Millions rush to buy latest Radical Centrist philosophy book Sales top $10 billion in first three days (Headline of the future) (inspired by editorial beow) The Guardian _Editorial_ (http://www.theguardian.com/profile/editorial) _The Guardian_ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian) , Friday 20 September 2013 They _queued all night_ (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/19/iphone-5-iphone) in the rain outside the Apple store in Covent Garden, fenced in by crush barriers like football crowds. It was the same at other Apple stores _across the country_ (http://www.jackbristol.com/news/bristols-news/hundreds-queue-in-bristol-for-new-iphone/) , as the _iPhone_ (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/iphone) 5s was launched on a public carefully worked up to a froth of anticipation. A few days earlier, Grand Theft Auto V, released after a meticulous campaign of titillation including the _statutory moral panic from the Daily Mail_ (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424124/Grand-Theft-Auto-V-James-Delingpole-gives-verdict-latest-game.html ) , exceeded its _first week's sales projections_ (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/sep/19/grand-theft-auto-5-first-day-record) on the first day. The products may be among the best of their kind, but this kind of big-sales excitement needs a huge, sophisticated and elaborate marketing exercise to get it going, a whole backstory of endeavour – like the tale of the pursuit of perfection, of an obsession with design and function that for Apple was embodied in Steve Jobs. _The team that developed GTA in Dundee _ (http://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2013/sep/15/making-grand-theft-a uto-video) lacked the black polo-necked sleekness of Jobs, so they brought in Max Clifford to promote stories about the game's badness. Contrast with humble sales of _philosophy_ (http://www.theguardian.com/world/philosophy) books this week. And yet there was more to it than people queueing to pay £709 for a phone. This was the week when two Russians fell out over Kant and one shot the other, _happily_ (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/17/immanuel-kant-philosophical-argument-shot) not in a life-threatening way. _Google executives are at work on designing educational programmes_ (http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/sep/05/google-glass-creator-testing-regimes-technology) as addictive as GTA. Ideas still provoke passion, technology is already getting in there. Only a matter of time then for queues round the block for the next philosophy release. It'll be a lot cheaper than an iPhone.
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