“Elon Musk Grimaced”

 

“Elon Musk Grimaced”

I am having fun thinking about how a libertarian may start a long novel, in the template forged by Ayn Rand, in her third and fourth novels−The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.   

The opening sentences are considered, by libertarians, as iconic, “Howard Roark laughed,” which was followed by, “Who is John Galt?”

Perhaps you are not aware or you refused to be sucked into enjoying the circus that is the US Presidency under, the second instalment, Donald J. Trump−good for you.

Everyone who is anyone at all is most keen on what others say, not about himself or herself, about someone else, because that is where the lode can be found, extracted, manipulated and leveraged. This is how politics sustains itself, looking for cracks through which worms may wriggle out. And, those who endorse DJT in his haphazard ways−Republican Congressman− are, in my opinion, such soulless characters. Maybe I insulted the worms. I apologize.

The US President Harry S. Truman famously wanted a one-armed economist as he was tired of advice that started, “on the one hand ...”, and ended, “on the other hand...”. Trump is very smart as he has collected people around him who only repeat what he says. Never a doubt in his mind, as there is never a second hand.

Oops, I made an error. It is not what Trump says, but what Elon Musk wanted to say or said. Musk wanted to ride the coat-tail of politicians, in particular the gullible Trump, to scale new heights in becoming wealthier and wealthier with no end in sight. If you saw the clip where he speaks, with his toddler son bestride his shoulders, in the Oval Office, where none other than the POTUS has ever addressed the WH press corps, to my knowledge. That is Musk’s version of riding the coat-tail!

This is where Muck is different than either Roark or Galt. One of them wanted nothing to do with society, which must include politics. Ayn Rand missed a trick; she did not imagine anyone like Musk who exploits the system to abuse it.

Never mind, Ayn Rand−she must be in Libertarians’ Paradise−would be more than willing to write the foreword for the upcoming auto-biography (ghost written by one of his acolytes) of Elon Musk.

I am offering the opening statement: “Elon Musk grimaced.”

That grimace was occasioned by the terrible loss in the election, by 10% points for a seat on the State Supreme Court of Wisconsin Trump and Musk supported candidate suffered. Musk handed out million dollar checks to two voters to campaign for the ultimate loser; vote-buying is not the preserve of elections in Third World countries (I know this category has been abolished. Even so, the situation has remained the same).

This should be the beginning of the end, at the very beginning of Musk’s biography. The wins notched by the Republican candidates  for the House seats in Florida, by a much reduced margin than what Trump scored in those Congressional districts, is a warning shot across the bow, the talking heads on TV are saying, except those on Fox News.

Trump has been warned. Check that. Musk has been warned. Hence the grimace.

Raghuram Ekambaram