Surely We Can Do Better Than Elon Musk
currentaffairs.org
currentaffairs.org
Now we need people to write and criticize and highlight the issues in our societies and ourselves. But 2021 has so many bigger fish worthy to be fried than Musk. Robinson himself doesn't even have an answer to a "problem" like Musk. That's because he isn't paid to solve real problems; he's paid to talk about imaginary ones. In the early twentieth century, Current Affairs would be publishing headlines like "Surely We Can Do Better Than Thomas Edison". But personally I prefer "Surely we can do better than Nathan J. Robinson."
And yet, I can’t help but wonder sometimes if the trade off is worth it. The lives of a couple hundred people are voluntarily made hell for a few years and in return society gains ubiquitous computing with smartphones and electric cars coming to market faster than previously expected. Is it worth it?
This is obviously predicted on the assumption that these advances wouldn’t have come without these people.
The idea that there isnt any comparison of the magnitude of the two mens' impact on humanity is untrue, but so is the idea that we should take an impactful person's worldview and vision for the future as gospel.
In fact, the instinct to take it with a grain of salt is probably the right one, as great wealth and power have rarely been correlated with magnanimity in history.
>But 2021 has so many bigger fish worthy to be fried than Musk.
It's good that there are enough people to fry both at once.