How we learned to stop worrying and love the violation.

I presented a question to a group of technology-hip friends the other day. This group of people represented a wide range of technology interests and ideals. From the Windows-hating Slackware bigot to the artsy musicians who exclusively use OS X to the kernel programmers who prefer OS X on their desktop, a wide range of people are represented in this group, but there is one constant; a powerful belief among them that Windows is evil, Redmond is evil, and Bill Gates is evil.

Now many of these people work professionally in the Open Source world as well, and all of them have, at one time or another, professed in the beliefs of Free and Open Source Software, that monopolistic practices are bad, and generally, they express the liberal mindset that companies they deal with should not only produce good products, but should produce them fairly and ethically. I too fall into this category. I try to be a green consumer. I buy locally when I can. I drive a hybrid. I'm a vegan (or, at worst, a pescetarian when good sushi is on the offer). I am a very liberal voter. I try not to patronize businesses that I know conduct business unfairly or unethically. This explains a good deal about their (and my) feelings toward Microsoft, but even in this group, I've started to see a trend.

As I look at this article from Business Insider, I have to ask myself some questions. For instance, why do we put up with shit from Cupertino that we would freak out about if it was from Redmond? Certainly, I feel like it's getting harder to feel like one is on any kind of moral high ground when using Apple products any more, that's for sure. What's funny is that some of the people (er, maybe most) that I know who used to bitch and moan the loudest about Microsoft being a total bastard are some of the most dedicated Apple customers I know these days (myself included!). We were just less tolerant of it during the old M$ days because Windows 98 and its ilk sucked so hard as a product? I guess what I really wander is this:

Is Jobs' real genius just figuring out that we will be totally okay with being completely screwed out of every choice and consumer right, so long as companies make products that work well and put them into sleek sexy cases?

I asked some of my very anti-Microsoft friends this question and they basically responded that yes, they will happily overlook Apple's indescretions, because their products "just work". It makes me really wonder what Apple could get away with before these people balked at buying their products, so long as Apple continued to make products that "just work" they way they are supposed to.

What happened to the idealism of old? You remember, the idea that we should, I don't know, punish businesses that do bad things by not patronizing them?

Take this recent article from the BBC. Imagine if you will that you discovered that a product you had bought was reporting back to its manufacturer with detailed information about your location, the apps you had installed, what you were doing with the device, all without your consent or knowledge. How would you react? I asked the one Palm Pre owner I know, who told me flat out "meh, i <3 my palm pre :)".

What about something as simple as water? In this essay, the author details the hidden horrors regarding Fiji Water and how its purchase supports a brutal dictatorship and keeps a nation on the brink of disaster just so that it can sell water. Do you think that will stop anyone from drinking the stuff? Nah, look at the pretty picture on the bottle! Just look at it for crying out loud!

So, I am starting to figure out something and I really hope that the government isn't reading this, because from my perspective, I think we would all happily be mass interred in re-education camps or have allow constant Big Brother-level surveillance, so long as the camps are ergonomically designed by Steve Jobs and the surveillance devices have broadband access, are encased in shiny white acrylic, and "just work". I wonder about the root cause of such rampant abandonment of our former idealism as well. Is it because we are economically hurting? Is it a reflection of our broader cultural changes? I don't know, but it's scary as hell.