United States: the Valley wants a divorce

United States: the Valley wants a divorce

Northern Colorado and California , western Maryland, southern Arizona , a part of Michigan or Texas , Silicon Valley ... If secessionist movements have marked the history of the United States, they have multiplied since the coming to power of Barack Obama and radicalization on both sides. Most come from rural counties and conservatives wanting to liberate the Democratic "yoke" of Washington (except Pima County , Arizona, who wants to escape the conservative majority in the state). In the local elections on 5 November , the people of eleven counties of Colorado voted in a referendum on a proposed secession called 51st State Initiative . Nearly 45 % of voters were broadly supportive . Attempts that have little chance - if any - to achieve because it requires the agreement of the State Parliament and the U.S. Congress. The last time secession , the Maine , which is "separate" from Massachusetts , took place in ... 1820. Whatever. Claim secession is a symbolic approach , a means of pressure to influence local policies.
In Silicon Valley , however , it is further. In October, at a conference in San Francisco by Y Combinator , an incubator for start-ups, Balaji S. Srinivasan, professor at Stanford University and successful entrepreneur, created a sensation by advocating the independence of the Silicon Valley. "The United States has become the Microsoft of Nations: obsolete and outdated" , has he told an audience of 1,700 people hilarious . " When a company becomes calcified , we do not reform , it is left to start his own business . Why not do the same thing with America ? " Has he said before comparing industry high technology - he says attacked by Washington, Wall Street and Hollywood - the persecuted people forced to flee to survive.



SHUTDOWN

According to him, the United States are governed by a "code" - the Constitution - 230 years old who recently " crashed ", an allusion to the recent shutdown that paralyzed part of the federal government for two weeks. "The only way to Silicon Valley to realize its full potential is to secede ," he has said. A few months earlier , it was Larry Page , Google co-founder , who advocated that "a part of the world " can be " set aside " "to get rid of laws that prevent innovation and test "new technologies controversial ." As for the libertarian Peter Thiel , cofounder of PayPal , investing for several years in a project independent floating city off California.

For the Wall Street Journal about the Balaji S. Srinivasan reflect once again the " superiority complex " of the high-tech elite of the West Coast . " Everyone knows that Silicon Valley wants to conquer the world. But if its people want to do this, they would be wise to claim more humility in their approach ," said the daily. This comment echoes a series of criticisms of entrepreneurs Valley.

The adequacy of technology giants indeed begins to grate on the nerves of America. To threaten to supplant the popular imagination the "evil " of finance . "The world of technology is the new Wall Street, tweeted Umair Haque , an economist and director of the Havas Media Lab. Mostly white and mainly composed of guys who get rich by doing things that have a purpose and a limited social impact . "

Louise Couvelaire