A new global study shows that people in societies characterized by corruption, inequality, poverty, and violence are more likely to develop aversive, “dark” personality characteristics such as selfishness or spitefulness.
Musk is going the Genghis Khan route. In 500 years he wants to be genetic ancestor to the majority of humans. To accomplish this goal he must:
Have many children (we’re seeing this)
Encourage his children to provide him with grandchildren (we see his reaction to his trans child who is therefore unlikely to give him biological grandchildren)
Maximize the amount of wealth and assets he earns in his lifetime so that all his children and grandchildren can each be obscenely rich as well, thereby increasing their chances of having many descendants
Leverage the capitalist system to give him and his descendants as much control over the means of production and the levers of power as possible, thereby making them more likely to survive societal upheavals
This will give him the posthumous status he desires the most, as people are more likely to forgive historic wrongs if those wrongs were committed by their own ancestors. He can be as horrible as he wants and still be remembered in a good light if the only people around to remember him are people for whom he is intertwined with their own sense of identity.
He expects the future to slowly reduce the amount of children poor people can have as the global population drops due to obvious and intractible economic pressures.
Previous society’s ultra-wealthy were raised socipathic but with some form of social contract as well. Even if it was completely a classist version of the contract with them at the top, there was some form of duty to society - not necessarily the individuals in it. IOW they’d build an orphanage but exploit the hell out of individual workers. Bonus points if you enacted some large public work like libraries or schools with your name on it so people would know it was you that did it.
Now? They get fuck you money, so fuck you. Sure, they engage in philanthropy to their kid’s charity to lighten the tax burden and build their kids’ fortunes. Donate to prestigious universities to build a wing on to the campus that drives tuition even higher with new staffing and maintenance costs. Build bunker mansions for themselves. Support far right government that gives them tax breaks and other deregulation that makes them richer, because fuck you money isn’t enough.
What is curious to me is why billionaires don’t start massive civil projects that would get their bronze statue in every state park?
Musk had several opportunities, except he then had to figure out a way to monetize it so it profited him.
Musk is going the Genghis Khan route. In 500 years he wants to be genetic ancestor to the majority of humans. To accomplish this goal he must:
Have many children (we’re seeing this)
Encourage his children to provide him with grandchildren (we see his reaction to his trans child who is therefore unlikely to give him biological grandchildren)
Maximize the amount of wealth and assets he earns in his lifetime so that all his children and grandchildren can each be obscenely rich as well, thereby increasing their chances of having many descendants
Leverage the capitalist system to give him and his descendants as much control over the means of production and the levers of power as possible, thereby making them more likely to survive societal upheavals
This will give him the posthumous status he desires the most, as people are more likely to forgive historic wrongs if those wrongs were committed by their own ancestors. He can be as horrible as he wants and still be remembered in a good light if the only people around to remember him are people for whom he is intertwined with their own sense of identity.
He expects the future to slowly reduce the amount of children poor people can have as the global population drops due to obvious and intractible economic pressures.
Previous society’s ultra-wealthy were raised socipathic but with some form of social contract as well. Even if it was completely a classist version of the contract with them at the top, there was some form of duty to society - not necessarily the individuals in it. IOW they’d build an orphanage but exploit the hell out of individual workers. Bonus points if you enacted some large public work like libraries or schools with your name on it so people would know it was you that did it.
Now? They get fuck you money, so fuck you. Sure, they engage in philanthropy to their kid’s charity to lighten the tax burden and build their kids’ fortunes. Donate to prestigious universities to build a wing on to the campus that drives tuition even higher with new staffing and maintenance costs. Build bunker mansions for themselves. Support far right government that gives them tax breaks and other deregulation that makes them richer, because fuck you money isn’t enough.
They’re insanely disconnected and selfish. Yes, all of them.