Apple has published a page on the company’s website in remembrance of actor/comedian Robin Williams who committed suicide on August 11th.
Earlier this year, Williams had admitted himself into the Hazelden Foundation Addiction Treatment Center in Lindstrom, Minnesota, for continued sobriety treatment related to his alcoholism. Williams also reportedly suffered from depression.
Most people who at some time in their lives think about suicide decide to live because they come to realize that the crisis is temporary and death is permanent. On the other hand, people having a crisis sometimes perceive their dilemma as inescapable and feel an utter loss of control.
These are some of the feelings and thoughts they experience:
• Can’t stop the pain
• Can’t think clearly
• Can’t make decisions
• Can’t see any way out
• Can’t sleep, eat or work
• Can’t get out of depression
• Can’t make the sadness go away
• Can’t see a future without pain
• Can’t see themselves as worthwhile
• Can’t get someone’s attention
• Can’t seem to get control
If you experience these feelings, caring people are waiting to help. Simply call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) toll-free, where you’ll be connected to a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in your area, any day, at any hour, 24/7/365.
Apple.com’s page reads:
Robin Williams 1951-2014
We are deeply saddened by the passing of Robin Williams. He inspired us through his passion, his generosity, and the gift of laughter. He will be greatly missed.
I’m sorry he punctuated his sentence before it had run its course. But he packed in five lifetimes before he left. – Carrie Fisher on the untimely passing of Robin Williams
MacDailyNews Take: Despite the problems you are dealing with, you can find reasons to keep living. By calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255) toll-free, you’ll be connected to a skilled, trained counselor at a crisis center in your area, any day, at any hour, 24/7/365.
If you feel you are in a crisis, whether or not you are thinking about killing yourself, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. People have called for help with substance abuse, economic worries, relationship and family problems, sexual orientation, illness, getting over abuse, depression, mental and physical illness, and even loneliness.
When you dial 1-800-273-TALK (8255), the call is confidential and free.
Thank you Apple and many kind thanks to MDN for the take this morning.
Hopefully getting the word out on a massive scale will help people. no one has to suffer alone.
Best MDN take in recent memory.
While I appreciate his work and am sorry for his death, I don’t think its Apple’s place to memorialize celebrities.
Robin Williams worked for Apple on a contractual basis (voiceover for “Your Verse” iPad Air TV commercial). Therefore, it’s entirely appropriate – not to mention that it’s Apple’s site, not yours, and they can do whatever they damn well please with it.
Perhaps unlike you, I am a part-owner of Apple, so the site is partially mine.
Memorializing drug and alcoholic addicted, although popular, is not appropriate in my opinion especially when real heroes are ignored.
Listen,
R. Williams was an amazing human being, and it’s entirely appropriate to mourn and memorialize those who influence society in the way he has on any site.
Robin had an illness, in exactly the same way as Steve Jobs had an illness. He died of his ill, and his death is as tragic as Steve’s. I also own AAPL shares, but that does not give me the right to tell the company how to operate. I’m not on the Board of Directors.
you seem to have the misconception that as a stock owner you own part of the company. you don’t. being a stock own does not grant you access to apple’s assets. as a stock owner, you only have rights to own stock, placing a bet on the company’s future viability. nothing more. the market determine’s the stocks price and performance and you gamble on that value.
geez.
ws, you need to research the definitions of “corporation” and “stock.” As a shareholder, you do own a piece (however small) of the corporate assets and you have a voice in the governance of the corporation. Granted, your ownership is largely abstracted through the Board of Directors and corporate management structure, but you do own a piece.
All people are flawed in some way or another, david. Some are more flawed than others. That does not stop people from great feats of creativity, engineering, charity, and so on.
I did not see anything by Apple or MDN or people posting on this forum calling Robin Williams a “hero.” In my opinion, the term is overused. And I don’t know your definition of a hero. But Robin Williams was a gifted comedian and actor, even though he was beset with alcohol and drug addiction. Some people choose to remember his contributions and not focus on his flaws.
Check on your reading comprehension. I never said that Apple held him up as a hero. I said that if anyone should be memorialized it should be heroes instead of drug addicted, alcoholic celebrities.
Robin Williams brought an incredible amount of joy to the lives of millions of people through his acting and comedic talents. That’s deserving of memorialization.
Other than suffering from alcohol and drug addiction (common among celebrities, sadly), he was apparently a pretty awesome guy in every sense of the word, again deserving of memorialization.
No one ever memorialized was perfect…Steve Jobs being a prime Apple example. I’d even argue that Jobs was a worse *person* than Robin Williams. As an Apple stockholder, did you complain when Apple memorialized Jobs on their web page?
If not, then STFU.
Your conclusion is pathetically stupid. But, thanks for playing.
Lame
You talked about “real heroes” – I followed the natural extension of that statement in its context. My reading comprehension is superlative.
Apple posted this page, because Mr. Williams was one of the most talented and creative thinkers of our time, one of the “crazy ones”. Apple has every right to respect and honor creative thinkers.
“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. But the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”
I wouldn’t exactly call Robin Williams a creative thinker.
A comedian yes, a half decent actor Robin died as a consequence of many personal failings including his ex-wives almost bankrupting him.
The real tragedy is that his death could have been avoided if just one person realised he needed help and helped him.
Most comedians are very insecure people and aren’t all that funny offstage because they live for the performance.
History is full of talented people who died early because they could t cope.
A tragic loss of talent that could have been avoided.
Unfortunately, many times people close either miss the signs or the person is good at seeming like everything is OK until it’s too late.
Hindsight is always 20/20. I don’t think judging someone else’s “ability to cope” is useful. Look at all the folks who’ve come back from war. Some go on to very productive lives and some can’t get past the horrors they’ve seen. Blaming those around someone with depression isn’t useful either.
I also own stock in Apple, and it gives me absolutely no say in their web site.
Having said that, I’m 100% supportive of the tribute page.
If you don’t like the tribute page, you’re welcome to sell your stock.
Both addiction and depression are illnesses, not defects of character or morality. Your ignorance and judgmentalism is astounding. Even more so- your heartlessness. How does it feel to be so cold?
You do not understand shares, I take it. You own shit. You have invested. That last character was a period.
While I do not agree with david, you are the one who does not understand “shares” in a corporation. By definition, a shareholder does own a piece of the corporation.
Appreciate your comment and you’re so very correct. If some good comes out of it for others, it will mean all the more.
Exactly. It’s appropriate to memorialize someone you felt something for. Millions of people felt a connection to Robin Williams through his work, and they are sad that he is gone. Millions of people suffer with depression and know how it feels to be overwhelmed with despair. It’s natural to want to express this in some way, and to try to make some sense of it by talking about depression. To pull out the pathetic “there are other real heroes who go unnoticed” argument has nothing to do with this, and betrays a lack of humanity and empathy.
An F14T16 post that I wholeheartedly support!
I liked Robin Williams, but his story is a train wreck. The left’s allegiance to Hollywood is what drive’s Apple’s decision to memorialize him. Remember when Obama ordered flags lowered for Whitney Houston, another train wreck? We need to stop treating these people like gods. Tens of thousands died on Monday in the US, many of them heroes. You won’t see flags lowered or Apple memorials for any one of them. He committed suicide and stuck it to his family, friends and creditors. It’s a selfish act that doesn’t need reliving across every network. He wasn’t a victim. Neither was Whitney. They did it to themselves. May they both rest in peace. Oh, and thanks, Timmy boy, for depressing us yet again!
Forget the left and the others. Tim Cook did not make anyone depressed. Robin Williams was suffering from a terrible illness. What he did wasn’t a selfish act; again he was so very ill and out of control. Have some compassion please. We never know what life may bring to any of us.
Suicide is a cowards way out.
It takes courage to face life’s traumas and get through them.
Know anyone who has suffered clinical depression? Perhaps you should know someone first-hand, or have experienced yourself, before you make stupid statements like the one above. Suicide is horrible, and I lost my brother-in-law to it. He thought he was doing everyone a favor. The depression ha totally warped his mind… So, get your facts…
That’s exactly what I am talking about.
@David – you obviously have never suffered from depression nor known anyone who has suffered from depression. It’s an illness, not a life choice. Your ignorance, on the other hand, is a life choice that you could fix.
I guess you have never dealt with depression. I hope you don’t have children or a spouse; you sound like a really empathetic person.
Compassionate conservatism at its best.
Dick.
iMaki – the level of your ignorance is astonishing and eclipsed only by the utter lack of class of your post.
iMaki,
He is memorialized in death just like anyone else who left behind family and friends. His memorial is more public because he was a public person. Unlike the millions of anonymous deaths in the US every year, Robin Williams made all of us laugh in several media – on TV, the movies, stand-up comedy. He was unique with a lighting-fast comedic mind (like Whitney with her voice), and memorializing him is a celebration of his life, not an endorsement of his method of dying. If Apple chooses to celebrate his life, so be it. Why does it bother you?
(By the way, I do agree that ordering flags lowered is not appropriate; that honor is only deserving of those who served their country, not a Hollywood personality.)
However, to call his suicide a “selfish act” and that he “stuck it to his family? shows you have no understanding about depression and its effects. A person afflicted with a terminal disease that brings unbearable pain and suffering should have the right to decide to end his or her own life. Just because someone suffers unbearable pain from depression or another mental disorder doesn’t make their suffering any less painful than if it were physical. In fact, it’s often worse because there are no drugs like morphine that will numb physical pain. Mental afflictions are no less real than physical ones.
Robin Williams made a choice to end his own life. Freedom and self-autonomy means nothing if a person cannot exercise that most fundamental decision about their own existence. For you to second guess it denies him that right.
Enough with the political screeching. Take a moment to remember his work in Mork & Mindy, or Good Will Hunting, or the World According to Golf, or his impression of a Scottish golfer (on YouTube), and smile.
Apparently “making us laugh” is more important than “making us free.” Sad and disgusting.
WOW,
As a physician of 40 year experience, it gives me privilege to call you a selfish thinking “IDIOT”
Some kernels of truth amid outright falsehoods.
What you got wrong: Suicide is not a selfish act. It only seems so to those not in a suicidal mindset. The suicide victim may believe that everyone will be better off without them around. In that sense, it’s a totally selfless act.
What you got right: Venerating actors, singers, etc. is ridiculous. Many of them have little or no actual education beyond their chosen vocation. They do not understand the world or history or economics, yet they use their platform to spout off on everything. They are almost uniformly left of center because that is the easy way out, the way to look sensitive without doing much more than committing to throw other people’s money at the problems. To create a system where people can elevate themselves far beyond what public handouts can ever offer is counterintuitive to someone who’s job is to pretend to be characters on stage or in front of a camera.
Whitney Houston and Robin Williams were, like everyone else, human beings with flaws and problems. They didn’t make it as far as we’d expect them to have made it if they didn’t have these problems. They were victims of the human condition. Again: Suicide is not a selfish act. It only seems so to those not in a suicidal mindset.
Celebrity worship, and bestowing “wisdom” on those without widsom, is a big and growing problem in the U.S. and the world today. (We currently have a celebrity president who does nothing of great value and whose ideology is creating more problems than solutions, for example. He was elected because he can deliver a good speech off a teleprompter and because it made a slight majority of voters “feel good” about themselves and their country to vote for him. The wrong man, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons. It’s a tragedy that this is the U.S.’s “first black president.”)
Stop idolizing celebrities for being celebrities and listening to their views on, say, the middle east or oil pipelines. Realize that 9 times out of 10, probably 10 times out of 10, you know more than they do about the issue. Idolize them for their craft if they are worthy, but end the worship there.
We all know in our hearts and minds that a faceless, wasteful federal government throwing trillions of dollars down the rat hole in a “war against poverty” did less than Robin Williams did on stage to help the homeless throughout his life. Government is not the answer. True compassion for people by developing rational systems that take advantage of innate human drives (curiosity, greed, jealousy, love, etc.) to promote the advancement of everyone is the answer.
“Business models that fly in the face of human nature are doomed to failure.” – MacDailyNews, 2007
The same goes for models of government.
well said, but unfortunately slightly about half the readers will not agree with your political comments because ideology has a way of blinding people of the truth.
Mostly well said, but you had to include disparaging political comments because you are….you.
You really ought to stop ranting about politics on this forum. We understand your position all too well by now. Some agree with you, others do not. Personally, I believe that your biggest flaw is your unwavering uncertainty in your own “rightness.” It is that mindset that has prevented reasonable debate and compromise, leading to the current state of gridlock in our political system.
I believe that the majority of the people on this forum would prefer that you exercise your right to free political speech elsewhere.
Correction, “unwavering certainty.”
How many more millennia of failures during the course of human history do you need before you conclude that vast centralized government bureaucracies aren’t the answer?
Or, are you going to trot out that old chestnut that we just have never tried socialism the “right way,” so that’s why it always fails?
Firstly, your approach does not abolish the government bureaucracy. You just want to eliminate the parts that are inconsistent with your belief system.
Secondly, I have never espoused support for a “vast, centralized government bureaucracy.” That is your typical fallacious attempt to label and discredit anyone who dares to disagree with you.
Thirdly, I said nothing about socialism or the “right way.” You did. And you have done so over and over and over ad nauseum on this forum.
You appear to have the Bush disease. You know, the one in which “if you are not with us, you are against us.” Get over it. People can disagree with you in some areas and still be rational, intelligent people. Despite your extremist ranting on this forum, you do occasionally make a statement with which I can agree. It is *you* that I do not like because you always feel the need to politicize every freaking topic on this forum, and you are adamant in every case that only you comprehend the right and true way. Politics is like a religion to you. The gridlock in this country is due to people like you who cannot compromise and who view anyone who disagrees with you as a socialist or unpatriotic. Basically, you view the people who dissent with your viewpoint as the enemy who must be converted or overridden and crushed in order to reestablish the right way.
That’s right, I don’t like you and your supercilious nature and your hypocrisy. I just wish you and your ilk would band together. I would vote to allow you to secede from the union. You can have Texas. It is halfway populated with Fwhatevers already.
i’d like to add something to david and your conversation that might illuminate apple’s memorializing of a genius.
in the late 80’s early 90’s, i had the pleasure of running into robin at macworld. he was a mac fanatic like most of us. he was also a gracious and kind human being. he walked the vendor floor without an entourage and his fans gleefully approached him and took time to acknowledge them.
apple, including steve jobs, knows robin was a mac fanatic of the first order and one of the think different crowd. that alone justifies his memorialization from a hard core perspective.
RIP mork
nanu nanu
While we may or may not be fans of these Hollywood personalities, the significant point remains that those like Robin Williams have influenced and affected lives of quite many people. With their talent and entertainment skills, they amuse us, but it is with the things that they do that they inspire people.
There are no doubt many heroes who died on Monday; people whose lives touched other people’s, people who gave ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty, mothers, fathers, teachers, doctors… And there’s no doubt these heroes provided inspiration for many others. But, regardless of any (subjective) personal merit, celebrities affect significantly many more people by their actions.
In the market economy, we pay for value; in other words, the price of goods and services offered on the open market reflects their true market value. There is a reason why we pay Hollywood actors so much: this is the market value of their contribution. And their open market is as competitive as it could possibly be (with millions of aspiring actors competing for those jobs).
Celebrities like Robin Williams inspire us to better ourselves.
You are the train wreck. A broken, heartless soul.
Any who attempt to extract political capital from death are tone deaf to the pulse of life itself.
Part of the “train wrecks” story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2014/08/11/remembering-robin-williams-strong-support-for-the-troops/
I’m sorry that he was suffering, and I wish he could have made it through to the other side. He had so much more to offer the world. I hope his story and this rise in awareness of depression gets a few people to find help and make it through their own illnesses.
Interestingly enough if you have these CAN DO feelings:
• Can give pain, torture, and water boarding
• Can lie through your teeth at the UN.
• Insist on making decisions for others
• Can see the way and it’s WAR WAR WAR KILL KILL KILL thermonuclear air strikes, (big guns to compensate for something).
• Can sleep, eat and work but don’t want others to.
• Can get people depressed that is, if you don’t kill them first.
• Can make the sadness stay
• Can see a future with pain
• Can see everyone else as useless
• Can get everyone’s attention
• Can have delusions of control
You could suffering from being an Amurdercan wannabe terrorist from the United Hates.
It quite similar to what their Anustralian allies suffer from but not quite, cause they learn it at a young age. It’s probably on their curriculum. Way to go Anustralia, thank goodness you are around, you make Amurdercans look really really really good.
Folks of the free civilized world, I suggest you don’t click on this image from the Canberra Times. Canberra is the Capital of Anustralia and they lead the world in despicable immoral unethical acts. For you Amurdercans out there, click away and drool. Maybe your kids could be sent to Sydney school someday and learn the Anustralian way.
Wow. You have topped iMaki in your ignorance and stupidity.
Hey, Road Warrior dude! What kinda Mac do you use? Or iPhone? Or iPad? We Apple fans really would like to know!
He uses a 2006 era flip phone, and is angry that everyone around him is using iPhone. Or maybe he hates America so much that he refuses to use Apple, and instead, uses a cheap Asian knockoff.
Do you hate Robin Williams too, since he is from the “United Hates of Amurderca”? Robin Williams made generations of people happy…especially to us 90s kids, with characters such as The Genie and Mrs Doubtfire. You, on the other hand, only make people upset, and try to hurt others. I would bet you grew up in the 2000s. Only 2000s kids know a world of hate and sadness. I am lucky to grow up in a decade before war and sadness. The 1990s were a happy time for me, and I will not let a troll like you ruin my memories.
Road Warrior was cruelly treated by the Australians. And he is incensed beyond reason by American war crimes and imperialism. He is not meek, and the world needs more like him.
Thank you so much MDN. One of my good friends is a suicide survivor. He tried to kill himself when he was in high school and is doing great today, 7 years later.
When Apple posts these pages I wish they would also donate the profits to a relevant charity. It could be one that provide support or research into depression or to the charity that Robin used to support (Comic Relief).
Maybe they do, but just don’t feel the need to advertise it. I am always a bit leery when companies do that, as you wonder if they are just latching on to get some extra publicity. Apple’s approach seems right to me.
Thank you. Seeing a post about the death of a famous person cause a heated, name-calling argument about religion and politics means I don’t have to visit the monkey cage next time I’m at the zoo. Humans thoughtlessly flinging dung is probably a good place to start plumbing the depths or our species’ stupidity.
rich & famous always stick together, cause they live in a world we don’t. Hollywood is all about ass kissing, and apple honoring him is part of it. tons of celebs now rush out to express their feelings about his death to get brownie points with the public.
whether you want to believe it or not there is a huge benefit from apple honoring him on their site. they sell and rent his movies. everyone knows lots of celebs bring in more money after they die.
truth be told, williams is no more important than the teacher killed, the police officer killed, the soldier killed yesterday. why aren’t they honored?
Thanks for reminding us again that there is always someone dumber on the Internet.
You are right that Robin Williams was just another person, the same as the school teacher, police officer, and soldier. But he affected more lives than they did, hence the publicity. He gave enormous amounts of both money and time to charities and social causes.
But the big thing is that his death is bringing into sharp focus the tragedy of mental illness – a form of illness most people (apparently including you) don’t want to discuss. It’s only by accepting that mental illness is a potentially fatal illness that attention can be focused on it, which will hopefully lead to better treatments and less stigma.
As a society, we place far too much value on entertainers and sports stars. But some good can come of this.
mental illness has been around a long time. if you & others need his death to open your eyes about it then something is seriously wrong
Load of crap.
Robbin Williams didn’t effect people more than a policeman, soldier or teacher.
It makes me sick all these celebrities getting paid million to act in a film when you have nurses working on just above minimum wage saving lives everyday.
THAT is making a difference.
@sowcreate: Williams’ charity work and social causes affected tens of thousands of people. He visited US armed forces abroad and gave free concerts. He DID affect more people than a soldier or a cop (and I was a cop, so I know about the work they do). The amount he affected any individual was most likely less than a cop’s affect. But that’s not my point. My point is that when someone so famous, so highly thought of, someone who was willing to talk about his failings and weaknesses takes his or her own life, it’s natural that it creates a media storm. That media storm can serve a useful purpose in bringing out into general discussion a condition that, despite what “the people” says, is still stigmatized.
But I agree with you that this society, and this country in particular, grossly overpays entertainers and sports stars.
Robin Williams *did*, in fact, affect people more than a policeman, soldier, or teacher. Millions were influenced by his work in comedy, TV, and film. That does not mean that he was more important than a policeman, solider, or teacher. But he reached a much wider audience than most people ever will.
I do agree with your concern about income disparity. Too many people struggle at low income jobs to support an expected “standard of living” for others. If a job is worth doing, then a person should be able to make a living wage doing it. Many pro athletes and celebrities are vastly overpaid. But that is largely our fault – we provide the money that pays their salaries and the profits to the companies and team owners.
Since you’re going for the cynical angle, I’ll respond in kind.
The teacher killed, the officer killed, the soldier killed yesterday… did they matter? Yes. But likely only to a few dozen to a hundred people who even knew about them at all, and maybe a thousand they’d touched over their lifetime.
Did Robin Williams matter? Yes. But to millions or even a billion+ people who knew of him or were influenced by him through his work, the thousands who’d met him directly.
Truth be told, you don’t matter to the world. *I* don’t matter to the world, and probably no one else commenting on MDN matters to the world. Robin Williams did, moreso even than many other rich and famous, and *that’s* why he’s being honoured.
Hardly an honor. A full page RIP photo in the NY Times & Wall Street Journal — maybe. A huge donation to the National Institute of Mental Health, better still. Clickable purchase links…? — hardly 🙁
Depression is misunderstood by most. I have been trying to come up with a way to help others understand how heavy it is on the inflicted.
What I came up with, it’s a lot like cancer. And like cancer, there is no cure, but remission. It can come back. And sometimes, with caner and depression, you loose the fight, the will to live and it would seem the cure is worse than calling it quits.
Thoughts on that?
Peace be to thee, Robin Williams
With the news of Robin Williams’s suicide I felt the same sucker punch in the solar plexus that I felt when I learnt of the suicide of David Foster Wallace. Both men were passing acquaintances of Infinity but were mortally sideswiped by It, dying alone in silence; but after each event, a generational wailing spread in great waves.
Sorry he hung himself with his belt, but he always got on my nerves with that manic schtick of his.
A lot of his films weren’t funny really either.
You know what they say about “critics..” Keep your opinion to yourself. Sad. You’re as heartless and cruel as those idiots who drove his grieving daughter off twitter, making similar comments and worse- photoshopping pictures to look like his dead body. Is this what you strive to be in life? Hateful? Look into your own life- sounds like you got short-changed somewhere…
To those misinformed should who condemn people who commit suicide out of depressive episodes:
1- Depression is a real medical illness from a variety of causes related to body chemistry. Although humans have a consciousness that can in ways deal with depression, the brain of a depressed person sees this issue THROUGH the depressive state. It is a condition that defies simple answers and flippant opinions.
2- Real world conditions/situations can aggravate depression or trigger destructive behaviors in people who suffer from the condition. By all public information, he had a lot of personal, professional and financial pressures piled on top of his existing depression.
3- People in a severely depressed state do not always follow logic, reason or respond in the manner they would when not suffering from a bout of depression. They can be a danger to themselves and sometimes others.
4- Mental illness is stigmatized in our culture and may religions have piled a layer of sky god quackery on top of the stigma, only making matters worse. Praying depression away is not an answer.
What happened to Robin Williams is a tragedy and the fact that one with significant resources and many friends found himself alone at night with no seeming way out of the pain he was in speaks to how badly our society needs to address and review how we deal with and treat mental illness. THAT is not celebrity worship- it is an object lesson.
A valuable commentary. I hope everyone reads it and contemplates being at some point utterly alone under a burning spotlight of condemnation with only one way to stop the agony.