered in comparison. "When we start mourning technocrats as idols, we cheapen the lives of those who have sacrificed more for their fellow man," writes Nolan. The full post is here. (More Steve Jobs stories.)