Ref. :  000000310
Date :  2001-03-12
langue :  Anglais
Page d'accueil / Ensemble du site
fr / es / de / po / en

Domination

Domination



The 13th January 2000 is a historic date. The day when Bill Gates announced to his employees in an e-mail classified as 'very important' that he intended to 'change the way that people work, communicate and play'. At the same time, he put an end to quarter of a century presiding over Microsoft to manage this new mission, and henceforth contented himself with the modest title of 'Director of software design'. Bill Gates, mastermind of four out of five computers, thanks to his 'operating systems', his word processing and spreadsheet software, decided to get down off his pedestal to better address the supposed needs 'of the people'. It must be said that it's not the first time he has done this since he claims to have already succeeded in 'putting a computer in every office and every home'. That claim is a little exaggerated, since Bill Gates has never built a computer, but does that matter? Has not Microsoft software, renowned for its inefficiency and bugs, generated the largest commercial and financial success in the last quarter of the 20th century? That is the real yardstick, the only one that counts: one of success, popularity, and massive product diffusion. The voices of the critics of these products carry a lot less weight in the face of the mastermind who highlighted the beauty of his act of having equipped so many households that were still living in the Stone Age.

Hence it seems that rumours of massacres are no longer necessary to trouble cities and rule the world. Which validates once again the accuracy of the suggestion of Simonade to the tyrant Hieron:'Become he who makes the city most prosperous (...) remember this, if you take victory in the most beautiful and magnificent competition there be in the world. In the first instance, you will succeed in making yourself loved by your subjects, which is precisely the object of your desires ; and secondly, there would not be just one herald to proclaim your victory, but all men would celebrate your virtue (...)' Clearly, Bill Gates heard the lesson of Xenophone and put it into action .

It is that the desire ' to change the way in which people work, communicate and play' is a ridiculously anodyne project: a planetary ambition, which could hardly not rouse the excitement of the masses, starting with the billion people or more who do not have access to electricity. An ambition that lifts the mask of smiling goodwill to uncover a tyrannical face, which would certainly not have left George Orwell indifferent.

The most able are always treacherous, and Bill Gates is no exception to this. In fact, the very day that he announced his resignation from the presidency, he took time to specify to his employees in another e-mail that: 'If some of you think that this decision means that I will devote less time to Microsoft, they could not be further from the truth.' The barely veiled threat: do not think that I am retiring and will no longer be capable of closely surveying the performance of each and every one of you. In fact, this retirement from front of house management must not be interpreted as a loss in power of the party concerned, but on the contrary as a sign of its increase.

Here is where the limits of the 'goodwill' of Bill Gates are drawn, this wise man, full of spirituality, fortune made, is going back into his laboratory for the progress of Humanity. De fait, abandoning his first plan of action puts himself in a better position to govern his troupes, his enemies and 'the ret of the world'. The announced retreat is only portentious of subtler, but far more wide-reaching conquests.

Domination in its brutal and physical form is no longer the tool of the new masters- simple, unremarkable, in their sweater and trainers. It has left its traditional appearance behind in order to impose itself in a dematerialised form: domination that you no longer see or hear. The main thing, as for Hieron, is to be liked, to make people forget the physical violence of tyranny, in order to better diffuse it. For 'to change the way in which people work, communicate and play', to even have the idea of such a project, the ambition to realise it, after having already succeeded in every household, every office...isn't this an extravagant quest for domination? Where will this take us? To nameless, faceless domination? To banalised domination? To domination and mind control?

Certainly, you can say that since the 13th January 2000, Microsoft has seen hard times and accumulated multiple setbacks to the point where for a moment its future was compromised. But, let us not be fooled, if Bill Gates himself cannot succeed in his project to reformat the ways of communication and exchange amongst men, others will take on the torch, who will strive on to carry it further and to achieve it.


Notez ce document
 
 
 
Moyenne des 66 opinions 
Note 2.09 / 4 MoyenMoyenMoyenMoyen
Du même auteur :
 flecheLeçons de la « Grippe espagnole » de 1918-1919
 flecheL’intelligence de la bibliothèque publique
 flecheTriomphe de la post-citoyenneté
 flechePublication de L'Homme post-numérique
 flecheCharlie : comment répondre au défi ?
 flecheLe numérique prend le pas
 flecheAcerca de los Megaproyectos en Uruguay
 flecheEurope, Maghreb, Machrek : Que faire ensemble du monde euro-méditerranéen, maintenant et pour les dix prochaines années ?
 flechePourquoi une Déclaration universelle de la Démocratie ?
 flecheLe « sens du carnage » ?
 flecheLa « culture numérique » : à problématique « nouvelle », approches et solutions différentes ?
 flechePiratage (Modifier l'approche du ---)
 flecheDiversité culturelle et dialogue interculturel : confusion ou exigence ?
 flechePiratage (modifier l’approche du ---)
 flecheRéévaluer « l’économie de la création » à l’âge de la dématérialisation numérique
 flecheProjet d'intervention aux "Dialogos da Terra no Planeta Agua" (26-28 novembre, Minas Gerais - Brésil)
 flecheCosmopolitique de l’Eau
 fleche« Fin d’un monde » ou crise de son modèle ?
 flecheLa culture pour rendre le monde vivable
 flecheTransparence (Révélation de l’opacité, mondialisation de la --- ?)
 flechePour une éducation à la diversité culturelle et au dialogue interculturel
 flecheDix thèses sur le sens et l’orientation actuels de la recherche sur les mondialisations
 flecheTravail et emploi : la confusion permanente
 flecheDiversité culturelle
 flecheLa Convention sur la diversité culturelle reste à mettre en œuvre!
4 tâches prioritaires pour la société civile

 flecheCultures et mondialisations : les sons de la diversité

 flechePhilosophie des mondialisations et mondialisation de la philosophie

 flecheLaw of Globalization and/or globalization(s) of Law ?
 flecheAltermondialisation
 flechePauvreté et Violence
 flecheDiversité culturelle : un projet cosmopolitique
 flechePour un concept offensif de la diversité culturelle
 flecheDiversité culturelle, globalisation et mondialisations
 flecheLa Puissance du rituel mondial
 flecheForum Social Mondial n°5 : l’épreuve de vérité
 flecheComercio de la democracia, democracia del Comercio
 flecheOMC : la refondation ou la fin ?
 flechePour une refondation du concept de diversité culturelle
 flecheLa guerre, stade suprême de la pauvreté ?
 fleche"Lutte contre la pauvreté" : Pour une nouvelle donne
 flecheGlobal et Mondial
 flecheParadoxes des « Nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication » (NTIC) et de la diversité culturelle
 flecheLe partage critique des mondialisations via une éducation interculturelle appropriée
 flecheAntimondialisation
 flecheJohannesburg (Le risque de...)
 flecheQue peut être "l'exception culturelle" ?
 flecheLa diversité culturelle : du consensus mou au projet politique
 flechePrivatisation ou partage des identités et de la diversité culturelles ?
 flecheMorale et politique
 flecheTemps fragiles
 flecheDématérialisation de l’argent, déresponsabilisation du sujet politique
 flecheDématérialisation de l’argent
 flecheLe GERM : un laboratoire de la diversité culturelle pour comprendre «la globalisation» et les mondialisations
 flecheLa Bonté des maîtres du monde
 flecheProblématique des mondialisations
 flecheLe Monde est-il un village ?
Et peut-il être une Cité ?

 flecheLe cas Napster
 flecheDémocratie
 flecheMondialisations
 flecheLa controverse de Gênes
 flecheOSCI
 flecheChômage
 flecheEconomie de la matrice, cosmopolitique de la diversité
 flecheLe cheval de Troie des Amériques
 flecheLe révélateur Napster
 flecheRien de nouveau sous le Soleil noir de la mondialisation
 flecheDe la mondialisation aux mondialisations : domination ou partage du monde ?
 flecheLe Monde en perspective
 flecheVillage mondial
 flecheFractures (résorber les --- )
 flecheMondialisation : la loi du plus fort ?
 flechePour une ''philosophie des mondialisations''
13
RECHERCHE
Mots-clés   go
dans