Prosperity and Depravity as a Legacy VS Humanity
It says more about us than Elon.
Like many of you, I saw the clip of Scott Galloway on Piers Morgan discussing Elon Musk. I’m not sure how the algorithm determined it should be in my feed since I’m definitely not a Piers Morgan watcher and not interested in debates between rich people about other rich people, but I’m actually glad it did.
I don’t know a lot of the “who’s who” in terms of celebrities, political commentary folks, or people in those circles because my life is like most everyday people… it consists of working to make sure my bills are paid and taking care of my grandchildren because my daughter works two jobs in order to pay hers.
So, I don’t know anything about Scott Galloway or the other guy in the clip.
What I do know about Galloway after watching this clip is that whatever else he may have going on his life, he hasn’t lost his humanity and he’s willing to speak truth to power. In today’s world, there aren’t enough people doing that - well, there’s not enough cis, hetero, rich white guys doing it in defense of the most vulnerable and in opposition to the most powerful, not publicly anyway.
He does a brilliant job addressing the issues that come with celebrating, even tolerating, Elon Musk. From cutting aid to sick people, eliminating SNAP payments for hungry people, making Nazi salutes, custody fights because of a lack of parental involvement, to appearing ridiculously high at the White House - Galloway hits the most offensive things about Elon Musk.
I would be remiss though, if I didn’t point out what he said that I don’t quite agree with.
At one point, Galloway says,”Look what money has done to us…”.
Money isn’t the issue. It’s the love of money. It’s the love of power that money provides. It’s the idolization of people with lots of money and power.
That’s the problem.
I have always said that money doesn’t change people. It simply amplifies the person you’ve always been. The same is true about power. That’s evident when you look at former President Jimmy Carter versus other presidents. It’s apparent when you look at Prince, who used concerts as a cover for his philanthropic acts, versus other artists. I could go on and on, but you get the point.
The money is not the problem, we are.
The devil is not the problem, we are.
Millennials are not the problem, we are.
MAGA, Republicans, Libertarians, and Democrats are not the problem, we are.
I often hear people say that kids today just need their ass beat and then they wouldn’t be so selfish and lazy. Their rationale for this is that they got their ass whooped as a child and “turned out just fine”.
NEWSFLASH: You did NOT turn out fine.
We did not turn out fine. If we did, Trump wouldn’t be in the White House, we wouldn’t be killing the planet, we wouldn’t put owning guns over the lives of our children, and we damn sure wouldn’t be excusing the abhorrent behavior of billionaires who are hurting, even killing, the most vulnerable of us.
Is Elon Musk an asshole? Yup, absolutely.
Should he have ever been a “special government employee”? Nope, absolutely not.
Is he the root problem? Nah.
It’s us.
WATCH: Here’s the Galloway clip.
This perfectly articulates why and how we got to this point as a country and a society. Our worship of power and status was extremely exacerbated by the introduction of “reality” tv where we were enticed to root for the most obnoxiously selfish person on the show and taught us wealth was easy to come by, you just had to be willing to do what others would not to achieve it.
It got worse after social media came along but it’s not a coincidence that we fell in love with reality tv villains then decided it was a great idea to elevate one to the highest office in the land, twice.
By the way, I love Scott Galloway. He’s been trying to wake people up to the economic realities facing working people. He does a podcast with Kara Swisher.
Love this too Dani