Linked by David Adams on Thu 1st Oct 2009 01:39 UTC
As much as we like to stay away from letting real-world politics bleed over into our ongoing discussion of tech politics, I found an interesting essay over at The Economist's "Democracy in America" blog that draws a parallel between Apple's Mac/iPhone user-friendly ecosystem and the Microsoft Windows freer-but-more-chaotic ecosystem and how that lines up along the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum of real-world political division. They don't mention Open Source in this essay, but I'm sure it could make an interesting addition to the discussion. The essay's main point is that, in governance, attempts to make life more user-friendly for citizens usually ends up giving them less freedom of choice, and a certain segment of the political establishment will reliably oppose such moves. The idea that the tradeoff between choice and usability persists into the world of governance really set me to thinking. What kind of country would you rather live in? An Apple one, a Microsoft one, or an Open Source one?
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Member since:
2006-01-17
No, that is anarchy which is the antithesis of a free society...
Anarchy does not mean chaos. It means lack of overall government. an -> not, archos -> authority. There can be stability and even rules without having a government.
I'm not disagreeing with the gist of your post (in fact, I mostly agree with it), it's just that I'm partial to some anarchist philosophies, and I don't like the word being equated with some kind of everything-goes, might-makes-right apocalyptic society, when that's not what it means.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/anarchy
Edited 2009-10-01 23:30 UTC