June 9, 2000 FOREIGN AFFAIRS / By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN The Young And the Clueless Wednesday's Microsoft ruling was about a lot of technical matters -- Internet browsers, market share, the Sherman Antitrust Act. But if you read carefully Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's ruling to split up Microsoft, you will see that this case is also about attitude. In my view, it's an indictment of the attitude of the high-tech community in general toward government, but it's certainly an indictment of the particular attitude and arrogance of Microsoft. Bless Judge Jackson's heart for that. For many in Silicon Valley, government is irrelevant at best and obstructionist at worst. For many in the high-tech community, the world runs on electrons and stock options, and government is basically an institution of tax-seeking bloodsuckers. The idea that none of Silicon Valley's innovations would ever have flowered without the rule of law maintained by Washington or without the global stability maintained by the U.S. military -- funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars -- is really a foreign notion to many in the dot-com world. Tell techies that without America on duty there would be no America Online and they will look at you as if you were speaking Latin (or Fortran). No one epitomizes this attitude more than Bill Gates. As far as I'm concerned, the government had grounds to break up Microsoft simply for what Mr. Gates did last year -- which was to hire an army of Washington lobbyists to try to get Congress to cut the budget of the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department while Microsoft had its case before that department. Think about the arrogance behind that strategy. How would you feel if the biggest company in your town tried to use its influence to slash the funding of your police department, at a time when the police were bringing charges against that company? That's what Microsoft did. And that to me is the real point of Judge Jackson's ruling: Microsoft isn't a threat just because it's big. G.E. is big. Intel is big. Cisco is big. Microsoft is a threat because it is big and deaf to some of the bedrock values of the American system. Remember, Judge Jackson is a conservative Republican appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan. He is not someone naturally hostile to big corporations. Yet on virtually every count the judge ruled in favor of the government and against Microsoft, pulling no punches when he wrote: "Microsoft as it is presently organized and led is unwilling to accept the notion that it broke the law or accede to an order amending its conduct. . . . There is credible evidence to suggest that Microsoft, convinced of its innocence, continues to do business as it has in the past, and may yet do to other markets what it has already done in the PC operating system and browser markets." It is impossible to predict what effect Microsoft's breakup could have on the computer market, the software market or the stock market. But it could not have come at a better time for the rule-of-law market. We are entering a whole new era of cyberspace, which is going to make governance of things we cherish, and the enforcement of even some basic laws, much more difficult. Look around: Internet companies are already violating people's privacy to troubling degrees; new technologies are making it easy for anyone to copy a book, movie or CD and send it to a friend without regard to copyright or royalties; e-commerce is increasingly going to deprive local and state governments of taxes; and the unregulated universe of cyberspace is making it easy for two students in the Philippines to send out a computer virus that melts down 10 million computers worldwide overnight. That's why in the age of cyberspace, government is going to matter more, not less. And you are going to want the rule of law more, not less. The danger, though, is that young people -- raised in the Internet age and bedazzled by technology companies and billionaire geeks like Bill Gates -- will lose sight of this fact. So too might all their parents with Microsoft stock in their 401(k)'s. Don't worry about Microsoft. There will always be another Microsoft as long as there is another Judge Jackson or another Joel Klein ready to take on such behemoths when they become abusive. But there won't always be another U.S. government, as we know it, if global technology companies grow so big and powerful that they think they can have their way with Washington, or if these emerging Internet giants snooker us into keeping cyberspace unregulated, so they can have their way with us. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> *Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day. ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om