"Be quiet, tiny man" [in slow translation: sit quietly, small man] thrown by Elon Musk towards Radosław Sikorski may have a much greater meaning than we think. And moral opposition, apology demands, and girding with the honour of the brightest Republic of Poland only shows that we do not yet realize it.
Let us remind you; at the beginning of last week there was a sharp exchange of views between Trump's right hand and the head of the Polish Ministry of abroad Affairs. The politician accused the Americans of threatening the victim of the attack in the form of plans to shut down Starlink in Ukraine and suggested that an alternate supplier be sought. He besides revealed that Poland is backing $50 million a year for both terminals and subscriptions to the satellite communications system.
In response, the Polish diplomat heard from Musk: “Be quiet, tiny man” [Sit still, small man]. Billionaire suggested that Poland covers only "a tiny part of the cost", and that there is no alternate to Starlink at present. Unexpectedly leftist-liberal commentariat, in a completely not its pompous style, resembling “saveling”, threw himself to save the honour of the Polish diplomat, convincing that it was about defending the good name of the Republic.
Szymon Hołownia one more time gave a portrayal of embarrassing emptiness, convincing that “Poland is simply a arrogant country, and will not let anyone, no substance how many billions he has in his account, to humiliate himself, his government, or to talk to anyone who is simply a typical of the Republic of Poland, as to any snot.” As if to confirm his infirmity, after these words, the Marshal of the Sejm boarded a plane departing to Lithuania to never return to the subject again.
What is more, the reticent attention was paid to the overgrown ego of both Polish diplomat and owner X. Serious commentators pointed to the deficiency of professionalism and carelessness of the head of the MFA, risking unnecessary snouts weakening relations with Washington. another voices pointed to the absence of any case and the deliberate confrontation of the typical of the Brussels camp.
Whatever the reason for twittering politeness, Elon Musk's behaviour indicates a much more serious phenomenon. And here bows not so much the ignorance of the English language as the more Anglo-Saxon cultural context. If you believe English native speakers, Musk did not accidentally usage the phrase ‘small man’ alternatively of having a much more emotional sound of ‘little man’; and over the Vistula, in fact, everyone read the message in this second, offensive context.
Meanwhile, "small man" utilized in relation to political relations means nothing little than that, that we are dealing with a tiny player. Musk stated simply coolly that Sikorski aspires to a political extraclass, being a quaternary at most. But the full situation does not concern only Poland's place in planet politics, but the global crisis of liberal democracy in general.
World Ruler à rebours
In 2000 Alexander Bard and Jan Söderqvist created the word Netocracy. In the book of the same title, they described the features of a fresh strategy of power, emerging with the improvement of an IT civilization. According to Swedish authors, the improvement of modern technologies will make society divided into network managers (energy, financial, information etc.), and the remainder – as stated in the book – Consumer. The former, due to access to key information, will replace scholars and politicians, becoming a fresh elite (making stunning money on occasion).
Janis Warufakis, erstwhile Minister of Finance of the Greek Government in his Technofeudism It argues that Söderqvist and Barda's “prophecy” has fundamentally already been fulfilled. In his opinion, network owners and distributors are already earning only in controlling digital space. Just like landowners, collecting a pension from tenants and serfs, large IT companies cut coupons off from all single user initiative. Whether it's our entrepreneurship or our very existence in virtual space, we all add our bricks to the ever-increasing wealth of "technopheuds".
Both – Netocracy and Technofeudism convince about the dusk of democracy and its structures and divisions. In this context, it was only a substance of time before the "technosiomals" entered the White House. Musk, celebrating Trump's victory, spoke of the "civilizing dimension" of last year's election. This is the time erstwhile they – technobarons – put on a appropriate "horse", which not only provided them with access to power, but secured their business for years forward.
Today no 1 embodies this process more than Elon Musk. Although announced by the planet left with the second Hitler, in the assessment of the power mechanisms, billionaires are not much different from Soros or Gates, of whom activity had never had a problem before (as the USAID case showed, partially due to the fact that they sat and them in their pockets).
Instead of building a network of dependencies outside the nose of the public, he prefers with pump to announce further purchases of critical infrastructure. The glasses, sweater and shirt were replaced by a ramonian one, and the reticent “expert” reviews, loud and awesome trolling. In his hand is the world's largest communication platform (X), the most popular electrical car brand (Tesla) or modern satellite system, providing superfast net to the most distant corners of the planet (Musk wants to replace even traditional, ground-based net with his Starlinks). The billionaire besides has a monopoly on the improvement of space technologies, plans to take over the artificial intelligence marketplace and leads the improvement of the Neuralink home implants.
Great money opened the door to large politics. Despite remaining officially outside the Trump administration, Musk is fundamentally already conducting his own interior and abroad policies. The assurance the president has given his “new court” is so large that it provokes the rage of the old defender of experienced Republicans. It is not a secret of a powerful conflict between Muska's environment and erstwhile presidential advisor Steve Bannon. late there has besides been an argument in the privacy of the White home between a billionaire and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The gentlemen went to each other's throats in front of the president, who listened at dimension to a sharp exchange of views.
Although Musk makes more enemies, his position inactive seems unwavering. It can thus unscrupulously deploy politicians, even if they represent sovereign governments. The technofeudales, entering politicians, service officers and diplomats' shoes, are the best proof of the death of demo-liberalism. Its ruins, on the another hand, have been marked by the age of post-politics, or, possibly closer to our reality, memocracy.
Peter Relich