‘We will coup whoever we want!’: the unbearable hubris of Musk and the billionaire tech bros
Challenging each other to cage fights, building apocalypse bunkers – the behaviour of today’s mega-moguls is becoming increasingly outlandish and imperial.
ghts, building apocalypse bunkers – the behaviour of today’s mega-moguls is becoming increasingly outlandish and imperial.
Billionaires, or their equivalents, have been around a long time, but there’s something different about today’s tech titans, as evidenced by a rash of recent books. Reading about their apocalypse bunkers, vampiric longevity strategies, outlandish social media pronouncements, private space programmes and virtual world-building ambitions, it’s hard to remember they’re not actors in a reality series or characters from a new Avengers movie.
Unlike their forebears, contemporary billionaires do not hope to build the biggest house in town, but the biggest colony on the moon. In contrast, however avaricious, the titans of past gilded eras still saw themselves as human members of civil society. Contemporary billionaires appear to understand civics and civilians as impediments to their progress, necessary victims of the externalities of their companies’ growth, sad artefacts of the civilisation they will leave behind in their inexorable colonisation of the next dimension. Unlike their forebears, they do not hope to build the biggest house in town, but the biggest underground lair in New Zealand, colony on the moon or Mars or virtual reality server in the cloud. (The Guardian)
Scientists often say that cockroaches will most likely be among the few species on Earth to survive the next nuclear war. These avowed pests of mankind, who always seem to live a parallel life among the civilized societies, taking advantage of food and shelter established by the civilized society, always seem to take and very seldom give back. It makes me wonder, as the 1% percent seems to increase in wealth, purchasing everything from real estate, to influence and to Politicians, what exactly have they given back. Their tax breaks always seem to increase. Their carbon print always seems to grow. Their self-serving/selfishness always seems to expand. Their power, the sheer weight of their wealth always seems to explode. And of the many billionaires exactly what percentage of this demographic, has given much back to the rest of the world? I am not anti-Capitalism, but I am certainly anti-Greed.
I honestly must beg the question, “How much is too much, and how much more does one truly need?” I mean come on cockroaches, you eat our food, you live in our shelters, and what do you give back…nothing. Maybe I am just thinking of the purpose of cockroaches as I wonder about Billionaires!
