To maintain their power, authoritarian governments monopolize force and information. The fear maintained by violence reinforces rigid ideologies and discourages independent thinking while control of information prevents open debate and the promotion of ideas that could foment dissent and threaten the regime. An act of defiance, even in death or among mourners at the funeral of an opposition figure, must be met with overwhelming force. As George Orwell put it in his novel 1984, “It is intolerable to [the Party] that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instance of death we cannot permit any deviation …” Amid the encomiums and panegyrics that saturated all forms of media—social and otherwise—after the death of Steve Jobs, the Apple commercial most widely shared to demonstrate his greatness and influence on world culture was the 1997 ad “Think Different.” It features luminaries such as Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Amelia Earhart and pays tribute to innovators, reformers and visionaries who change society and make the world a better place to live. Although “Think Different” unequivocally captures the imaginative spirit and creativity of Jobs, the commercial that best expresses his enormous impact on modern life is the “1984” Macintosh commercial, which aired only once, during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984. The commercial depicts a bleak, dystopian future reminiscent of 1984. Lifeless drones walk towards a scene suggestive of Orwell's “Two Minutes Hate” and are addressed by a Big Brother like figure on a giant screen. Suddenly, a blonde woman, chased by storm troopers, enters the hall and flings a sledgehammer at the screen, destroying it. A narrator says “On January 24, Apple computer will introduce Macintosh. And you'll see why 1984 won't be like ‘1984.'” The Macintosh signaled the start of a technological revolution. Before the Mac, most computers were large mainframes operated by governments, research institutes or corporations. Personal computers were complex, impersonal machines and inaccessible to all but the most savvy computer programmers. Products from companies like IBM and Atari failed to capture the public's imagination and usher in the era of the ubiquitous personal computer. The Macintosh changed that; its simple interface allowed millions to experience the wonders of technology and cemented the personal computer as a fundamental part of the modern way of life. The Macintosh inspired an entire generation of nerds and entrepreneurs—from Mike Campbell to Ted Leonsis—to push the boundaries of technology and concurrently lit the competitive fire of Bill Gates and programmers at Microsoft, which spawned its new graphical interface: Windows. The technology boom that followed introduced the Internet, e-mail and social media to the public and created millions of disparate sources of information and ideas. By exporting the wonders of computing to the masses, Apple guaranteed that totalitarian regimes would no longer monopolize information. Instead, computers, and later smartphones and tablets, would allow people to instantly access news and ideas anywhere in the world. The stranglehold on information and communication that allowed authoritarian governments to expand and strengthen the subjugation of their publics during the 20th century started to evaporate—and the regimes themselves soon followed. When the Macintosh debuted in 1984, authoritarian dictatorships blanketed much of eastern Europe, the Middle East, central and South America and Asia. Twenty-seven years later, the Eastern Bloc is history (despite the best efforts of Vladimir Putin) and the Pacific Rim contains multiple wealthy capitalist states with relative political freedoms. Many believe that the economic development of China—where Apple is particularly popular—will lead to the political opening of the People's Republic. Despite the continued existence of an authoritarian Iranian regime and the sputtering Arab Spring, there is a chance for major political reform in the Middle East and the citizens of the region will forever be cognizant of the freedoms and wealth of the rest of the world. (Egyptians discouraged by their country's current political misfortune should heed Orwell's words: “One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”) With the glaring exception of North Korea, the totalitarian nightmare so hauntingly described in 1984 ceases to exist. That is the greatest gift of Steve Jobs. More than any non-political actor of the past forty years, Jobs—through the revolution he created—is most responsible for eradicating the scourge of totalitarianism that plagued the 20th century, manifested itself in multiple cataclysmic conflicts and costs tens of millions of lives. Although the transitions from closed, authoritarian states to open, free societies are incomplete, the pace and scope of these transformations will be determined by people, not governments. Because of the technological innovations spurred by the release of the Macintosh, the people of the world now control their “past, present and future” and as a result, their destiny. BM
