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Elon Musk criticized for trying to help. Accused of selfish PR stunt.
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- Title
- If You're Criticizing Elon Musk for Trying to Save Kids With a Mini Submarine, It's Time to Take a Long, Hard Look at Your Life
- Published
- Jul 11 2018
- Word count
- 804 words
Checking Twitter and Instagram earlier today I noticed a lot of hate about Elon Musk and SpaceX in regards their efforts to assist in the cave rescue in Thailand.
I feel this article perfectly summarizes my thoughts on the topic.
Do you think Elon Musk grabbing headlines and stepping in to situations without being asked is driven by self importance or does it come from a genuine place?
What are you general thoughts on people who are critical of those who try and fail?
Not very positive, if I'm being honest.
Looking at Musk's twitter, he was in communication with a SME on the rescue team and gave/is giving the pod to the Thai government. He used his resources to create a possible solution. While it wasn't used, it exists and can be used in the future.
I don't see a problem.
I agree. Plus, he was taking a huge risk if it was just a PR stunt, because if the Thai Government had used his solution and it failed, he'd be getting some pretty bad PR..
"Elon Musk responsible for death of child" is not the headline he would want to see. I personally think it was a genuine attempt to help.
For me, personally, I couldn't care less what is driving him. A good deed is a good deed. He designed an impressive mini-submarine/pod, and while it wasn't used, it can still be used in the future.
I'd be more impressed if Elon Musk had discreetly approached the relevant authorities and offered his help without making any fuss on his own, and if the news of his involvement hadn't come from the Elon Musk PR machine.
But why does that change anything? The fact that he also used the opportunity for PR doesn't hurt anyone, and the end result is the same.
Maybe not, but I think it's tacky. I think it comes across as, "Look at me, I'm doing philanthropy!" While I don't think much of Christianity in general, I agree with what Jesus is reputed to have said about prayer and charity: do it in secret instead of attention-whoring.
When you're as rich as Elon Musk, engaging in philanthropy is part of the minimum requirements for being counted as a decent human being. To not engage in philanthropy as a billionaire shows a lack of noblesse oblige that betrays a serious lack of understanding of the power one wields as a billionaire.
There's already enough discord between the richest among us and everybody else. Flaunting one's wealth on extravagant PR stunts like this instead of carefully using one's wealth to improve society as Andrew Carnegie proposed in 1889 only makes matters worse.
At the same time, public philanthropy is actually a very helpful way to stimulate others to follow in your footsteps.
Citation needed. No one is under the obligation to do anything, regardless of how rich they are. If he wants to use this opportunity as both a PR stunt and an excuse to legitimately help people, there's nothing wrong with that. The fact that he'd made a show of his efforts doesn't invalidate the end result at all.
I'm no more obligated to provide citations for opinions than you are.
Sorry, didn't mean to come off that snarky there. But yeah, this is just a difference in opinion between us.
Honestly even if it was a PR stunt he geniuenly tried helping.
Overwatch recently introduced a endorsement system which made many people act fake nice but by being fake nice they actually became nice. This is a very similiar situation
fake it till you are
The psychology on this is very interesting. Telling someone to force themselves to smile for even just a few minutes per day increases their happiness.
Exactly that
But think of it this way...does helping in a headline-grabbing way set a very public example and encourage others to participate in philanthropic endeavors in the future? Is he leading by example to genuinely try to make the world a better place? Maybe others with the means to direct some of their expertise and money toward a good cause the in future will be motivated because they saw Musk do it. I'd sure hate for them to be discouraged from doing so because they saw Musk get criticized for it, instead of praised.
That was one point that I wanted to make as well but left it out because it felt too speculative.
But I agree, leading by example seems to be his M.O. with disaster relieve, going to Mars and making Solar Power / Electric vehicles mainstream technologies.
Does working behind the scenes automatically lend more credence to an effort to contribute?
Why can't two parties benefit from this type of exchange.
Thinking of Puerto Rico and Australia.
In both instances he made a positive and meaningful impact in exchange for some good headlines.
If someone has the resources to help but doesn't, should we hold them equally responsible for doing nothing or honor the fact they did not use the opportunity to push their own agenda?
I don't think those are mutually exclusive motivations.
I'm generally a fan of Musk, but stated in another thread that I was pretty skeptical of this. My initial impression was that it was a PR stunt, or at least partially motivated by that. That was my gut reaction.
I've spent some more time reading since then and believe that his intentions were good and, although I still have reservations about using new technology in a life-or-death situation, I see how it might have been used as a last ditch attempt if the divers weren't an option.
The only difference between some Joe Schmo and Elon Musk helping someone (besides the tech) is the amount of eyes on them. It's very unfortunate that an act of good will and human compassion by Musk is being thrown away and regarded as a PR stunt. The dude has very noble goals and wanted to help. It sucks that he's under fire for trying to save lives.
I'm not a fan of Musk, but I do think he was genuinely trying to help. That being said, wanting to help isn't the same as helping. And wanting to help without knowing what you're doing can potentially cause more harm than good. I don't believe Musk's involvement was actively harmful, but there is an argument to be made that he did do it to pat himself on the back.
Whether or not the sub was used isn't the question. If the team considered it a viable back-up plan, it's still valuable and he's still contributing. The question is whether the team preforming the rescue was on-board with what he was doing or he was just charging ahead with what he thought was the best plan.
I can't make heads or tails of what actually happened because of media frenzy surrounding this issue, but I do know a few things:
1)The head of the operation said it didn't 'fit with the mission'. Does this mean they simply didn't end up needing it? Or does it mean they never intended to use it?
2)Musk was in contact with one of the divers directly who asked him to keep working on it. Is this because he thought it was a valuable backup plan? Is this him just entertaining Musk? It does seem a bit odd that this isn't a group email, but I'll not look too deeply into that.
Honestly, I don't know how to call this one. I simply don't have enough details. Is he getting thrown under the bus for trying to help? Or did he insert himself where he wasn't needed and yell "I'M HELPING"? Little bit of both?
I would argue that charging forward without understanding the problem is characteristic of Musk. But I also believe that he genuinely wants to make the world a better place.
I will say though, it sounds like the powerwalls he provided to help with the pumping were genuinely useful. Though I don't have a whole lot of details on them.
It didn't sound like he "charged forward" to me. To me it sounded like he directed a team of experts under his employ to hastily engineer a solution to a situation that at the time was extremely grim.
see
https://www.reddit.com/r/quityourbullshit/comments/8xzgff/elon_musk_gets_shut_down_after_trying_to/?st=jjhn8eda&sh=b73b6679
Thanks, I missed that part. It kind of challenges my second point. Looking back at the email Stanton asked him to 'keep working on the capsule details'. Emphasis mine.
Maybe Stanton wanted to know if they could make one small and maneuverable enough?
(Disclaimer: I am a huge David Letterman fan)
This reminds me a lot of the jokes and criticisms mounted against Jay Leno. People like Letterman, Conan, and Howard Stern always joke that if Jay saw stranded motorists at the side of the road, he would happily pull over to help -- as long as he had a camera crew in tow to capture the whole thing.
I suspect that if Elon had just quietly shown up, done his thing, and left, this would be a non-issue. His tweeting about it (let's admit right now that Elon tweeting something has a much bigger impact than, say, one of us tweeting) escalates it to a publicity stunt.
He could have quietly shown up, done his thing, posted tweets etc. while down there if it actually turned out he could help with something and there was a need for what he was doing, then leave.
It would have been nice to know some of this context at the time. I didn't say anything because it would have seemed churlish to criticise someone who was trying to help (and it still is!), but it seemed to me that Musk was sticking his nose in where it wasn't wanted. A charitable interpretation was that he was sincerely trying to help, but was naïve about what was needed (even I could see that mini-sub wasn't going to fit through the narrowest part of the cave, as described in all the articles). A more cynical interpretation was that he was doing it for the publicity. But, even if his motivations were self-serving, he was still trying to help. That does not deserve criticism.
However, if we'd known that the rescue workers themselves were asking for his help, that would have removed any doubt. It would have shown the rescue workers were doing everything they could, and it would still have shown Musk as a public benefactor.
The irony is that, if Musk had succeeded... if his sub had been used to rescue even one boy... his motivations would be irrelevant. People would be cheering his name everywhere. They only feel free to criticise him because his submarine wasn't actually used.
Meanwhile he moves on to taking on the Flint water situation
It'd be cool if he'd taken on the Flint water situation before the lead levels in the water were already below the guidelines. 🤔 If he does some good, I'm thrilled, but I'd be happier if he'd made that pledge 5 years ago.
Though i'm not Elon's biggest fan, I will say that his efforts to save those children are worthy of respect & in my opinion genuine.