“Constitutions which aim at the common advantage are correct and just without qualification, whereas those which aim only at the advantage of the rulers are deviant and unjust, because they involve despotic rule which is inappropriate for a community of free persons.”

- Aristotle -

I think we can still find a lot of wisdom in Aristotle’s words, even regarding our beloved technology world. Obviously Aristotle didn’t write anything about tech, but he did for politics and ethics.

I believe that Apple is doing nothing more than applying Aristotle’s concepts to his devices, both the iPhone and the iPad. I read a lot of negative comments about the recently announced iPad and its - again - closed system, but all these people don’t get the main point: a closed system is actually more open and reliable than an already-open one.

Let’s say Apple is the ruler and the iPhone / iPad is the country: with a closed OS (monarchy) Apple doesn’t want anyone else to get in their way of ruling. But clearly, Apple (the ruler) has the interest of his country at heart: it’s a strict type of government, yet focused on what’s best for the country (the device)

Other scenario: the country (iPad) is a democratic one. This means that the citizens (the users) are more directly involved in governing (OS), they can make requests and see them applied. Clearly, they only care about their own interest, they don’t want the best for the country: they just want the best for them.

Apple doesn’t want anyone to get in their way. They provide a closed OS, with strict rules and limitations but pay attention: having rules to follow is always better than having no rules. If you still think that “OS Democracy” is a good thing, please remember that many times in the past democracy deviated into anarchy. No authority means no control, and no control means terrible user experience. On the other hand, you could say that monarchy can deviate in tyranny. That’s true folks, but that’s where trust comes in: do you trust the ruler? Then you have nothing to fear. Can I trust some dude who wants flash on his iPad? Definitely not.

“We want flash” is the new “We want lower taxes”.