I was talking with a friend of mine and somehow Microsoft became a topic of conversation. We talked about the different aspects of life that Microsoft seemed to be involving itself with: PCs, PDAs, entertainment devices, secure internet commerce, … and the list goes on. The talk took a head first dive into a deep and fertile pool of conversation when I made the comment: “It worries me that any one company could come to control or influence so much.” Playing the devil’s advocate, my partner in conversation said something about the government; to which I replied: “I would trust my government before I would trust a private company.” Let the fireworks begin!

I won’t bore you with the ups and downs of the conversation; I’ll just pick up where the conversation left off – with a swirl of thoughts and ideas seeking a coherent pattern in my mind. You may read these entries and think to yourself, “how is this any different than any other day?” Be nice.

So who would you trust. Me, I figure trust is inversely proportional to the power that an entity holds over me; with consideration given to past performance. The way I see it, neither the government nor private industry shines in the past performance department. Our government has a long history missteps and wrong doing. From slavery, destruction of the natives, segregation, and moving right on to the internment of our own citizens (those of Japanese ancestry during WWII); our government’s conduct has been far from perfect. Private industry has nearly as shameful a past in this country. Consider the exploitation of children in the work force from the 1800’s through the early 1900’s, pollution levels that made the air hard to breath and water dangerous to swim in, and business practices that are good for shareholders but tend to be a net loss for everyone else (who “sells for less”?). So that leaves us with power. On that score, there is no question. Our government has much more power to shape our lives than any company today. But with the government there is a catch: elections. Government can adversely effect some of us, but if it stirs up too many of us then the folks running the government usually either see the error of their ways or they find a new line of work after the next election cycle. The more I think about it, the more I feel better about the balance of power between “we the people” and the government. So what about corporate America? There’s a built in control in most cases there too: piss us off and we stop sending our money their way. It’s the exception to this rule that troubles me: the monopoly.

If a company or a group of companies provide a product or a service for which there is no viable alternative and is necessary to maintain a standard of living that we are all accustomed to – then we’ve got problems. You would think that government is then in a situation to balance the power. But what happens when the government is beholden to the monopoly? What if the economy needs the monopoly, and those in government need a good economy to keep their own power? This is what I’m afraid of. This is why I trust a big corporation less than the government.

I was driving home this evening and I passed a car with more than it’s share of post- 09/11th, flag waving bumper stickers. There was one in particular that stood out. It was the one with an eagle standing in front of a flowing, striped background. The message was: “WE STAND UNITED… THESE COLORS DON’T RUN!” And what about those colors? Rather than the expected red, white and blue; the eagle stood in front of a green, yellow and white background. So what is this person trying to say now, “they don’t run but they may fade”? Do you suppose the driver of this car suffers from an underdeveloped sense of irony?

Any schmuck can part his lips and blow wind across his vocal cords. The real trick is to string together sounds that someone wants to hear, otherwise it’s just so much noise. But wait, is it really important to always say what someone wants hear? Is there some value in pointing out the things that someone doesn’t want to see? Well, the answer to this question, like many of the great questions in life, is: it depends. Don’t you just love how life defies the desire for “black and white”? So maybe the trick is to pick your moments, go with “pleasant” most of the time, and feel your way through it. You find the right moment and let it fly. But then when is the right moment? For the sake of argument, let’s say you find the right moment, and we’ll go for broke and assume that you have the perfect way to phrase your thoughts, how do you know your advise is good? How do you know that you are right? How do you know you have the answer? Just who the hell are you anyway?

O.K., maybe I’m being a little hard on myself. I just want to help someone, but I don’t know how – much less if I can. Is it so wrong to try? Well it’s too late folks, that ship has sailed and my finger prints are all over it. Now we’ll just have to see if it returns in one piece.

Doesn’t ambiguity suck?

The real kicker is that I’ve lived through this kind of experience in this space before (in just as vague a manner). Just like today, that experience was not one for the hall of fame. Now I’m doing it again and I don’t even have the good sense to keep it to myself. Is there no hope? Will I stop asking questions?

It’s late. I’m feeling better. Thanks for listening, even if you aren’t.