Why do bosses and governments fear knowledge workers? (It's not just the fear of disclosures).

Comment published on New York Times online blog in response to opinion essay by Sarah Jeong, “Marcus Hutchins stopped a global cyberattack. Now he deserves a pardon.,” April 26, 2019:

This is simple. He did the right thing. But it was unauthorized. So he is disobedient. Now the government becomes interested in his past misdeeds.

The sociologist Richard Sennett has pointed out that the corporate world, while it may seem to have friendly work environments and interactions with members of the public, is actually run on a military model. Companies are not democratic but hierarchical, and while some people are authorized to use their judgment in pursuit of goals given to them, a worker is not supposed to use his own judgment to decide what ought to be done, even if it is obvious and would be to any reasonable person, and then do it. Even in emergencies.

Underlying this is the fact that workers have the ability to get things done, which is why capitalists employ them. The bosses need something to be done, and workers have the ability and know-how and time to do it. Hutchins took in his own hands not the law but his own work, his ability to do things. This seems not illogical if you give it a moment's thought. This means that there is a danger to capital and its governments that would not exist in the same way in a democratic economy. Businesses are organized to get things done: that is a definition of business. Get what done? Who decides?

Workers, including knowledge workers should be given more voice in deciding what to do. "I was just doing my job" is an excuse discredited since the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi officers after the war.