Jobs & Gaddafi, more in common than apples

The Arab Spring has claimed its first head. Now while other ill-fated heads of government opposed popular uprising to their own downfall, few opposed it with the viciousness and acrimony of Col. Muammar Gaddafi – swearing against the “rats and dogs” and defiant till the last bullet finally entered his skull.

Here was probably the last great megalomania – so eccentric to the core that he was downright weird. Media reports on Gaddafi are pouring through the internet with each news agency trying to outdo the other with salient details of the man that was.

While the frequency of the reports are beginning to rival that of Steve Jobs' passing, not surprisingly the reports are in direct contrast to the eulogies that the founder of Apple received. While Steve could do little wrong in the wake of his passing, Muammar it seems can do little right in the same circumstances.


Of course both had tremendous effect on millions of people that watched over, the affect that Jobs had on his millions, however, was also in direct contrast to the affect that Gaddafi had on his millions. In that event Jobs' passing left millions feeling helpless, while Gaddafi's passing have millions feeling hopeful for the first time.

In my opinion both were dictatorial in their prime and were widely known to have little tolerance for dissension; both left people closest to them in awe of the power they wielded. However, the proportion between Steve's admirers and detractors is most likely absolutely inverse to Muammar's counts.

Having witnessed the media frenzy that has been riled up between the two deaths (after all one followed almost 2 weeks into the other), one cannot but be impressed how the world sees them in retrospect.

Suddenly I feel that the two men were more alike than different. Below I would like to tabulate some of the similarities (that are surely hidden by the semantics):

Steve Paul Jobs (1955 - 2011)	Muammar Gaddafi (1942 - 2011)
Dictator who was actually a brother leader	Brother leader who was actually a dictator
Visionary eccentric	Delusional weirdo
Experimented with LSD	Looked like he was on LSD
Life was a rags to riches story	Life into a rags to riches story
Touched millions of lives	Torched millions of lives
Quiet man, kept to himself	Quite a man, kept it for himself
High fashion fatigue	Fatigue to high fashion
Aged well	Well aged
Cancer claimed his life	Life claimed him the cancer
Lost his battle to cancer	Lost his battle. Period.
Died in the place of his birth	Died at the place of his birth
Millions noted his passing in prayer	Millions prayed of his passing
Put Cupertino in the map	Put Sirte on the map

There are probably many more. Can you think of any more similarities? Drop us a comment.