Picture this; you wake in the morning and go about your normal routine. Run? Check. Breakfast? Check. Coffee? Check. And while you’re perusing the day’s headlines, up pops Elon Musk, once again. It’s no surprise to you as it seems that someone’s writing something about him daily. Twitter, Amber Heard, Tesla, Tesla + Twitter, Texas, his homes (or lack thereof)…
The man sure loves his “T’s” (Amber Heard is a Texan too!). Someone should probably book the man for Sesame Street, but I digress.
Anyway, on this particular morning, while I was enjoying my cup of Java, I came upon the rare article singing his praises. Now, I do pride myself on understanding how PR machines work; however, the journalist did a good job of refraining their skepticism on Musk’s altruism. “Elon Musk’s Starlink is helping Ukraine…”
Suddenly, like the suddenly active internet connection that Starlink is providing, my neurons fired and I connected the dots: Is Elon Musk an actual superhero?!
Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist
Ah yes, the quintessential non-superpowered superhero; a billionaire playboy that uses his limitless resources to take on the wrongdoers of the world, unafraid and unapologetic. And he does this all while with his cutting-edge technology while simultaneously dating starlets.
Batman? For sure. Iron Man? You know it. Green Arrow? If Batman and Robin Hood had a baby… The list goes on and on!
Principles
Now, admittedly, I am not an Elon Musk “fan” and the point of this piece is neither to sing his praises nor criticize his actions. My wife shares an alma mater with him and we both have interests in sustainable innovations – of course, he created Tesla and I could only opt to drive one. But what I’d like to highlight is this: “Good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. A good person doing a bad thing does not make him a bad person, just as a bad person doing a good thing does not make him a good person. To know if someone is “good” or “bad”, you need to know them over a period of time…” You get the point.
Mommy’s Perspective
In an age where we are surrounded by superheroes (my son constantly alternates from being Shang-Chi, Iron Man, Batman, Hulk, to Venom), it’s impossible not to see the similarities between Elon Musk’s actions and today’s children’s narratives. An influence on Musk? Perhaps, but no more so than the influence of sci-fi on today’s innovators. While some have criticized Stan Lee for the state of today’s cinema, let’s just say, if I were Elon Musk’s mother, I’d be extremely proud.
