Musk’s Mars moment: Audacity, madness, brilliance–or maybe all three

> Beyond this, what really stood out about Musk’s speech on Tuesday was the naked baring of his soul. Considering his mannerisms, passion, and the utter seriousness of his convictions, it felt at times like the man's entire life had led him to that particular stage. It took courage to make the speech, to propose the greatest space adventure of all time. His ideas, his architecture for getting it done—they’re all out there now for anyone to criticize, second guess, and doubt.

That is exactly so.

I think the timeline will be off by a decade or three, but this took huge balls.

It is hard to imagine any other billionaire taking a risk like this, especially in the public eye. I believe SpaceX and NASA can do it, it is within their capability even though it is obviously a difficult technological feat.

This was from the Economist this morning:

> How odd, then, that Mr Musk’s motivation is born in part of a fear as misplaced as it is striking. He portrays a Mars colony as a hedge against Earth-bound extinction... Claptrap

Complete with a pre-prepared image of a businessman leaping into space with his luggage.

This is why the British Empire failed. This is why they never reached the moon. They basically gave up going after real power in favour of the Law of Jante. They constantly tear each other down. Any Britisher knows what I'm talking about. Bitch, whine and snap, constant ongoing passive aggressive behaviour is now baked into their toxic culture. You are seeing this corruption spreading the US today as well but it hasn't managed to consume everything yet.

There are exceptions in Britain and British people of course. However any inspiration comes from early British culture, the one of the Enlightenment, the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. They have fallen a great distance from that vision since then for reasons I believe to be cultural. At some point the doers were overtaken by the talkers, followed by ideas that sounded good in principal while actually being destructive, and the whole thing became unwound. That is one of the main reasons I think some reactionary ideas are the rational ones, because we have forgotten some axiomatic basic principals for the feeling of fake sophistication.

There are good criticisms one could make of Elon Musk's plans. They are technical criticisms, like that of the Mars Society's Zubrin in his newsletter, or those based on economics or business ideas. Those are totally necessary.

The following is a speculation:

Intellectuals keep trying to fit their framework around an idea like this and they cannot do it in many cases because if Elon Musk actually succeeds it may bring down many long held beliefs about our limitations as human being and society. It would be like a successful businessman in the USSR. A taunt.

It has happened before that a great man was taken down by rats because they could not comprehend his vision for a better world. There is something in them that cannot stand the idea that they might be wrong about their system structurally, because they are ultimately afraid of questioning the premise underneath long held beliefs and habits of mind.