The New Puritanism
The puritan ethic never really died; it just migrated away from its religious moorings and morphed into a more free floating idea of punishing the notion that "somewhere, someone is having a good time". Consider Apple's app store policies in that light:
According to a Dec. 21 e-mail reprinted by Neiman, Apple rejected his app because it “contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.14 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states: Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory
The ban in question is a cartoonist who ran afoul of the policy with satiracal content; a few European publications have run afoul of the nudity bans. It makes me wonder whether Apple will start considering "the great firewall of Cupertino", to protect us while we use Safari on these devices...
