On September 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. On September 26th, at the request of Ukraine, SpaceX Starlink activated it’s internet satellites over Ukraine providing them with communications for the war. SpaceX donated a majority of the Starlink terminals required to use the system, and also waived the monthly service fees associated with their usage. Well done Elon Musk.
This was something Elon Musk was in a position to do. He alone was the voting voice on whether or not to provide this critical infrastructure to Ukraine. Without it, Ukraine would not have had the potential to not only defend itself, but repel Russia as it is unexpectedly doing.
If Musk stopped there, I would have considered him a Global hero in the fight for democracy. Of course he didn’t. Perhaps out of a sense of entitlement, he offered his solution to the war in Ukraine. At the time, he is quoted as saying, “I’m trying my hardest to de-escalate this situation and obviously failing.” Perhaps he believed he was the only one capable of resolving the conflict, even though no-one asked him to.
The solution was:
- The previously annexed Ukrainian territory of Crimea be given to Russia with a guarantee of a permanent water supply.
- The four regions Russia annexed in the war be put to a referendum monitored by the UN. The outcome of the referendum will determine which country the territories become a part of.
- Ukraine stays out of the NATO defense alliance.
In response to Musk’s suggestions the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany literally told him to fuck off. Interestingly, just before Musk’s proposal, Starlink communications started to experience interruptions at the front lines of the territories in question. Immediately after Musk was so politely told to mind his own business, he announced Starlink could no longer finance the project, and stated he was simply following the advice of the ambassador, and leaving.
After interjecting himself into the war in Ukraine, does Elon Musk have the right to broker an armistice, or pull Ukraine’s communication system out from under them? No coordination of troops, attacks, or defense, can occur without communications. It would almost be like walking into an ambush if you were on the front line and suddenly found yourself without communications. All of a sudden, you are no longer the attacker, but surrounded and isolated.
By supplying the satellites and hardware, Elon Musk, a private citizen has placed himself in a position where he can determine the outcome of the war. There’s even a very real possibility, he started controlling the outcome of the war by orchestrating interruptions in the system. Interruptions were reported the moment Ukraine advanced on Russian held territories where Musk believes the war should end.
Conveniently, Musk has a backstory to explain these interruptions, but the timing looks suspicious, especially now that he’s voiced his solution to the war. When satellite communications end right where Musk thinks they should, does it not raise an eyebrow?
Here lies the problem with allowing the likes of Elon Musk this degree of power over the world. At best Musk is taking his Starlink system away because he’s having a temper tantrum. Someone told him to ‘Fuck Off’ and he’s responding by taking his toys and going home. At worst, he personally decided beforehand what the outcome of the war would be and intervened to produce that outcome. Managing retrocausality time at it’s finest, I might add.
This event puts a spotlight on just how fragile our life can be when one person is given reign over the public domain. It doesn’t matter if it’s a country or a satellite system, no single person should be in a position to influence world events. What if Elon Musk was responsible for those interruptions in communications? People died as a result of them. What if Elon keeps up the interruptions under the guise of interference from Russia? These actions can change the face of democracy.
Take a look at who these people with all the power to change the world are. By his own admission, Elon Musk has high functioning Asperger’s, was neglected by an abusive and hateful father, and created his world inside an Issac Asimov novel. More than anything else, this is who he is and what defines him. A gifted, but socially handicapped child who was forced to determine his own reality at an early age when nurturing is critical to adult development.
It’s a sad story, but this is where the rubber hits the road for all of us. There comes a moment in everyone’s life when they are shocked into the realization that the responsibilities of life fall on them. In a functioning family this would occur much later in life with far less impact. It would be transitional, not confrontational. This is the moment you leave most of your childhood behind. The greater the assault the greater the divide, but that child in you never leaves you. In fact, it has an influential voice into your adult life.
The perspective Musk places on situations he involves himself in are strongly influenced by the child mind that makes sense of life using child logic. We see this over and over. Inhabiting Mars and building an interplanetary world, because that is what his only mentor, Asimov would have him do. When a children’s football team was trapped in a cave in Thailand, he calls an expert involved in the rescue a pedophile because the man criticized his idea of sending a rigid six foot long submarine into a winding cave. He buys things like Twitter without due diligence, and then tries to back out,(because of another disagreement, I might add).
These are all signs of the child mind predominating the mature characteristics of compassion, empathy, etc. He’s playing it out in front of us. Is he really capable of making public domain decisions? Especially when these decisions have do not represent the majority and/or common welfare. Don’t somethings in this world require regulation representing the sober second thought of those effected by the outcome?
It’s a scary thought when one person alone can decide the outcome for all of us, because there’s a bunch of big babies with big rattles out there right now, positioning themselves to rule over you. Chairman Xi, Putin, Trump, Musk, Bezos, Gates to name a few. When one person decides everything, it’s never good for everyone else. History has shown us this. These people are self-motivated, self-involved, and you are just a pawn in their game. As Putin is demonstrating with his own people, you become cannon fodder.
At this place in my writing, Elon has flip flopped once again. Now he’s whiningly decided to continue providing internet service to Ukraine. Let’s leave this as a footnote, because it could change again on another whim, and truth be told, this just ads credence to my argument. Nothing is stable coming from one person.
You and I are the ones who have to provide sober second thought, if the world is to overcome the instability caused by concentrated leadership. The people in charge are the ones abusing and violating our trust. On Sunday, October 16th, Fareed Zakaria pointed out outcomes of recent civil protests are growing, but having less effect than they have in the past. One identifying issue is that there is less organization behind these protests. This is to be expected when the Wisdom of the Crowd is stirred to action…in the beginning.
The Wisdom of the Crowd is made up of every single individual who walks the earth. It is individual opinion, and when it’s pressed into action, it’s individual perspective driving the momentum. As a consequence, there is very little leadership. When the people of Hong Kong protested annexation, no one could identify who the leader was. There wasn’t one, or even two or three. People were self-motivated to protest the lose they were facing, and just showed up at the appropriate places thanks to real-time communication.
Zakaria highlights this lack of leadership in the program, and there’s a big lesson here for us to learn if we are to create positive change. We must organize our actions. Take a lesson from the coordinated action of the Wisdom of the Crowd as demonstrated by the day traders in regard to the corruption institutionalized by Hedge Funds.
We must organize and coordinate our efforts. Find our tribe and get involved. Protest yes, but simultaneously create lobby groups, challenge governmental policy in court, and identify and descend on hotspots where the population of an international, and intentional movement can meet to create positive change. All you have to do is identify a wrong, place focus on it, and the Wisdom of the Crowd will come.
An interesting side note, Musk now has the same control in the Twitter realm, now that he has purchased the company. He can interrupt transmission there as well, and during a twitter altercation with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez that’s exactly what happened. Her account experienced the same kinds of interruptions as did Ukraine with Starlink. This guy is killing people with his games.
And….since I put off publishing this post for a week, Elon Musk has changed course once again. In late October, Ukraine again reported Starlink outages on the frontline. This time it was because Ukraine’s military could not afford to pay the $2,500.00 monthly fee being charged per unit.
When we see this flip-flopping allowed in a critical arena representing the Western World, here’s the proof. War is a business. The moment Starlink became committed to the war effort, it should have fallen under US domain and regulation. Musk, the biggest baby known to man, is having a direct influence on the war in Ukraine, and we’re letting him, just like we’re letting him interrupt democracy on Twitter where concerns have been raised that his actions will impact the outcome of the US mid-term elections. Words cannot describe how wrong this is.
There’s a new catch phrase out there in the global arena. It’s ‘Authoritarian Prosperity’. Be concerned. A lot of leaders in the Western World are exploring this economic model.
Sites I visited while writing this post:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#Use_in_Ukraine
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/elon-musk-spacex-starlink-ukraine
https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2022/10/14/exp-gps-1016-iran-protest-effectiveness.cnn
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/04/politics/spacex-ukraine-elon-musk-starlink-internet-outage