Comments on: How Apple Is More Authoritarian Than The Chinese Government

By: Richard C. Foote

Richard C. Foote — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:19:29 +0000

I was recently a visitor to your beautiful country.I found your people to be very kind and hospitable.I would very much like to visit your country again in the near future.God bless China and the province of Sichuan,forgive me if I spelled it incorrectly but I was very sad when I visited Guanxi province and learned of the tragedy of the earthquake while I was in your peaceful country.Once again I am commenting China for being so kind to me while I was visiting all you beautiful people.xie xie Rick

By: JD

JD — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:05:46 +0000

So if a private company like Apple is authoritarian, what can be said about a state-owned company like Lenovo?

By: Brendan

Brendan — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:48:49 +0000

In Neal Stephenson’s essay ‘In the Beginning Was the Command Line,’ he talks a bit about the corporate culture of Microsoft and Apple, and notes that paradoxically Microsoft is in a lot of ways more open than Apple is. He doesn’t bring up China as a comparison, but he does note the tendency of hippie communes in the 60s to be run by people who were, deep down inside, total control freaks.

In other news, I remember seeing a story recently about some Apple developers suing the company, so someone there is speaking out at least.

Brendans last blog post..T+12 – Opening Ceremonies

By: Thomas

Thomas — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:31:54 +0000

“Can you dumb down the comment for me.”

No need.
Just be Yourself, read a nice blogpost, e.g http://slohomeless.wordpress.com/2008/08/20/victims-of-prosperity/.

Or why not dwelve in some old chinese wisdom.
http://deoxy.org/iching/47

Perhaps the picture of the Dragon is more clear now?

“I thought apple sold computers, phones and MP3 players.”
Answer:
“Many Apple customers tend to be in the cool hip liberal crowd as symbolized by Mac Guy. They don’t like HR violations.”

China is so exciting and promising right now!

Thomass last blog post..Custom List: Firefox plugins

By: dedlam

dedlam — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 01:29:04 +0000

@Thomas,

I’m not sure I understand although I would like to. Can you dumb down the comment for me. Hitler & Dragons & Blood & worms & jewels are making my head spin.

I thought apple sold computers, phones and MP3 players.

By: Will Lewis

Will Lewis — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:36:46 +0000

The fatal flaw, aside from company v. country:

“Basically, Apple (the company) is an extension and implementation of one man’s (Steve Jobs) vision of what the consumer electronics and computing industry should look like.”

Apple is actually Mr. Jobs’, Apple’s board, and Apple executives’ conception of the best way for Apple to sell its products within the consumer electronics and computing industry. Apple would lose all of its unique value and competitive edge if the consumer electronics industry fit Apple’s “vision.” They’re not imposing an authoritarian vision on the industry, they’re just trying to woo customers.

Many Apple customers tend to be in the cool hip liberal crowd as symbolized by Mac Guy. They don’t like HR violations.

Will Lewiss last blog post..Posts of the Week: 8/25 – 8/31

By: Thomas

Thomas — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:27:21 +0000

Religious belief
Steve Jobs saved Apple – Now in his greatness he want’s to save China. After all, his is an authoritarian and autocratic manager, acting in an instrumental rational (weber) manner.
If You beleive You know You’re wrong! Did You save Apple? No! Do You like Apple? Yes!
So because Steve saved Your apple, he is also a better gardener than You. The proof to this is His act in instrumentally handling the objects for a successfull rational decision, manifesting in (you) the customer bying his product. The calculated profitability went from probability to true. In the same way, Hitler rationally moved to power in a Democratic Germany, choosen (elected) by his people, to become the sole authoritarian and autocratic manager of His country. The autobahn is still there, the tests, and experiences, from the camps, have been taken care of because their economic value.

Now the Good Guys want You to buy His Apple, His Democratic Apple.

Americans are a very religious people in different ways. One beleif is in their own supremacy in different ways.

What China is doing now, is steering, like a dragon, in a sea of blood, tormented and governed by authoritarian and autocratic pirates, pirates who are rationally governing their ships, country or company, craving for more.
That’s not a play, not even a fair game.
And one of the pieces on the false chess table, is the democratic player, an apple which the pirates want You to eat, blindfolded, listening to the sweet preaches of the Captain. What they don’t tell you, is that this apple is under its beatifully skin, sweet smelling, infested with wery small worms, some which the Captain can control at his will, some which may run wild, like Hitler, the crown jewel of western democracy.

China has a population larger than Europe and United States.
Imagine China with a leader, lifting the phone, and asking, “I want you to tell me, spiritually, what do you sense?” (http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/cohen_24_4.htm), in trying to solve some problem affecting millions of people.
Bush was elected in a Democracy.
So was Hitler to, and his legacy still lives on, buried deep in the Institutions of democracy.
And Hitler emerged in a Democracy.
China has never had Democracy (western democracy).
Iraq is occupied, in a colonial way, by a Democratic nation. Result? Disaster!
China has an authoritarian and autocratic leadership in the political sense. People don’t have the opportunity to choose their leader in some comical election of the few, people who with the legitimacy of the electoral results may screw the population later, where people dumbfoundedly tell themselves “You get the leaders you deserve” (http://the-new-slang.blogspot.com/2006/07/leaders-you-deserve.html).
So why should China import that poison?
And whats the result for China with its leadership up to now? Success! And with Bush in America?

I really hope, and so beleive, China will develop their own peoples partipication and rights.

Thomass last blog post..Custom List: Firefox plugins

By: bert

bert — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:45:45 +0000

Are you writing again?

To compare these two things is just some weak attempt to make China look fine and dandy. You know the truth or the sad fact is that you don’t know. People can quit working for Apple, Chinese can’t quit working for China.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 07:35:44 +0000

I find your analysis completely fruity. You are comparing apples and oranges. One is a company and one is a country. Dans last blog post..Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin On China

By: nicerobot

nicerobot — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:47:57 +0000

Comparing running a Country to a corporation isn’t valid. Corporations are voluntary participation in a dictatorship whereas Countries rule the people because of birth, involuntarily. It’s why countries should all be a form of democracy because ALL humans deserve to live free. Whereas the same isn’t required in a corporate culture. No apple employee (that i know of) lives at 1 Infinite Loop. They all chose to work there and they can leave whenever they want.

I just don’t think it’s valid to conflate how a person runs a corporation with their attitudes towards democracy.