So, no, then. Ok, thanks for your contribution. 
It’s is a matter of values. And the only innovations of his I think have truly lasting value are those with medical implications. For example, insofar as brain implants could potentially be used to help those with spinal cord injuries, I’m all for that and willing to give him credit—if that ever happens. As for the rest, I don’t see much but a lot of shiny new stuff. I certainly don’t see a vision for a better overall quality of life. So, he’s not a visionary because he’s missing the human element of visonary thiking. What he offers, apart from being obviously self-serving, is generally shallow, derivative, and in some sense dystopic as I’ve explained above. And it would be so regardless of his politics. He’s easy to hate, yes, but even if he wasn’t, it wouldn’t make what he has to offer any more interesting.
He’s not originally from the USA. Does he get points for that? Partly kidding.
I know where’s he’s from. I suppose the only thing relevant about that is he maybe ought to go a little easier on the immigration issue. I suppose you could claim he has a kind of a particularly American vision, but even that would be a stretch. We’re all Americans now.
That’s cool. I guess I have a soft spot for him because he’s autistic and I’m on the spectrum myself.
I could see how his business success could be seen as a positive for the neurodivergent, but I don’t really have a clue what his specific from of autism entails or how it might affect his behaviour.
It might mean that he wouldn’t be able to understand why you don’t like him. It’s not belligerence, there are just aspects of human interaction he’s blind to.
A lot of people with autism learn to get by with a staged personality. They’ve learned what looks normal and they’re pretty good at navigating things. You might never notice until they’re really tired and they don’t have the energy to maintain the act.
I get the feeling Elon Musk hasn’t really had to spend much energy on seeming normal because he’s arranged his world so that he’s in charge.
As far as his genius goes, it’s partly the autism, which means he sees the world from a different angle than most.
To be honest, I wasn’t even thinking of criticizing anyone. I’m interested in the mechanics of it. How did the belief that one’s actions equate to a “greater good” take root in my mind? Why do we feel the need to believe in something? What level of substantiation for a “fairy tale” do we find convincing enough—what are the criteria? And how does a “tomorrow” that hasn’t yet arrived shape our “today” (and, even more intriguingly, how does that “tomorrow” lead us to reinterpret “yesterday”)?
These are the questions I set out to explore.
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That sounds plausible. Anyhow, we can criticize or support his vision on its own terms or more generally in terms of its implications, as Astorre mentioned, without getting too much into the weeds of his character.
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I’m not sure what “the human element of visionary thinking” is, nor is it clear what the effects of his production is quite yet on the wider world. If you mean to say he’s not a doctor, politician, or scientist, or has not yet come up with some solution to some other social ill in Whogivesistan—sure. That’s fair enough. All I know is that I haven’t seen a better series of objects manifested from the resources of a single human being in my lifetime, whether doctor, writer, scientist, artist, or whatever other serious visionary with the proper Twitter antics I can think of.
I am neither a medical professional, a psychiatrist, nor a psychologist; it is not for me to judge. Yet, it seems that each of us might do something similar from time to time…
On the other hand—and here I’ll touch briefly on Musk’s personality—he once emphasized in an interview how important it is for him to meet with people right before a project begins, in order to—mind you—“get a feel for” those individuals.
I have to give credit to this genius, provided he has learned to simulate “sensing another person” so effectively that the future of multi-billion-dollar joint ventures actually hinges on it.
This is confusing to me. What do you mean by a “better series of objects”? I mean how would you even go about comparing the cybertruck to a Lars Von Trier movie or whatever?
I mean what effect on quality of being, our relationship to ourselves, does, for example, having a flying car or internet at the top of mountains provide. It seems mostly about novelty, which isn’t necessarily psychologically healthy.
He probably went through a phase in youth where it became apparent to him that he had trouble understanding people. He may have then taken a deep dive into observing everything about people in an effort to put himself in their shoes enough to understand what they’re saying. The huge amount of energy poured into this (which is characteristic of Aspergers), would have resulted in learned ability to read people.
He’d also probably be interested in philosophy of language with all the focus on meaning, because he had to go through the process consciously, where non-autistic people do it somewhat unconsciously.
I don’t mean to sound rude or overly critical, but listening to his interviews, I sometimes notice a lack of any meaningful self-reflection…
Of course, this is just my own conjecture, based on the “feel” of the conversation. After all, one shouldn’t forget the constraints he faces: “A captain cannot afford to have doubts.”
I haven’t paid much attention to him, really. I was a little confused that you seemed to picture him as an idol. I take your word that there are people who look at him that way.
But what sort of self-reflection would you be thinking of? What would he say if he had more of that?
An idol? Hmm, perhaps this is a distortion in my own perspective—one shaped by the society I live in, and possibly even by the specific region…
I would say that, both yesterday and today, he is undeniably a thought leader. (I don’t feel the need to prove this; I assume you’d agree.)
Any such focal point inevitably draws in people like me—the kind who tediously ask for proof as to why “progress” has suddenly become an unquestionable good.
It’s an interesting dynamic. I find Musk himself intriguing, though not as an individual—rather as a phenomenon: a media-facing representative of the global elite.
I don’t have a Twitter account (I’ll admit). But I do listen to his “fairy tales,” because understanding their content helps me better navigate the social landscape. After all, as I mentioned earlier, Musk is someone who shapes the discourse.
When I spoke of a lack of self-reflection in his remarks, I was referring to an absence of genuine doubt regarding his own words. To be sure, he is articulate and includes caveats—avoiding a dogmatic tone—yet it seems he truly believes what he says, without any sense of doubt.
Perhaps I am just nitpicking, but this is a quality I value highly in people.
Could you explain what you mean by a “thought leader?”
You and I see him very differently. I think you see him as the face of an aggregation. I really don’t think there is any aggregation that wants him as their representative. He’s the quintessential entrepreneur. He’s capitalism’s poster boy because he followed his own personal vision and the world met him by buying in.
In other words, he wasn’t made by the elite. He made himself and doesn’t owe anything to anyone. That’s what allowed him to campaign with Donald Trump. He really doesn’t care what anyone thinks.
I just think of him as the kind of thing that’s possible in a capitalist society. In a theocracy, he’d be in the church. In a feudal society, he’d be a warlord.
As Peter Thiel said, “Never bet against Elon.”
He comes across to me as quite authentic, and for people at that level that is quite rare.
But this is not something specific for him. There’s a ton of self-help books on how to improve one’s self-confidence, how to “live with passion”, and so on. There’s plenty of people like that and he’s like the poster boy for that genre.
Also, for most people in plebeian culture, and American culture in general, expressing any kind of doubt tends to be seen as at least a character flaw, if not as manipulation. People who are not philosophically inclined in any way and who don’t nurture a culture of discussion of philosophically-themed topics take a dim view of any expression of doubt (among other things). So in order to avoid being negatively targeted by such people one needs to learn to hide one’s doubts when talking to them or otherwise in public.
And then there’s the time-tested practice of business lunches and so on. Where business people get a feel for eachother before going into business together.
Just because Elon Musk says or does something doesn’t mean he invented it, duh. (Nor that it is a sign of his supposed autism.)
There’s dozens of memes with his words or words attributed to him that have actually been around for a long time before him or independently of him. But somehow, they apparently get a whole new momentum if said by him or attributed to him. As if, for example, Parkinson’s Law sounds so much better and so much more convincing when uttered by Musk.