Public intellectuals have been an integral part of our world since the dawn of society. These figures have influenced government policy, human thought, and the course of the world as we know it. Macchiavelli’s The Prince was highly influential in early governments, stating that ‘the ends justify the means,’ leading to the brutal forms of punishment inflicted on crime. There is the trilogy of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau and their theory of the state of nature, culminating to influence the minds of millions on human nature and how people acted in their truest form. And there is Marx, one of the most controversial public intellectuals of all time. His theories on the world, economics, and the bourgeois are still felt heavily and used commonly today by governments such as China and Russia. Today, in 2022 there is a new public intellectual - a non-traditionalist - he couples his works with his inventions to shape the world and let his opinions be heard. His name is Elon Musk.
Elon Musk was born in 1971 in South Africa to a middle class family. It became apparent that he was different at a young age, at 12 he coded a video game which he then sold to a local company. He also showed his lack of conformity at 18 when he fled South Africa to avoid his required military service and to chase a better life in America. He enrolled at Stanford but left after a mere 48 hours stint due to the opportunity he saw with the advent of a new invention: the World Wide Web. This is when he postulated his first work that would change the world: X.com or as we now know it PayPal. Musk thought about the world of finance, how the US dollar had strayed away from the gold standard, and how assets were heading down a new direction: digitization. He thought that physical cash was no longer king, and in an attempt to prove that to the world he founded X.com. In its early stages it allowed people to send monetary funds back and forth via email, evolving to the seamless platform that is used today.
In the true fashion of any work produced by a public intellectual it was criticized. Elon created a product, a new way of thinking, and a new way of life that people did not know they needed. With this, there were people that simply did not use the product, there were others calling out against it, and some said the idea was stupid and that nobody would use it. A response similar to that of many Marxist and Hobbs supporters who were vehemently opposed to Locke’s ideas of a laissez faire economy and a government who regulated their people rather than harshly ruled them. Yet, just like the adaptation of capitalism, people also adopted PayPal. In fact, this invention changed the way payments were made and changed how people thought about money; the act of a true public intellectual, posing a new idea, having it criticized and changing the minds of the public. This occurred because people came around to Musk’s vision, they saw the simplicity behind the concept he was preaching and so they adopted it.
After Musk sold PayPal he hypothesized another idea that would change the world: an all electric, fully autonomous car. Again, Musk being a public intellectual he presented his thoughts, rationale, and execution to an audience - in Ted Talk fashion. Musk thought about the truly detrimental effects gasoline driven cars have had on the environment and what our future looked like: grim. He recognized that very few had dared enter into this space before, so he decided to make it his own. The Tesla Roadster was the first model created, aiming to change the thoughts of Motor Heads (car lovers). He failed. Miserably. Motor Heads hated the concept of an electric car for obvious reasons, “it's too quiet,” “Tesla’s are a toy car” and the funniest of them all “a real man should drive a real car and that's not a Tesla” (the aforementioned quotes were taken from conversations I had with Motor Heads at a car show). As with any public intellectual, Musk received a multitude of debate surrounding his work, the LA Times stated, “A lot of their premise is emotional. They hate Musk. They think he’s a fraud; they think he’s a liar.” It is here where Musk differentiates from his fellow public intellectuals; where others would dig their heels in and attempt to further their point, Musk adapts. He keeps his vision the same while, simultaneously, adapting his product to better suit the needs of his consumers. This was seen in the development of the model S - the sedan version of the Tesla - and again with the model 3 - the less expensive version, aimed at suiting the needs of those who said his car was too expensive. That is not to say that he does not respond to his opposition, he often throws out quick witten comments and jokes (via twitter) at his aggressors, such as his response to one stating the price of Tesla cars was too high “Yeah absolutely. Go to TeslaMotor.com, buy the car online, and the price you see there is the family discount.”
Musk’s two most recent inventions have the potential to be the most influential works by a public intellectual in history. The first is SpaceX. As evident in the name, this is Elon’s space company. Created in 2002, his mission with SpaceX is simple: to make Mars inhabitable. His desire to go to Mars is tied in with his creation of Tesla; because according to Musk, at this rate Earth will be uninhabitable without significant changes to our lifestyle. "If there's something terrible that happens on Earth, either made by humans or natural, we want to have life insurance for life as a whole." Musk is known to have been extremely critical of the current state of the world, stating “climate change is the biggest threat that humanity faces this century,” and has even called out a plethora of corporations and norms in our world today - such as Bitcoin - for their negative impact on Earth.
As a public intellectual Musk is doing two things in creating SpaceX. The first is making a statement that our world is in such grave danger that we are at the point of no return, thus needing an alternative option. The second is taking action. The first action is one that Musk has been greatly criticized for, many disagree with him and think his plan is idiotic. The second option is one that he is certain to receive a great amount of backlash for in the future. The amount of people who will slander Elon and those who go to Mars in (what he has projected to be) 2060 will be overwhelming. His views on space and extraterrestrial life have influenced the public greatly, leading to exorbitant amounts of debate throughout the world. Elon’s plan to ‘nuke the poles of Mars,’ which has led to some calling him a ‘real life super villain’ and others calling him a hero. He has even sparked conversation from other public intellectuals such as Neil Degrasse Tyson who has called him ‘the most important person alive today.’
Another one of Musk’s great works which seeks to change the world and has already sparked much debate is his latest project: Neuralink. Musk’s thought process on creating Neuralink is two-fold, the first being it seeks to cure all brain related ailments. The second is what has really sparked controversy, allowing humans to communicate telepathically, with his end goal being for total voiceless communication. These views have exponentially changed the opinions of many. Because of Neuralink the effects of diseases such as alzheimers, dementia, and even cancer are to be greatly decreased, if not eradicated. As an intellectual, Musk has a keen eye for efficiency and though this has been greatly appreciated by many with the advent of his self-driving cars and smart technology, the notion of a voiceless society has incited fear in many. Professor Stephen Mack explains that a public intellectual provides an incredibly important social function, he uses a quote from Jean Bethke Elshtain which reads:
So the public intellectual needs, it seems to me, to puncture the myth-makers of any era, including his own, whether it's those who promise that utopia is just around the corner if we see the total victory of free markets worldwide, or communism worldwide or positive genetic enhancement worldwide, or mouse-maneuvering democracy worldwide, or any other run-amok enthusiasm. Public intellectuals, much of the time at least, should be party poopers.
Musk does just that, he has addressed significant issues that are prevalent in the world and has provided viable solutions for them. So yes, he is a ‘party pooper’ but one with a plan to metaphorically reignite life into the party.
For public intellectuals to be successful they must have a platform. For those such as Karl Marx, their work was largely unrecognized until after their death; however, due to Elon’s financial status and public spotlight his voice is able to be heard in real time while he is alive. The Washington Post stated, “to put it gently, however, many of these plutocrats are only treated as intellectuals because they are sitting on obscene gobs of money.” A valid perspective, however the reality is quite the opposite. The reason why so many public intellectuals of the past were only recognized after their demise is because their works were largely just writings. Such individuals did not hold highly lucrative careers and those who did lived in the pre-social media era. Many traditional intellectuals find work to be a form of anti-intellectualism, but Professor Stephen Mack explains “what is sometimes identified as anti-intellectualism is in fact intellectual—that is, a well articulated family of ideas and arguments that privilege the practical, active side of life (e.g., work) over the passive and purely reflective operations of the mind in a vacuum.” Elon Musk exemplifies the aforementioned quote; he is wealthy because of his mind, his inventions and his work have made him who he is and with the advent of social media he has been given a platform to spread his knowledge to the world. His wealth is something that many have criticized him for, stating that his money is what allows him to be viewed as a public intellectual. But, as outlined by Stephen Mack, public intellectuals have regularly been upper class individuals; but the narrative needs to change “we need to be more concerned with the work public intellectuals must do, irrespective of who happens to be doing it.” Elon has attempted to do just that, he was not raised with substantial amounts of money, but he became wealthy due to his intellect, more people should focus on his work and the work taken to get to the point where he sits now rather than his social class.
Elon Musk’s works outside of his inventions are largely shared via Twitter, which is likely how previous public intellectuals would have shared theirs as well: Twitter provides a platform conducive to public discourse and taking relevant content to the masses. His speculation on real estate markets have quite literally caused a rumbling throughout America. Since Tweeting that Tesla’s factories would be moving to Texas it has risen to the #2 ‘moved to state’ in the US. He did this due to his disdain for the Californian government and while critics called him money-hungry, others applauded his actions and as evident in the aforementioned statistic, many of them followed his lead. The same holds true for his economic advice. Though controversial, his economic advice has moved markets. Musk spoke of a cryptocurrency dubbed “DOGECOIN” who - shortly after Musk’s explanation of the coin and its potential future - skyrocketed in value, making shareholders extreme returns. Again, he received backlash, people called the coin a joke but now the coin is approaching 1500x its original price point. The aforementioned scenarios of public commentary from Musk further proves his validity as a public intellectual. He has an extremely large platform and he has used it to create influence on the world.
A public intellectual is defined by the Collins Dictionary as, “an intellectual, often a noted specialist in a particular field, who has become well-known to the general public for a willingness to comment on current affairs.” Elon Musk is a public intellectual, but he adds another dimension to what it means to be a public intellectual. Many public intellectuals from years past had great ideas and plausible implementations about worldly issues or things that needed to be changed, but most of their works were just that: speculative works. What Elon Musk has done is arguably greater than the works of any other public intellectual that the world has ever seen; not only has he expressed his thoughts and new (and often radical ideas) to the public, but he has done something about it. He had an issue with gas powered cars and their effect on the environment, so he created an electric car that people would actually drive. He believes that Earth is on its last legs, so he is working towards colonizing another planet. Musk has even seen the devastating effects that brain diseases have had on our world, so he created a brian chip to fix it. Musk has used his platform for good, to voice his opinions, to cause debate, to change the world for the better, and leading to him being one of the greatest public intellectuals that the world has ever seen.
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