The Twit gets Twitter
Will Musk’s new toy be his undoing?
For the next few days, the man who loves to bask in attention for his every twitch will luxuriate in the afterglow of gobbling up Twitter. There is very little middle ground among opinions of the eponymous billionaire. Most either love him or loath him (full disclosure, I’m among the latter).
Since his debut on the world economic stage, his aspirations have always seemed a bit too grand to be quite sound. And yet, after years in the spotlight, those waiting for Musk’s Icarus wings to contort and crash to earth have been denied their prophesy.
Few believed Musk could make a new all electric auto company work in a market dominated by corporate behemoths. But, so far at least, he has. Then came Space X, which surely seemed to be the made-to-order metaphor for his anticipated Icarus moment. At several junctures, it’s fate seemed to rest more on luck than on refined engineering and sound process. And yet, even with more than a few spectacular crashes, the company still rose to meet critical occasions when other outfits might have been destroyed (GE comes to mind).
As the list of Musk ventures grow, the risk it all comes crashing down grows too. Any short term bet that Musk had finally gone too far has long since been collected on, many times over. Which has served to fuel a veneer of invincibility, which Musk himself is only too happy to feed. For his followers (acolytes?), Musk has been a refreshing finger in the eye of “conventional wisdom”. And his regular stunts, like placing a Tesla car in orbit, have only served to expand on his ethos, or perhaps his mythos.
But gravity is a law, one that will eventually reclaim his auto now orbiting overhead. And Musk’s purchase of Twitter may finally reintroduce he himself to gravity and financial physics he has thus far eluded.
In a sense, much of what Musk has done is akin to a layered Ponzi scheme blended with a strong shot of Musk’s own 120 proof geek chic. The money Musk wields is mostly not his own, and has been wagered on ventures that achieved less success than the hype or stock prices might lead anyone to believe. But enough success to keep it going. And that really is the core of the art of the Ponzi. Hype the limited success to gather more cash.
The irony of Ponzi schemes is they have a genuine core, that if it had been the real intent, might have rendered a real success. Time will tell if Musk’s endeavor will unravel, but profit reports notwithstanding, the questions about his operations are valid, and still remain.
Which brings us to Twitter. Always a dubious business model, that while being a sparkling shiny object, is not exactly a path to fortunes. The eye popping price for twitter is only justifiable if you realize that its primary purpose is to continue the spell Musk has cast. In that sense, Musk is like Donald Trump. Each fantastical fish story must be followed by a bigger one. Only Musk is far more artful in his figments than Trump could ever dream of being.
By taking Twitter private, he can operate outside of piercing regulatory scrutiny. Something undoubtedly very attractive to anyone wanting to keep prying eyes from bursting their financial bubble. But being in his own free Twitter Land will simply do what unchecked authority does to any autocrat. And Musk is decidedly a corporate autocrat.
Free from constraints and contradiction, Musk will turn up the heat on his wings, and face the inevitable fall. And with his fall, the fragility of his empire will be laid bare. There are some bigger truths that also may be clearer to see in that moment. Some fundamental flaws in unchecked and unbridled capitalism and our idolization of the wealthy.
The whims of the one wealthy individual, are probably less of a valid cause than the desperate needs of the homeless person.
Musk is not as special or unique as he got us to believe he was.
Ideas not put to the rigors of review will keep their flaws until they become infinitely more potent.
Musk’s spectacular failure will cost our society much more opportunity than he created.
The wealthy, if not kept grounded by laws, taxes and regulations, will destroy the very societies that birthed them.
There are many more implications of a central information exchange in the hands of one Elon Musk that were well discussed in the book 1984. Pity that we never realized that Big Brother could just as easily have been a Twit and his Twitter. Or that it might less be censorship of information that kills us than an anarchist torrent of disinformation that drowns out precious drops of truth.
If our society still has enough of a command of its critical thinking skills, we might wade through the swamp Musk will unleash. But in their zeal to change reality and obfuscate inconvenient truth, corporations have dutifully bled those skills from society over generations. Hopefully, we still have enough remaining to hand Musk his hat once he hits the pavement.
Timothy P. Holmberg is a former staff reporter and opinion writer who currently writes freelance on subjects ranging from local politics to social justice
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