Someone asked how you feel about yourself on the day of, "How you feel about Elon Musk is how you feel about yourself." One reader agreed. "That is how I feel about myself!" wrote Musk. "Oh wait..."
There is a good reason why Musk is in your head more than he is on his own. He is reported to be the richest man in the world, is doing comedy on network television, and at the end of the year he was named Time's Person of the Year.
I understand the attraction of a master of the universe who has no filter and promises self-driving cars and space travel. Accepting Musk's self-aggrandizing worldview and the allegations of indifference toward workers' safety is what it takes to fall under his sway.
The end of the year may represent a high-water mark in public appeal and as the pendulum swings back, it may expose the dark side of a Muskian world.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Musk's avenging angel, saw the opportunity this week to once again demand that he stop freeloading off everyone else. The ugly side of Musk was drawn out by this comment. She felt that Musk was a freeloader because she felt that she was. He said, "You remind me of when I was a kid and my friend's angry mom would randomly yell at everyone for no reason."
Musk felt that her criticism was incoherent, like an angry woman can get. Musk's misogynistic nature is not far from the surface, and takes on greater meaning in light of a recent lawsuit by six female workers who say they were subjected to lewd comments and catcalling. There have been allegations at Space X.
Musk was enraged by Warren's question about what billionaires owe the government, whether that be taxes or credit for creating the economic incentives for their companies to thrive. She implied that Musk doesn't pay taxes because of greed. How silly! Musk told Time that he doesn't have a proper home because he doesn't care for wealth. He doesn't believe the government is a good steward of capital, so he objects to Warren's focus on his lack of federal taxes.
The federal government approved a $465 million loan toTesla at a crucial moment to promote cleaner energy. Musk's decision to accept the loan was the act of brilliance, not the loan itself, according to Peter Thiel's account. There was only one moment when a half-billion-dollar loan could be made, and that was whenTesla played it perfectly.
By hero-worshiping these tech moguls, we are at risk of outsourcing our most vital policies to self-interested businessmen who care little for how their decisions affect the general public. Musk saw electric cars as an opportunity and promoted their sales, which was good for the business. Same as space travel. The government sees electric cars as a public good that reduces reliance on fossil fuels.
The point is not to mistake Musk's success and confidence for a path out of our troubles. To watch what happens when you hand over the keys. Let Bill Gates, who made his fortune dominating software and was also the richest man in the world, solve world health from on high. To allow Jeff Bezos, another one-time "richest man in the world," to create a standard for how we get stuff and how we treat the workers who get that stuff to us.
Musk is not a nice person because he is a humanist, as one long-time friend described him to Time magazine. His humanism is defined as doing the best for humanity by pursuing his own vision. The type of humanism that takes advantage of the social policies, people, and institutions that made pursuing his personal vision possible in the first place without contributing back is called humanism.
The attraction of space to Musk. Some see his interest as a desire to fix the Earth. I see it as a way to escape accountability. There is no gravity up there.
Space is silent, cold and lacks constraints. No matter how brilliant the businessmen were, it was a dismal place.
