Weird.
“Behind any pattern of brilliance, you might often find a patina of madness” — Futurist Jim Carroll
One must wonder if we are now watching, in a very public fashion, a once brilliant iconoclast descend into a very real form of madness.
It happened with Vincent van Gogh, who eventually cut off part of his ear and later committed suicide. Howard Hughes was a known recluse and famous businessman who was lost into a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and other mental health issues. Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys battled with many mental health issues, including schizoaffective disorder, which significantly affected his career and personal life. Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd lost the plot and his mind with an overuse of LSD. Michael Jackson lost the plot due to the demands of his fame and some other dark reasons. And most recently, we’ve seen Kanye West involved in many public incidents that have been linked to his struggles with bipolar disorder and other issues.
Certainly, Elon Musk is now following a similar path that makes one question his grip on reality.
When I first read about the latest situation, I thought it was a joke, from The Onion or some other satirical news source.
And then I read the article and went around the Internet and found a few more, and saw that it was real. At that moment, I concluded that this erratic behavior is quite a bit more than just being erratic.
Suing companies for not advertising on Twitter? It’s probably the dumbest move that any CEO might ever make, particularly after he made these widely publicized comments — with expletives — that companies should not advertise on Twitter.
All the plaintiffs need to do in any future court filing in this ill-conceived action is to introduce this clip into evidence and have the case dismissed. And as many other people have commented, given what he has done to the platform, companies are merely choosing not to see their advertisements run next to content from Nazis.
Sadly, he’s losing it in many other ways too — actively supporting the riots in the UK by stating that it is close to a civil war. Meddling in the US election by launching false election registration sites (for which a few US states are now launching criminal probes). Taking the once iconic and reputable Tesla brand (I own one) down a risky and unproven path involving the concept of ‘robotaxis.’ (I own a Tesla, and have ‘full self-driving,’ and while I believe it to be an impressive technical feat, it will be a decade or more before it is ready for mass deployment.) Firing the entire division responsible for the electric car charging infrastructure division because he didn’t like the response of its leader to a need for change. Not to mention a very public, hurtful, and hateful spat with a child who has chosen to leave the family in pursuit of a very personal matter. On top of that, some well-publicized incidents and a history of ketamine and other drug use.’
The sad thing is that it is clear that he has lost the plot. Once a champion of the need to address climate change, he’s now aligned with the forces that presume it’s denial. Once someone who criticized government largesse, he now seeks the very same with some political choices. And out in the bizarre world that is Twitter, while he promotes himself as a ‘free speech absolutist,’ he seems to be aggressively acting in tamping down many accounts that don’t align with his political views.
The guy has become noticeably weird.
A person can be brilliant and yet, descend into madness. I believe we are in the sad situation of watching at slow speed the accelerated evolution of a mentally unstable person. It usually does not end well.
Should comments be made on such a tragic situation? For sure — when the influence and reach of his wild erratic behavior has massive political, societal, and business impact. Everyone is, like it or not, impacted.
It would be sad if it weren’t so tragic.
Futurist Jim Carroll has seen a lot of erratic behavior in his time.
