It’s not common for someone to be in this column twice in a year, but Elon Musk is no ordinary person either. Few people who make the news in so many different capacities, Tesla boss, tech star, interplanetary entrepreneur and more.
Since the last time Musk made an appearance here, he hasn’t been sitting still. He kept the Ukrainian military online with the small, easy-to-use satellite dishes from his space company SpaceX. After much ado, he took over Twitter, fired the board plus half of the staff and invited exiled twitterers like the 45th president of the US to come back. In passing, he launched peace plans for Ukraine and Taiwan that were met with enthusiasm only in Moscow and Beijing.
An old story
Musk admirers know that his great strength is that he sees no boundaries where others do. Such men change the world. But it’s an old story that the world doesn’t necessarily fix up on such men. If one man who is very daring can decide on his own about, say, communication in a war, there is a downside.
Last week, Starlink’s internet service faltered in Ukraine, prompting fears that Musk plans to shut down. In September, the Tesla boss suddenly announced that he had had enough of providing Ukraine with free internet, that it had already cost him $100 million and that the US Department of Defense should take over. Moments later, Musk tweeted with the fickleness we often see in him: “Damn, we’ll just continue to pay for the Ukrainian government.” That’s nice for Ukraine, but nobody can rule out the possibility that Musk will tweet next week: “Damn, you’re not excited about my peace plan and Putin is, no more free Starlink for you.”
Ever since the end of the Cold War, there has been writing about increasing amounts of power and influence in the hands of people who operate not on behalf of national states or international organizations, but on behalf of their own companies. The digital revolution accelerated this development. Decisions by individuals on the US West Coast that are not subject to any scrutiny have global repercussions. In that situation, you can be considered lucky if the ambitions of tech stars remain limited and predictable. With Elon Musk, the world is confronted for the first time with a whimsical tech billionaire who is easily bored and does not allow himself to be limited in his ambitions.
A new challenge
His meddling in the Taiwan issue provoked bewilderment along the lines of: How the hell can anyone come up with a plan for Taiwan if he knows nothing about history? The answer is almost certainly: because Musk was ready for a new challenge. Someone who gets bored easily and sees no shortcomings in himself, dares such a thing.
Musk is the man who declared that he would donate to both Democrats and Republicans to watch the game of democracy for a long time to come. Musk is the man who thinks everyone should be allowed to say anything on Twitter because he’s having fun doing it. The departments that Twitter reluctantly set up for ethical issues were immediately closed by the new owner. Any consequences of a large blind spot are, very handy, not for him. Twitter is to Musk, everything points to it, what the gladiator and wild benas arena was to the Roman emperors. There are those who fear that Starlink faltered in Ukraine last week because Musk wanted to play a prank. The problem is, you can’t even safely rule that out.