The new delicious, shiny Apple iphone went on sale yesterday and I had to restrain myself because this new, lovely, glossy device has been beckoning me for weeks. Every time I open the Internet, there it is, speaking my name.
Consequently, a strange war of justification formed in my head, “no I don’t need it, but yes, I want it”. Thinking back, I’ve felt a bit like Gollum chasing after the Ring of Power, it was becoming “my precious”.
Now I need to say that the pricing is expensive, but those of us who’ve suffered New Zealand’s mobile data plans are hardly surprised. In fact, comparatively, it’s not a bad deal for such a glittery phone that does lovely things with the Internet. Let’s face it; Godzone is not a cheap place to run a phone.
But why do I want one?
The question I have wrestled with is, “do I need it?” the answer is no. But should “need” be the only motivation for decision-making? I don’t need to go to a restaurant. I don’t need nice clothes. I don’t need to see Hancock at the movies and I don’t need an iphone!
The cartoonist, Mike Moreu, was the voice of God to me this week. His caricature of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden wondering at an iphone bought me to my senses. What was I thinking?
Sometimes we make decisions for pure enjoyment and nothing more. And I like that. But the honest answer I had to face when confronted with the question, “will I enjoy the iphone for two whole years of a contract?” was, no! For me the expense verses enjoyment equation didn’t add up.
Temptation is a fascinating human dilemma. It’s not religious but ethical. That’s why it’s a global human problem. We are all aware of our perceptions of right and wrong, or the implications of the decisions we make. Sometimes a decision is an easy one because we know that a certain action crosses a line we can’t go over it. Yet some decisions are hard because the milky lens of enjoyment blurs our perceptions of right and wrong.
That’s why the story of the Garden of Eden features in the first chapters of the Bible. Quite apart from whether you believe in Adam or Eve, no one can deny the power of temptation. The original Apple (before Steve Jobs got hold of it) was a temptation to follow after a voice that would destroy humanities relationship with God. The Apple represented shiny illusions like freedom and power and the real life that God was hiding from them. The Apple was a gateway to what they were missing out on.
The problem for Adam and Eve was that the illusion blinded them to the real life they already had. And that’s what temptation does.
Shiny things blind us all from time to time. But just remember, like the first apple and the latest one, they rarely deliver what they appear to promise.
Digby Wilkinson © 2008