The Elon Musk Conundrum
The problem with needing something to believe in
As a Tesla stockholder I am concerned with what Elon Musk says and does by default. The modest amount of money I am able to save from my nine-to-five will never be enough on its own to secure a future free from the shackles of endless corporate servitude so, like many, I must endeavour to multiply my savings through prudent investments and side projects (like this blog) which we hope may one day take off. Tesla has performed well for me and, even with the current market downturn, has proven an effective store of value.
But there are other reasons for being on the Elon train. His recent freedom of speech crusade and acquisition of establishment echo chamber Twitter has elevated his already cult-like status to new heights amongst populist, libertarian types. Elon is seen by many as the common man’s billionaire, his ostensible positions on civil rights and human procreation setting him apart from his ilk, personified most starkly in the person of Bill Gates, whose enthusiasms lean in the opposite direction toward authoritarianism and depopulation.
So that’s two big ticks in the Elon box for me – he’s looking after my money and standing up for my human rights. What’s not to like?
Well, his relationship with the Chinese Communist Party does spring to mind.
As a vehement opponent of this regime and everything it stands for, Musk’s ventures in China have weighed on me ever since I began buying Tesla stock. Having spent the last two years rebuilding my mind and body after almost two decades of self-deception in the form of a narcissistic drug and alcohol addiction, it is very important to me now not to indulge in hypocrisy.
And, if I am to be honest with myself, as I must if I am to avoid hypocrisy, standing against the vile abuses of the Chinese government while simultaneously backing a company owned by a man who regularly runs defence for Xi Jinping and his cadre, presents a moral conundrum, to say the very least.
There are numerous examples of Elon’s tacit justification for what is inarguably the single greatest threat to democracy and freedom in history, but his latest one drew particularly scathing criticism from Winston and Matt of the brilliant ADV Podcasts, and really made me sit up and think, for I too have been flirting with fanboy status of late.
Check out the clip at 1:21:40
Winston and Matt are right. Elon has taken just one metric and presented it without context. China may well be leading the world numerically in renewable energy generation, but their continued rapid acceleration of coal power cancels out any effort they are making in renewables. Elon knows this, he’s not stupid, and this makes his tweet a bad faith act of soft propaganda on behalf of the CCP.
Personally I am not convinced by the ‘climate change’ narrative. ‘The science’ is not ‘settled’, and when any issue becomes as recklessly abused for political gain as this one has been, I become supremely sceptical about the motivations behind it. Whether our climate is changing beyond the normal cyclical variations across tens of thousands of years, and even if it is, whether human activity is causing it, has yet to be proven – and it is unlikely that it ever will be, even if the apocalypse does come.
However, from a first principles standpoint, would it be better if there were fewer emissions from the burning of fossil fuels? Yes, I think we can all agree that would be desirable (although I have heard a convincing argument that manmade CO2 emissions are in fact currently driving a voracious re-greening of the planet).
There are countless other reasons to be enthusiastic about a transition to sustainable energy as envisioned by Elon Musk and Tesla, and my purpose here is not to make that case – plenty has been said by much more capable people on this niche topic, shout out to Dave Lee, Steven Mark Ryan and The Tesla Economist, among many others. But data shows that electric vehicles will very soon be cheaper to make than their ICE counterparts, they’re also safer because of their lower centre of gravity due to the placement of the battery, and fewer moving parts makes for less maintenance. EVs are also quiet… Imagine a world with no traffic noise. Also, have you driven or been for a ride in a Tesla? If not, I suggest doing so before passing judgement on the product.
But all this is beside the point. The fundamental question for the principled investor is: Is Tesla’s mission to transition the world to sustainable energy a good and worthwhile cause? I think the answer to this is yes – so, as Tesla is a profitable company with a bright future, it makes sense for me as a sound investment. And Elon’s liberty-minded political stance is the icing on the cake.
But how liberty-minded, really, is a man who air brushes the inconvenient truths about the Chinese government out of his Tweets? obviously to stay in their good graces to ensure the ongoing success of his Shanghai operation.
One might be moved to justify Elon’s failure to speak up against the Chinese regime’s most heinous crimes, most notably their ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. After all, we are all forced to hold our noses and deal with China – unless you’ve somehow managed to avoid purchasing any common consumer goods for the last thirty years.
One could even view Elon’s silence on the Uyghur issue simply as a macro version of our own individual and collective complicity. Sure, you and I may speak up about the genocide, while hypocritically buying Chinese made goods – but do we really have a viable alternative? Similarly, does Elon have an alternative to a China-based factory? If he really wants to transition the world to sustainable energy, that certainly must include China too, and maybe his view is that one must tolerate great evil to do great good?
But as this latest tweet of Elon’s shows us, he is not just failing to speak up against the Chinese Communist Party, he is actively promoting China’s brand on the world stage – even going as far to bestow on them the accolade of ‘world leaders’. His stance is not just ambivalent, it is sycophantic.
Does this distinction even matter? Maybe not. Maybe the fact that he’s doing business there at all means if I were a truly principled investor then I’d pull my money out of Tesla.
This is the Elon Musk conundrum. I like the product, I like the mission, and I like the man. But he does business with, profits from, and actively promotes a regime currently engaged in genocide. And this is to say nothing of his more worrying ventures in artificial intelligence and transhumanism which many on my side of the political aisle feel are an absolute deal-breaker and more than cancel out what they see as his tokenistic and insincere platitudes about freedom of speech.
What is one to do? It can leave you feeling a bit defeated – if the working man’s billionaire is in fact a ruthless, unprincipled rogue like the rest of them then what have we left to believe in?
And perhaps that is the real issue – needing something to believe in.
Too often we put our faith in heroes, luminaries, and demagogues. We are wired that way, to seek out grand narratives that simplify the world down to essential truths and make it easy for us to pick a side.
But life is not that simple. And when we conceptualise it as such, we run the risk of becoming zealous; of adopting absolute positions on matters that are in reality nebulous and multifaceted. It is better to take the rough with the smooth.
Few among us can afford to lead a completely principle-driven life, both monetarily speaking and in an absolute sense. Were I to fanatically opt for such an existence, I would very quickly find myself jobless. Were I to continue in such a fashion it is likely I would end up in prison. Much can be learned from former radicals like Maajid Nawaz on the problems with fanaticism, and how more can be achieved, not necessarily from ‘working within the system’, but by weaving oneself through the system, sparring with it, existing both within and without (kind of like what Neo and team do in The Matrix).
I am not a proponent of working exclusively within the system to change it. This inevitably corrupts. But nor do I see much use in adopting an absolute position of opposition. Perhaps one day the time for a full-scale revolution will arrive, but that time is not now. We still have options that do not involve boots on the ground and blood in the streets – but it means we must accept a certain amount of evil.
Perhaps my favourite prayer is the Serenity. I say it most days. It asks to be granted the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
I like this meditation because it acknowledges the eternal imperfection of existence. Through its utterance we challenge ourselves to seek solutions not from without, in grand narratives and charismatic leaders, but inwardly, through our own limited agency, day by day. In acceptance of that over which we have no power, we do not absolve the prominent hypocrites or evildoers of their failure to change things, and nor do we absolve ourselves of the responsibility of fighting these battles – we simply acknowledge that the imminent solution lies beyond our immediate control.
It then becomes a relatively simple matter of determining which actions that do lie within our immediate capability can begin to affect the change that we wish to be part of. Taking the example of the Elon Musk conundrum, this process of evaluation might go something like this:
Will selling my Tesla stock change anything for the better in China? No.
Will continuing to buy Tesla stock change anything for the worse in China? No.
The answer to both these questions is no because I am an unknown person with very little influence. Next questions:
What, if anything, can someone like me do to improve the situation in China? The only thing I can do is speak out and try to create awareness.
How can I most effectively do this? By becoming more widely known.
How can I become more widely known? By becoming financially independent so I can focus all my energy on my writing and activism.
Will holding my Tesla stock and buying more move me closer to financial independence? Likely so.
Do I believe in the company’s mission? Yes.
Is there currently another stock or commercial opportunity for which I have as high a conviction? No.
This pragmatic approach leads me to the imperfect but logical conclusion that I can potentially affect more change by holding my position in this company regardless of my moral conundrum.
Thus we arrive at the realisation that Elon Musk’s hypocrisy, or his insincerity, or indeed his possible malevolence is actually irrelevant. I can’t change Elon’s motivations or what he says about the Chinese government. Nor can I change public perception of the Chinese government on a large enough scale to influence people like Elon.
But I can change myself and my position in the world. I can work, and build, and grow, and maybe if I stick at that for long enough, I will become influential enough to help affect the larger changes that are currently beyond my control. It’s a long shot, but it’s all I’ve got.
From a broader perspective this logic holds true – the wisdom that allows us to discern between what we can and cannot change also dictates that it is futile to put one’s faith in icons like Elon Musk. While we can take succour from his more libertarian actions, ultimately, we have only our own industry on which to reliably bank.
This is why, for now at least, I’m holding my Tesla stock – not because I blindly believe in Elon, but because I believe it is a company with a compelling mission, and a solid investment that will increase my net worth in the future. But I will also call out Elon Musk on China every chance I get – the same way I continue to pay my taxes but march in protest of government vaccine mandates; the same way I type this on a Microsoft machine but regularly call out Bill Gates for being a total creep.
I prefer not to take absolute positions on things – again, for now at least. The time for revolution may one day come. But until that day, I’ll keep one foot in the real world and one in the Matrix.