Just Deserts: Musk is TIME’s Man of ‘21

Tesla, SpaceX founder and world’s richest man is ‘larger than life’

Elon Musk’s man of the year, according to TIME, an AT&T-owned source which is not known for thoughtful reporting, breaking news or advancing progress, capitalism and the free press, let alone for objective journalism (read the article). As founder of SpaceX and Tesla, the world’s wealthiest man merits attention, acknowledgement and recognition. Noting that “[t]he last successful startup in the American automotive industry, Chrysler, was founded in 1925”, TIME correctly reports that:

A few short years ago, Musk was roundly mocked as a crazy con artist on the verge of going broke. Now this shy South African with Asperger’s syndrome, who escaped a brutal childhood and overcame personal tragedy, bends governments and industry to the force of his ambition.

Autonomia saw Musk’s promise sooner than TIME. In this open letter to Elon Musk, after Musk denounced statism and fled California for Texas on principle, I pitched him on funding an organ of the truly free press. That this old American media source, with a record of being hostile to capitalism and rights, praises Musk, who was once hospitalized after being targeted, persecuted and attacked by boyhood bullies and thugs, for his childlike idealism and innovation is encouraging. TIME notes that:

he’s different: he’s a manufacturing magnate—moving metal, not bytes. His rockets, built from scratch on an autodidact’s mold-breaking vision, have saved taxpayers billions, reinvigorated America’s space dreams and are launching satellites to expand Internet access across the globe.”

In an article which is also critical, skeptical and relatively fact-based, TIME rightly reports that 2021 “was the year we emerged from … [a] plague only to find there was no normal to go back to, a year that felt like the cusp of a brave or terrifying new world, with nobody in charge and everything up for renegotiation—from how we work and travel to what we find meaning in and cherish. Musk is our avatar of infinite possibility, our usher to the remade world, where shopworn practices are cast aside and the unprecedented becomes logical, where Earth and humanity can still be saved.”

That’s a startling admission from TIME and, though it’s largely based on Musk’s apparent and presumed acceptance of environmentalist dogma about the climate, the whole Person of the Year profile is better than one might have reason to expect. Elon Musk, who is certainly a Promethean figure by today’s standards, cooperated.

Musk tells TIME he and his eligible children are vaccinated and that “the science is unequivocal,” but that he opposes vaccine mandates: “You are taking a risk, but people do risky things all the time,” he says of the unvaccinated. “I believe we’ve got to watch out for the erosion of freedom in America.”

As founder of this small press, I know that Elon Musk is right on this last and fundamental point. The clumsy quote—Mr. Musk ought to know why confidence trumps belief—shows why he deserves TIME’s annual recognition, conferred for good reason, for a change. This is why, as I wrote early in 2021, he can lead by example.

“In the future Musk envisions,” TIME reports, “no one tells you what to do. Robots perform all the labor, and goods and services are abundant, so people only work because they want to. “There’s, like, plenty for everyone, essentially,” he says. “There’s not necessarily anyone who’s the boss of you. I don’t mean to suggest chaos, but rather that you’re not under anyone’s thumb. So you have the freedom to do whatever you’d like to do, provided it does not cause harm to others.”

Though Mr. Musk’s “not necessarily” caveat is potentially disturbing, he basically appears to have the right idea for achieving human progress. Admirably, he starts with himself. There are reasons to be skeptical of Elon Musk. There are more reasons to find good in his work, ideas and actions. As ‘21 comes closer to the end, it’s good to know that editors and writers at TIME, at least this time, know this much is true.