Elon Musk took over Twitter with the promise to herald a new era of free speech, and since then Twitter is in the news every day. But the real question is how come the richest men become the oligarchs.
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” -Lord Action. Nobel laureate Paul Krugman slammed Elon Musk in his op-ed in the New York Times while sharing his own personal moment of pettiness, illustrating how easily privilege corrupts and breeds a sense of entitlement.
How does power corrupt?
News tabloids are filled with stories of powerful men accused of a variety of allegations. Psychologists believe authority makes us less sympathetic and profoundly influences how we think. A society that runs on money limits the ability to bring justice and accountability—leaving them to enjoy their outsized power and influence and to act without repercussions.
Why do the rich have so much power today like Elon Musk?
“The archetype of the innovator who gets rich while changing the world isn’t new; it goes back at least as far as Thomas Edison,” says Paul Krugman in his op-ed. What makes it different is the concentration of wealth. “The best available estimates say that the top 0.00001 percent’s share of total wealth today is almost ten times what it was four decades ago,” says Paul Krugman.
In today’s society increase in wealth is directly proportional to an increase in social and political power. He further explains how big tech revolutionaries gained the status of celebrities and garnered” full-blown cult” fans with the ability to influence the market.
Ariana Grande’s lyrics “I like it, I buy it” just with the little tweak “If I don’t like it, I buy it” resonates perfectly with both the latest takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk and NDTV by Adani.
Elon and his untrammeled entitlement go long back
Currently, Twitter is accused of sex discrimination, violation of worker protection laws, and enforcing toxic work culture. Charges for fraud, sexual harassment to allegations against his company accused of animal cruelty; it’s not new.
However, Elon, the lauded visionary, continues to enjoy its outsized power and influence with his army of cult followers.
A Twitter poll stating, “Should I step down as head of Twitter” was created by himself, which voted him out with 57 percent. After which, Elon responded, stepping down once he found a replacement while expressing doubts about the reliability of the poll.
