Elon Musk: A Visionary or a Threat?
Elon Musk, once the world’s first trillionaire, is now a billionaire again. Yet, his journey has been anything but ordinary. He has built two of the most groundbreaking technology companies—Tesla and SpaceX—and has long envisioned a future where humans live on Mars. Unlike many tech CEOs, he actively engages with the public via social media, using his own platform, X. In 2025, he made headlines for giving what appeared to be a Nazi salute in Washington DC and briefly held a senior role in the U.S. government without any prior political experience. During his time as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he aimed to transform government operations through data synthesis and pattern recognition, raising concerns about the human impact of his decisions.
Musk's influence extends beyond business and politics. He has become a household name and one of the most powerful individuals globally. Journalist Cory Doctorow has questioned whether he is exceptionally dangerous, especially when compared to other West Coast "broligarchs" like Jeff Bezos, Alexander Karp, and Mark Zuckerberg.
Review: Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed – Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff (Allen Lane)
To understand Musk’s growing power, it’s essential to examine both the man and the tools at his disposal. Canadian political economist Quinn Slobodian and technology journalist Ben Tarnoff delve into this in their insightful book, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed. The term "Muskism" is a nod to "Fordism," named after Henry Ford, whose mass production model transformed American society. The authors argue that Musk, along with other tech titans, is building an industrial edifice that is reshaping society in a similar way.
However, unlike Ford's era, which fostered mass employment and strong social security, Musk’s vision is more networked, surveilled, and anti-liberal. Under Muskism, oligarchs and governments use advanced technology to weaken democracy, divide populations, and impose social hierarchies. This system immunizes itself from external threats while shaping the world according to Musk’s ideals.
South Africa: The Cradle of Muskism
The authors argue that understanding Musk requires understanding the world that shaped him. South Africa, where Musk was born and raised during the apartheid regime, played a significant role. It taught him the concept of "fortress futurism"—the belief that technology can strengthen self-reliance in a hostile world. Systemic racism structured the society Musk grew up in, with state and big business favoring whites through elaborate bureaucratic procedures.
Bookish and a fan of sci-fi and new technology, Musk emigrated to Canada in 1989 to avoid military service. He carried his beliefs with him, rather than shedding them. By 1992, he was in the U.S., studying physics and economics at the University of Pennsylvania. By 1995, he had established his first tech-start-up, Zip2, and later X.com, which merged with PayPal. By 2002, he founded SpaceX, and by 2004, he became involved with Tesla. In 2015, he helped found OpenAI, and in 2016, Neuralink. In 2017, he founded the Boring Company, and in late 2022, acquired Twitter, renaming it X. In 2025, he was head of DOGE before falling out with President Donald Trump.
All this occurred before Musk was 55. His accomplishments have been extraordinary, and he now commands global influence as a white South African immigrant.
From Musk to Muskism
There are several biographies of Musk, some authorised, others critical. Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk (2023) is widely regarded as the most definitive account. Other books place Musk within the broader context of American “tech lords,” such as Jacob Silverman’s Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley (2025). Slobodian and Tarnoff believe Musk is distinct from his peers, linking his South African upbringing to his unique ability to amass social power.
They describe Muskism as a blend of proven technologies, technological promises, relationships between business and the state, and memes designed to sell and legitimise his empire. Together, these promote “techo-sovereignty,” where private companies allow national governments to project power overseas while reducing vulnerability to external threats.
Space, Electric Vehicles, and Social Media
SpaceX and Tesla are central to Musk’s success, but so is X. These companies pioneered unlikely technologies in the U.S. private sector, such as space rockets, satellites, and electric vehicles. Musk drove innovation relentlessly, raising substantial funds through effective hype and sales pitches.
He built vertically integrated firms to reduce reliance on outside suppliers. For example, Tesla now produces not only vehicles but also batteries at scale. It has expanded into renewable energy systems, resembling an old-style Fordist conglomerate without the burden of large unionised workforces.
Musk’s recognition of the power of the national state is evident in SpaceX, which is a preferred supplier to the U.S. government. The U.S. military uses Starlink, SpaceX’s satellite internet system, suggesting a closer relationship between government and big business than during Ford’s era.
‘We Are the AI Collectively’
From 2017, Musk became increasingly active online, first promoting his companies and later broadcasting his increasingly right-wing ideas. In late 2022, around the time he took over Twitter and renamed it X, he posted incendiary comments about immigrants, LGBTQIA+ people, and the decline of the West.
The book’s chapters on Neuralink and xAI consider Musk in this context. In a conversation with OpenAI’s Sam Altman in 2016, Musk said: “If we all become an AI–human symbiote, we don’t have to worry about some sort of evil dictator AI because we are the AI collectively.” Musk envisions a cyborg future where the digital and biological merge. Who will control the cognitive and informational ecosystem this would produce?
This may sound comical, but Slobodian and Tarnoff remind us that Musk’s business acumen has allowed him to concretise a specific vision of the world.
Will Muskism Grow?
Musk is seemingly trying to build an encompassing “superset” of interlocking parts, ranging from energy and transportation to communication. This is the message of Slobodian and Tarnoff’s fascinating book.
Unlike Bill Gates, Alexander Karp, or Peter Thiel, Musk has refrained from setting out his credo in books and manifestos. But his actions suggest he’s on a mission. Who knows how powerful he might become, or what new technologies he may successfully commercialise with state support? Will Muskism grow in scale, scope, and influence? Though he doesn’t use the term, critic Nick Srnicek believes it’s already a formidable apparatus.
This book sheds important light on how one man is trying to remake the world in his own image—while the rest of us haven’t even been consulted. It makes it clear that no society should ever allow a small number of individuals to possess the power he currently possesses. Just as we abhor the idea of millions starving to death, we should oppose the idea that unelected oligarchs get to determine our future.
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