LETTERS

THE PRIVATE WORLD OF BILL GATES

Thank you for your superb and insightful story on Microsoft's Bill Gates [BUSINESS, Jan. 13]. I especially liked the way Walter Isaacson prodded Gates to think "philosophically," which he eventually did. Gates really scares me. Society should not allow any one person to amass as much economic power as Gates has. We need some modern-day versions of the old Sherman and Clayton antitrust laws to regulate computer commerce. We need, too, to stop worshipping at the altar of high technology. It has only instrumental value and needs to be judged by how efficiently it promotes genuine aesthetic and moral values. WALTER JEFFKO Lunenberg, Massachusetts

America has a hero in Bill Gates. He's everything we all want to be--smart, creative, dedicated, energetic. So what if he wants to win and be the best? His achieving the best has made a more interesting world for all of us, and he's still on his journey of life. My bet is that in the end he'll have social graces and a spiritual outlook as well. SHARON MIRTAHERI Germantown, Maryland

I admire what Gates has done but not who he is. NANCEE JENNE Portsmouth, New Hampshire

You stated that Gates enjoyed playing games as a child, and still enjoys them today. Did he ever play Monopoly? If so, did he always win? BALAD W. TEBO II New Orleans

So everyone quickly points out that Gates is "the smartest guy I've ever met." Yet he gets locked out of his $40 million house and stuck in the yard, doesn't wear a seat belt while driving recklessly and thinks his daughter is "just beginning to develop a personality." He doesn't have the courtesy to offer a guest a soft drink when he serves himself, leaves his wife for an annual weekend with his former girlfriend and is loud in restaurants. With cold arrogance, Gates incorrectly equates intelligence with being smart, and being smart with being good. Your portrayal actually exposes America's biggest money winner as a loser. DANIEL MELCON Norwich, Vermont

As if life weren't tough enough! Gates, who seems to live in fear of any social exchange he cannot dominate, now talks about designing computers that feel. I suggest that first he redesign himself by developing some humility, as well as a realization of how little in life we really have control over. SARAKAY SMULLENS Philadelphia

No matter how technological our world becomes or how connected we are to the information highway, nothing can replace the human touch in our lives. Although I have been gratified by a successful career in politics, it is my four children who give me my greatest pleasure. Their raw, untechnological smiles are more engaging than the potential for the digital age. I appreciate how our world is changing and advancing, mostly for the better, because of people like Gates. However, we must never forget the human element. LAURIE BLACK San Diego

Articles like the one on Bill Gates are the reason I became a subscriber to TIME. They tell a whole story, the good side, the bad side, the ups and downs of a person and a company. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the piece. MYRLE SAUNDERS Berlin

Gates sounds like a truly happy man. He's doing what he loves, and he's getting rewarded for doing it. Even the head of a multibillion-dollar international corporation can always find time to do what he wants to do. When talking about religion, Gates says going to church is not very efficient in terms of allocation of time. But he has been known to make time to indulge in all-night bridge games, 1,100-page textbooks, singing lessons and 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles. KENT CLARK La Crescenta, California

The lesson to be learned from Gates is that hard work and perseverance are behind great people in any field. Furthermore, it is not the desire to make money but the will to win that motivates a person to achieve personal and financial greatness. Too often people want to get rich quickly and don't realize what it takes to get there. Gates strives for a level of excellence that would make each of us and our society better if more of us would do the same. CHRIS PELS East Greenwich, Rhode Island

Gates appears to be smart in an extremely narrow way, but he doesn't sound like someone I'd go down the block to have lunch with. And he's apparently devoid of social graces and common sense. You seem to be fascinated with this guy because he's rich, but Gates has never had an original thought in his life. The thought of this guy's gaining control of cyberspace and guiding the development of computers in the future is chilling to contemplate. BOB RUST Thousand Oaks, California

Did I miss something, or did Gates cure cancer while I was off surfing the Net? Sure, this is a bright guy who's defining a niche, but how much press coverage does he deserve? I think I've already read several pieces on Gates in your magazine over the past few years. While I appreciate PCs as much as anyone, I'm no more interested in details about the geeks who develop them than I am in the people who perfect cellular phones. Bring us the technology, but drop the hero worship. KEVIN C. THORNTON Finksburg, Maryland

Can the man who is shaping our future really be the soulless, joyless, socially retarded supergeek described in your story? The God who created the Bill Gates you described did so by reverse-engineering Star Trek's Mr. Spock and leaving out all the good parts. MICHAEL J. MITCHELL SR. Chicago

It's not surprising to find out that beneath that Stephen Hawking-Albert Einstein aura is an ordinary person who is like the rest of us. Gates was a geek in high school who had problems with a parent growing up. He values his close friendships, loves his wife and daughter and protects his privacy. He has amassed a personal fortune and attained the American Dream through his brilliance and hard work. What's wrong with that? All the more power to Gates and Microsoft. I look forward to the cornucopia of new software and gadgets that they will come up with in the near future. MARIO J. HEMENS Riyadh

The fundamental question we must ask ourselves is, What is this man actually doing for the betterment of humankind? The answer is, Nothing. However, Gates seems to be in a position to control ever greater aspects of our lives. As you put it, he is "the man who is shaping our future." And Gates, with his materialism and hunger for power, seems to be more a detriment to society than a positive influence. By worshipping knowledge over wisdom, by embracing greed over sharing and by clinging to logic without spirituality, he epitomizes the attitude that has brought our world to the sad condition it is in today. GEORG VON BAICH Toronto

On the basis of my experience with Windows 95 and Microsoft Office, I find the most amazing thing about Gates is how far he has been able to come peddling inferior products. THEODORE SIMAN Berlin

I've always liked to read TIME for its excellent blend of information and opinion on different topics, including international affairs, politics, economics and culture. I do not agree with your current tendency to focus more and more on computers, the Internet and the person of Bill Gates. Sure, the issues and the guy are important, but please bring back your old balance. I could have used more coverage of the protests in Serbia instead of, say, the details of Gates' new house. DOROTHEA GIESELMANN Munster, Germany

The fascination with Gates lies chiefly in his financial success and less in his achievements, which history will prove are of negligible importance. The key issues that face mankind will still be decided by human beings, not computers. The alleged power of the Web and the Internet are nothing more than a high-tech yuppie myth promoted by a relative minority. MARK TERRILL Wacken, Germany

With the $30 million he supposedly earns each day, why should Gates wait another 10 years to focus on philanthropy? I wish this man with a brilliant personality would invest some of his money and ideas now in environmental issues to save other creatures and our sick Mother Earth and, consequently, the human race. He would then receive from millions of people not only admiration but also love. ROBERT VAN KUYK Nijmegen, the Netherlands

Gates' vast wealth is surpassed only by his enormous ego. He is a bright techno-geek who simply got lucky with some basic programming, then hired the right marketing gurus and cornered the emerging software market. Gates' pathological personality traits show him to be more akin to Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan than Albert Einstein; his ruthless and paranoid approach to business practice is driven not by intellect but by pathetic will-to-power. JAIMIE BUCHANAN Toronto

Who among your readers is interested in the details of baby Gates or the personal habits of Warren Buffett? Has TIME gone the way of PEOPLE? Gates has become more insufferable than TV talk-show host Larry King. More boring than O.J. Simpson. More insupportable than the Newt Gingrich and the Clinton family scandals and improprieties. Please change the subject or face the desertion of readers like me. CARLOS ARAUJO Rio de Janeiro

Gates already has more than enough money to last a lifetime. He should consider giving consumers a break. MICHAEL GLATZ Dardago, Italy

When Gates blessed the personal-computer world with MS-DOS, he provided an operating system that was mathematical, technical, impersonal and, for the majority of humanity, impractical. Having captured the PC market and made a fortune, Gates has built his software empire based on a product that reflects his personality. However, in order to survive, he has been forced to mimic the insight and ingenuity of companies like Apple and now Netscape, which understand that successful systems reflect the "soul" of humanity and that the human function of the computer is to express intelligence and emotion, not "replicate" it. It is no wonder that Gates is paranoid about his market position; he is a technocrat tactician, not an innovator. Even with all the financial and other resources he has at his disposal, he is somehow limited by a restricted view of the world. DOUGLAS HARDWICK Madeira Park, British Columbia

Thanks for the peep into Gates' life. He appears to be brilliant, obsessed with competition and a cold person. May this new year bring him some compassion. ZOHER ADENWALA Vancouver

The more I hear about Microsoft and Gates, the more I am struck by the parallels with Standard Oil and John D. Rockefeller about a century ago. Both Microsoft and Standard Oil became highly efficient virtual monopolies, and both men became fabulously wealthy, claiming all the while that the real winners were the customers. PETER CHANDLER St. Neots, England

SIC TRANSIT TECHNOLOGY

Reading Lance Morrow's commentary on the mixed blessings of a technological society [ESSAY, Jan. 13], I couldn't help thinking how quickly we forget. Before the invention of movable type, books were rare commodities. To own one made people sleepless and roused them from the inertia of ignorance. The time spent reading was sacred, and each book a shrine. In that golden era, urgency and vitality were brought to reading. So were piety and reverence, the embryos of true enlightenment. What will we say about TV and the Internet when their glory has faded from the scene? ROBERT LEWIS Longueuil, Quebec

With the pixels of his television and computer screens at rest for three days, Lance Morrow came up with a distillation of thought and insight comparable to Francis Bacon at his best and worthy, to use a Baconian expression, of being "chewed and digested." Using the amusing characters from The Wind in the Willows to make a serious case that technology has a mixed record and "is sometimes, in the end, a little stupid," Morrow points out that we are Toads badly in need of a sobering Mr. Badger "to talk us down from our manias." Either that or a crippling snow storm to allow time for contemplation. NEWELL W. MANLY Fort Langley, British Columbia

MAN OF THE YEAR

I am puzzled by your choosing an AIDS researcher like Dr. David Da-i Ho [Man of the Year, Dec. 30-Jan. 6], rather than a person who is advocating and overseeing an international policy on education for HIV prevention. The number of people dying of AIDS is increasing exponentially in sub-Saharan Africa. The effective way to stop the spread of AIDS is to empower people by educating them and giving them the ability to choose. But while the researchers go on in pursuit of understanding, the illiterate cannot read your stories and learn how to save themselves. DARON MASSEY Johannesburg

As an American citizen who has resided for many years in the hometown in Taiwan of Dr. Ho, I am especially proud of your choice. At the same time, I am hopeful that Ho's extraordinary scientific accomplishments will be recognized by all as further testimony to the contributions that have been made by America's immigrant citizens. JON L. BEMIS Taichung, Taiwan

Bravo to Dr. Ho and all the researchers, patients and families doing battle with this horrible disease. Never could there have been a better choice for Man of the Year. The selection shows you don't have to be in American politics to receive this honor. MARTY SCOTT Rimbey, Alberta

The statistics speak for themselves. For the so-called developed Western world, AIDS is primarily a disease of gay people, drug users and prostitutes and an affliction of Third World countries. It is a discriminatory disease of the politically weak. There will be no vaccine until the disease is indiscriminate, whether that concerns whom it infects or the social consequences of the infection.

The answer to AIDS is not treatment but prevention. Completely successful prevention does not lie in safe sex and clean needles, because these methods rely on persistent behavioral patterns in a creature who is often unreliable, unable to judge risk accurately or irrationally convinced that he is immortal and invincible. The solution to stopping the spread of AIDS is a vaccine to prevent further untold, unspeakable pain, suffering and economic hardship. The task is to develop a vaccine, not a cure. SARAH E. BLACKWELL London

You mentioned that the "cocktail" of protease inhibitors and other antiviral drugs can cost up to $20,000 a year.Why don't pharmaceutical companies produce these drugs in massive quantities, as the demand is surely there? The cost would be brought down to much more reasonable figures. The whole of Africa, not to mention the rest of the Third World, is in desperate need of these antiviral cocktails. Do not forget Africa. JACQUES ALBELDAS Johannesburg

INCEST THEME IN HAMLET

In his review of Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet [CINEMA, Jan. 13], film critic Richard Corliss says Hamlet hates his stepfather Claudius because he killed Hamlet's father and seduced his mother. Corliss goes on to say about Ophelia's brother, "But Laertes has similar reasons for hating Hamlet, and here he has the same carnal, bloody and unnatural itch for Ophelia that Hamlet has for Gertrude." Corliss needs to re-examine his thematic interpretations of Hamlet. The notion that the Prince of Denmark suffers from a classic Oedipus complex is misguided. The only "incestuous" theme in the play refers directly to the relationship between Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet's anger at his mother stems from her marriage to a man deemed by Hamlet to be unworthy of his father's crown. Furthermore, Gertrude marries her brother-in-law, Claudius, less than a month after her husband's death. This union would have been perceived as incestuous by an Elizabethan audience but not by modern theatergoers. Hence, when Hamlet speaks of "incestuous sheets," he refers to the bed shared by Gertrude and her dead husband's brother, Claudius. Hamlet is not referring to any kind of incestuous relationship between himself and Gertrude. As for the "unnatural itch" Laertes has for his sister Ophelia, it does not exist. Again, there is no evidence in the text of the play for such a conclusion. LEANNE VINCENT Calgary

HELPING DEATH ALONG

Your article "Is There a Right to Die?," which discusses whether physicians have the right to help terminally ill patients end their lives [SOCIETY, Jan. 13], illustrates the moral ambiguity that can result from a crisis of confusion and logical thinking. Death comes to all. We have the right to avail ourselves of the benefits of modern medical science or to reject them when we see fit. We have the right to expect compassionate care, especially at the end of life, to allow a dignified death.

It is important to ask, Who will protect the lonely, depressed and helpless if physician-assisted suicide becomes the first constitutionally guaranteed health right in history? This right would be guaranteed before the right to relief of pain, the right to psychiatric care or even the right to lifesaving surgery. GERALD D. REILLY, M.D. Pueblo, Colorado

With all due respect to your headline writers, "Is there a right to die?" seems like a silly question to us mortals. I have a simple announcement to make to the Supreme Court, the Clinton Administration and religious authorities: my life is not the property of any church or state. Like most people, I am too fond of living and too afraid of dying to contemplate suicide, assisted or otherwise, but I find it obscene that anyone would even think of forcing me to die later rather than sooner if the difference ever boils down to a period of helpless agony in a hospital bed. I will be glad to accept a legal restriction on my right to die the day after the Supreme Court abolishes death as unconstitutional. TONY PRENTAKIS Watertown, Massachusetts

THE KILLING OF JONBENET

A child's murder does indeed cause incredible "disbelief and heartbreak," as described in your story about the killing of six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado [NATION, Jan. 13], but it is tragic that such a crime must be accompanied by beauty and wealth to merit national concern. REBEKAH GILBERT Yorkville, Illinois

There is something grotesque about a young child wearing lipstick, eye makeup and show-girl costumes. Whether or not the parents of JonBenet had anything to do with her death, they certainly made a travesty of her life. POLLY S. BROWDER La Jolla, California

FOREIGN FILMS A DEAD GENRE?

In your story on the decline of audiences for foreign films in the U.S. [CINEMA, Jan. 13], you included the remarks of a specialized film booker who said, "Even college students" no longer go to foreign films but would rather watch Beavis and Butt-head. Hey, dude, listen up. As a junior at Carnegie Mellon University, I am offended by such a blanket statement. Believe it or not, there are mature, intelligent college students who can understand, follow and appreciate foreign films. We can even grasp all the topics that gramps knew. Your attitude is just part of the epidemic of Generation-X bashing, which is getting tiresome. I and others like me would not be where we are today if we weren't focused, determined and concerned about issues larger than ourselves. SAROJA RAMAPRASAD Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I am no defender of America's "junk culture," but I can't help feeling patronized by your article "Fellini, Go Home!" Face it, subtitles turn a movie into a job. Dubbing just sounds phony. If writers and directors choose to work in languages other than English, fine. But don't belittle me for staying home. GORDON ELY Richmond, Virginia

We denizens of the '50s and '60s who so enjoyed foreign films are now in our 50s and 60s. For people with declining eyesight who rent videos, subtitles are almost impossible to read on a television screen, yellow backed or not. Can't someone in the vast moviemaking industry devise more readable subtitles? CYNTHIA SHUMAN Dublin, California