Rush Limbaugh: Steve Jobs has greatly influenced Ashton Kutcher (with video)

 
By the way, I will be reviewing that movie. I got my official, powerful, influential member of the media copy. They even went so far as to close caption it so I can actually see the dialogue as I watch the movie. Just came in today. I’m gonna try to watch it later this afternoon.

 
We have three sound bites from Kutcher here. The Teen Choice Awards, low-information audience. I want you to listen to this.

They have been told that evil corporations and evil Republicans and the rich have taken it all from them. Do not laugh. The vast majority of even college graduates are taught this. So when Kutcher, at the Teen Choice Awards, stands up and offers a traditional, uplifting, motivational, and inspirational speech on how he became successful, it’s remarkable. I say remarkable because the low-information crowd watching it is hearing it. They ended up cheering it, and they’re not hearing it, except perhaps in their homes. We don’t know of course what goes on with their parents, but we know that everywhere else they go, we know that the songs they listen to, we know that the movies they watch, we know that the classrooms that they attend, do not give them this message.

What he said at the Teen Choice Awards is not being said to kids. Again, I’m gonna hold out the possibility that some of their parents do tell them this traditional message, but in the pop culture media they don’t hear this message. Hell, they’re all depressed. There is a fog of depression, fog bank, fog just rolled all over this country. There’s pessimism, particularly among young people, and it’s because they do not think there’s any prosperity left for them, they don’t think there’s any stuff left for them. They don’t think there’s any money to be earned; it’s all gone. Their parents or grandparents’ generation were the last ones that really had it made. And they’re certainly not hearing this kind of message from anybody in politics that they vote for.

They’re not hearing it from Obama. They’re not hearing it from any Democrat. They’re not hearing a can-do. They’re not hearing America is great. They’re not hearing about American exceptionalism. They’re not hearing anything about opportunity equals hard work. They’re not hearing the message that hard work pays off. They’re not hearing the message that having a job is a great way to become successful and prosperous. They’re not hearing about how one job’s a stepping stone to another job, where you climb, they’re not hearing this, folks. They are not hearing this. Admit it; this is one of the things that has been quietly eating away at all of us. All the things that we were raised by, all the things we were raised with growing up, they have vanished, they’re laughed at, mocked, and made fun of because it’s not possible anymore.

One of the reasons I think that there’s a tremendous Steve Jobs influence in this is because that last sound bite is Steve Jobs. That’s practically a direct quote from Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs wrote and spoke often about being young, growing up, and entering the adult world. He’s a little bit of a rebel now and then. And he looked at what life was.

He saw a lot of formulas, and people were living formulas and plugging themselves into formulas, and then trying to climb the ladders that existed in the various formulas. And he questioned it. And he questioned the assumption that everybody was smarter than he was, particularly older people and more successful people he claimed were smarter than he was. He said, I don’t want to look at life that way. People are not necessarily smarter than you. He told graduates at Stanford this. Don’t assume that everybody’s smarter than you are. Most people do that. Most people assume that other people are hipper, have it together more, smarter, and Jobs was obsessed with persuading people and believing it himself, that nobody out there is any smarter than you, and it’s wrong to think of yourself that way.

It’s wrong to go through life subordinating yourself to others because it’s either the polite thing to do or it’s the proper thing to do for somebody inexperienced. Don’t look at yourself that way. You only got one life. Make it what you want to be. Don’t plug yourself into the formulas… Jobs was always opining against this. Make your own life; write your own formula. Don’t assume everybody’s smarter than you are. They’re not. The world’s made up of people just like you. In fact, you’re probably smarter than a lot of the other people.

Do not put yourself down, was the message. Do not rest on the realization that you can’t make it because there are other people smarter than you. That’s a cop-out, it’s an excuse, and don’t do it. Don’t assume anything, particularly that you’re not as smart as other people, that you’re not as creative, that you’re not as valid. And that’s really what Jobs was talking about. Don’t question your own worth. Don’t question your own validity because of the formulas that society or life has built. This was not a political thing with him. With Jobs it was simply the way life was structured, and he didn’t want to be in a structured life that others had written. He wanted to write his own. Now, that quote from Kutcher, I am dead certain that comes from what he learned about Jobs playing this role. To the extent that the other stuff he believes, I’m not gonna question it; he probably does. But the point is, again, that it — well, it’s important because the people that he said this to — really, one of the things that’s been eating away and bothering me is there hasn’t been this kind of can-do spirit in this country. I mean, outside of this program.

He led into that last quote by saying, “The third thing is something that I just relearned when I was making this movie about Steve Jobs.” That last sound bite is Steve Jobs. By the way, it is great advice. Don’t assume you’re not valid because you think people have done more than you. Don’t assume you’re not valid or qualified because other people are older and more experienced, and don’t assume people are smarter than you are, and don’t fall prey to the structure that other people have made for you. Build a life, don’t live it. And it’s something he fervently believed, and he did.

Now, it’s not something everybody’s gonna be able to do, but it doesn’t matter. The inspiration, the motivation, the idea that it can happen is what inpsires people to start dreaming about. Let’s face it, folks, this is one of the many things that has been missing in this country for four and a half years… I tell you, there’s a sad reality. It’s not just the Democrats on the left that are pessimistic and do not ever have an optimistic can-do message. There aren’t very many Republicans that do, either. Which is another, I mean, gigantic blown opportunity, if you ask me.