As sweet as Apple Pie

Two morsels on the todo list this morning as I watch the cockies fly past the window. Now that the Parallel Import Restrictions saga has been put to bed I guess writers and dead tree publishers will have to contend with something beyond the powers of governments to control, the march of the technology corporations.

Perennial favourite Apple is in the news for making a pile of loot and readying the ship for the next big thing, an Apple tablet/reader. Given the former, the latter seems like a sure thing especially when you consider that the runaway success of the iPhone will only last for so long because the problem with innovation and consumerism is that its ongoing. You can’t simply stop making new shit if that is what drives your business model and Apple are a company that makes new stuff.

Sure, as I look at my iPhone, I admit its smooth and functional; it does everything a phone should do as well as a few other things but I didn’t buy it, it was a present and I am not likely to buy another until this one dies. But the gloss of the new is a powerful force in the world and more evidence arrived the other day when someone left a copy of the new TechLiving magazine at my place. Produced by Dick Smith Electronics who in turn are owned by Woolworths, the magazine is kind of soft techno porn, the sort of wish fulfilment thing that parades style and unreality as something we should all aspire to and be prepared to pay for.

Now here’s a thought. The GFC was supposed to be signal the end of the neocons but it seems that the rise of corporations has continued virtually unchecked and that our future is now more than ever in their hands. Apple’s pile of cash and the eBook are just an example. It’s not something that can be debated, we can’t realistically pass laws that ban technology, nor is there any taste for passing laws that directly intervene in free market activity. All of our focus is forward, glued to the glossy while somewhere else the piles of eWaste accumulate and the holes in the ground get bigger.

So I just found these words from Abraham Lincoln

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. … corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.

— U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864 (letter to Col. William F. Elkins) Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

Indeed. Go and enjoy the sun while it’s still free.