They believe they are the masters of the world, but no one has elected them. They are not dictators and they ask us to name them “benefactors”. From Carnegie to the Rockefeller, the weight of the great American philanthropists is not new. But their sixteen successors e century have global, even interplanetary ambitions, and do not bother with morality. Above all, they deploy their power in a world delivered to the power of social networks, where democratic states and international organizations are weakened.
The most problematic is also the richest in the planet: Elon Musk is not content to be the boss of Tesla, whose valuation exceeds that of all other car manufacturers combined, and to direct SpaceX, essential partner of the Pentagon and NASA. The man with fortune estimated at $ 220 billion (as much in euros) according to Forbes magazine prides himself on geopolitics, and he has the means. Connected more than 2,200 satellites from its Starlink network, the 25,000 terminals it has delivered for free to Ukraine provide civil and military communications from the country to ravaged infrastructure. They make it so much to guide the missiles to the Russian targets and to maintain in hospitals and banks. But the versatility of the benefactor of Ukraine, its possible double game shudder.
At mid-October, the 51-year-old billionaire publicly agitated the idea that he could stop funding Starlink in Ukraine, before changing his mind and glorifying it. “Happy to help Ukraine,” he launched on Twitter, a network which he finally emptied on Thursday, October 27, for $ 44 billion. Previously, he had triggered the ire of Volodymyr Zelensky – and undoubtedly delighted Vladimir Putin – by defending his own “peace plan” including the abandonment of Crimea to Russia by the Ukrainians.
The geopolitical foucades and the conflicts of interest of Elon Musk – he proposed to attach Taiwan to China, a country where Tesla has a factory – worry to the American authorities. As well as the presence of foreign investors in its Twitter buyout offer. The billionaire’s projects for the social network with the blue bird where it has 110 million subscribers, and which it wants to weaken moderation procedures to better “liberate” the expression, embrace. Between libertarian conceptions – maximum individual freedoms, minimum state – Elon Musk and the international responsibilities that de facto has its success, allowing it to short -circuit American diplomacy, the clash is inevitable.
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