Monday 31 October 2022

I think it would be fun to run a twitter..

I can't claim to have followed Elon Musk 's career closely but his acquisition of Twitter reminds me strangely of this scene in Citizen Kane.  Like Kane, Musk inherited wealth by inheriting a mine and eventually decides that the thing to do with it is to own a [social] media organisation.  Kane poaches the staff of a rival newspaper until he in effect owns the same institution... but his employees start to shape him without him realising it.  Despite the high profile and needlessly cruel and sudden public sackings designed as an statement of power and authority and the theatrical production of a kitchen sink (a classic Kane type publicity stunt) will the same happen to Musk?  Musk, like Kane, thinks that he is not just running a business but in fact offering a vital public service.   But is he?  Both seem to constantly seek attention.  I wonder if he has a Leland as his Greek Chorus...?  Of course there are many disimilarities between Kane and Musk and no one can deny Musk's engineering achievements but modern history is littered with people who thought that they controlled the media but remain blind to how the media is changing and exploiting them....


Leland: You talk about the people as though you owned them, as though they belong to you. Goodness. As long as I can remember, you've talked about giving the people their rights, as if you can make them a present of Liberty, as a reward for services rendered...Remember the working man?  ....You used to write an awful lot about the workingman... He's turning into something called organized labor. You're not going to like that one little bit when you find out it means that your workingman expects something is his right, not as your gift! Charlie, when your precious underprivileged really get together, oh boy! That's going to add up to something bigger than your privileges! Then I don't know what you'll do! Sail away to a desert island probably and lord it over the monkeys! ....You don't care about anything except you. You just want to persuade people that you love 'em so much that they ought to love you back. Only you want love on your own terms. Something to be played your way, according to your rules.







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