They say that there are two sides to every story – but in the court of public opinion, the only thing needed to convict a person of unethical behaviour seems to be an allegation these days. Need two examples – just ask McAfee Antivirus Software founder John McAfee and former pop-singer and icon Michael Jackson.
The story of Michael Jackson is well publicised. While he was experiencing one of the most ambitious rises to fame in the music industry during the 1980s, Jackson made some personal decisions that created more than just controversy. Public support was there for his music, but one has to wonder what he truly could have become had the scandal not rocked his world, not just once, but over and over again
Two separate allegations of child molestation that ended in multimillion dollar settlements and several allegations that never took shape did a lot of damage in the long run. Prior to these allegations, Jackson had been championing for causes involving starving children and highlighting the works of charities throughout the world. Initially, many thought he was an ambassador for the entertainment industry.
The allegations eventually clouded his work so much that he spent much time in self-imposed isolation, extending only private invitations to hundreds of sick and dying children for his questionable children's parties. What is strangely similar is the recent discovery reported by reliable news agencies of John McAfee engaging in similar-questionable behaviour.
According to published reports, the founder of McAfee Antivirus protection has recently been hiding out in Belize, under suspicion of drug manufacturing, and distribution with his live-in underage girlfriend. McAfee also allegedly allowed employees to have a competition to see who could have sex in the most places at his headquarters and is facing a wrongful death lawsuit of a man who died in an aircraft that one of his firms owned. McAfee has been known to date very young women despite him being beyond middle age.
Is this the responsible behaviour of a person who developed a very successful McAfee Antivirus software? Even worse, is this behaviour a recent discovery? Sadly, it’s not. It’s a pattern that McAfee has developed from the time he founded McAfee Antivirus in the mid 1980’s. As such, one must assume that this same lack of judgment that McAfee has shown over the years was instrumental in developing his McAfee antivirus software.
Like Michael Jackson, the decisions that McAfee have made in his long life are now tarnishing not only his legacy, but that of the company he developed. The ironic thing is that the antivirus industry is based on providing computer users complete trust in their programs. And now, it seems that that same trust is vanishing in not only McAfee, but the products he developed.
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