My big brother, Steve Jobs

For many of you, Wednesday was just another day. For me, it was decision day.

Would I stand up for everything I believed in (namely, liberty and freedom)? Or would I stay, as I have for the past four years of my life, safely and securely in Steve Jobs’ bosom?

The iPhone is everywhere. In just five years, Apple, which recently became the most valuable company in the world, has sold hundreds of millions of iPhones. The iPod and iPad, too, give Apple a near monopoly in the MP3 player and tablet spaces.

When you consider both its size and tendency to seek control, Apple is now resembling the Big Brother that Steve Jobs warned us IBM was becoming back in 1984.

We all have guilty pleasures. Yours may be chocolate chip cookies (also Ron Paul’s).

Mine is the iPhone.

I know it’s wrong. I know. Someone so dedicated to freedom and competition shouldn’t be secretly cheering for Apple and its mission to control the way we connect to the world.

But I can’t help myself. I got goose bumps when, after 12 hours in line, my hands first made contact with the iPhone 4’s cool, glass, retina display.

When I first found out about “Find My Friends” (an Apple application that lets you, like Apple, Google and the government, track your friends on GPS), I got as excited as that kid and Grandpa Joe in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” after they found out they got the golden ticket.

But it’s not all good. When iPhone 4 owners started complaining about reception, Steve told us we were holding it wrong. When software developers tried to manipulate Apple’s operating system, Steve told us it was too dangerous.

It continues today — just a few weeks ago, an app that would track drone strikes was rejected from the App Store. Why? Because Apple knows better than we do.

Apple makes me and millions around the world happy. That’s OK, right?

But what does it say about us as human beings? Do we have a natural instinct to be taken care of? Is the iPhone successful for the same reasons that tyrants, dictators and monarchs have dominated world history?

What if this isn’t just a guilty pleasure? What if this is an identity crisis? Apple’s desire to control us is antithetical to freedom. Its high margins (40.5 percent in 2011) and monopoly position make me, as a free markets guy, a bit uncomfortable.

I’ve resolved to tell myself it’s going to be OK.

Competition has already begun to put the squeeze on Apple and force it to continue innovating or die.

It was rewarded, I remind myself, because it made a product that made people so happy that they were willing to pay the price.

At the end of the day, I will choose to live in Apple’s world not because I have to, but because I want to.

Thanks, Steve Jobs.

Thanks, Obama.