Chance of the calendar, two reports on Elon Musk come out ten days apart. The first was broadcast by BFM TV, in its “Red Line” format and the second will be available this evening in Envoyé Spécial, on France 2. Unfortunately, neither of the two is up to standard.
Very academic work
You can’t say that Elon Musk is unknown to the tech world, whether it’s the specialized press or those who code. The general public discovered Elon Musk with Tesla and especially with Twitter. Apart from these two elements, few – apart from tech – are those able to precisely locate Elon Musk. Besides, perhaps the non-tech-savvy general public is precisely the target of these two reports.
Whole sections of Elon Musk’s professional career are barely mentioned, if not outright forgotten. However, it was enough to read his Wikipedia file to find interesting elements, in particular his youth, his parents or the reason why he went to study in Canada, then in the United States.
Therefore, the two reports are ultimately quite poor. Those who belong to the tech, will learn nothing and the others can largely content themselves with reading the Wikipedia file. It is all the more regrettable that the two teams interviewed almost the same people. Let us note all the same the tour de force of France Televisions which succeeded in making speak the father of Elon Musk.
This recycling of speakers is all the more curious since Elon Musk has set up a lot of projects and has therefore rubbed shoulders with a lot of people. Where have the others gone?
Busting the myth
Let’s say it openly: there is no such thing as someone who succeeds alone. When a company becomes a leader in its field, there is a team behind it and this is valid in new technologies.
We built a narrative around the nerds who revolutionized the world alone in their garage. The reality is that there have always been people behind: either to document, to support on a daily basis, to manage stewardship or simply to provide funds. In his early projects, Musk was not alone. He had supporters, associates, employees. In the two reports, they are barely mentioned.
This narrative of the individual who is revolutionizing the world is harmful in more ways than one. First, he forgets the very idea of a collective, but, to use fashionable words around the rue de l’Université, you don’t form a society alone. To paraphrase King Arthur in Kaamelott, if it’s just for our faces, it’s useless*.
Moreover, this narrative is harmful for people working in tech. Somewhere, we insinuate the idea that someone who couldn’t manage everything on his own, is incapable, who doesn’t deserve to exist in this professional universe. The reality is very different: even a freelancer – and I am very well placed to say this – never succeeds alone. He has friends, work relations, colleagues, etc.
genius and megalomaniac
Let’s go back to the two reports. They ask the same question: Is Musk a genius or a megalomaniac? Both my general. Moreover, the question in itself is of very little interest, especially when we see how lightly the question of Elon Musk’s attitude towards his subordinates is approached.
What would have been more interesting is to address the political dimension of the character. Fortunately for the Americans, the latter cannot present himself in the presidential election. However, he interferes in the public debate, not hesitating to take positions on such and such a subject. In France, we have seen him speak out on pension reform. He also participates in the conflict in Ukraine and more recently, he seems to have taken up the cause of a Republican candidate.
If we go back to the Twitter file, the same things are said, but, curiously, the fact that Elon Musk is in the sights of the American authorities with regard to the financing of the social network is completely overlooked, even though that could get him in some trouble.
If the underlying question is “can one be a genius and a megalomaniac?” », it is without interest. Focusing on how it intends to occupy public space, by becoming essential for a large number of people, is already much more interesting, but certainly more uncomfortable. Indeed, that would come down to questioning our own relationship to some of the technologies it initiated, starting with Twitter, but we could also talk about PayPal (although it is no longer in it) or Starlink, which is starting to have followers in France of the white zones.
It’s a pity that the two reports went so far off topic, even though the two programs – Ligne Rouge for the first, Complément d’Enquête for the second – are usually of good quality. We will put this on the account of the subject and not of the teams. Maybe Musk doesn’t “deserve” a simple report, but an investigative book.
You will be able to watch Envoyé Spécial tonight on France 2 in the second part of the evening and Ligne Rouge in replay on BFM TV.
*I had been desperately trying to fit Kaamelott into the Zapping Décrypté for six years.