When we looked at the future in the 1950s and 1960s, we brimmed with optimism at the possibilities.
A world not in war, flying cars, space colonization, and technology beyond our wildest dreams.
and self-driving car threesomes!
But now that we’re in that future, most of us are surprised and somewhat disappointed at the result.
Sure, we can carry around the sum of the world’s knowledge in a device we can use to contact anyone around the world that we carry in our pockets, but we use that technology to share pictures of our food.
I don’t think anyone thought of a future where we would be any less serious than we are now about the problems we face and about approaching the future of our existence.
We also had visions of Renaissance men who would lead this new century, innovators who fused technology with daily life and exploring and understanding our world.
In recent years, one man has actually fit the bill: Elon Musk.
He created PayPal, the best mobile payment platform we have that breaks the cash/check/credit card physical limitations of payment.
He created SpaceX, which is one of the first and best forms of private space travel.
He’s drawn up plans for all kinds of revolutionary transport, like the Hyperloop, and made them freely available.
And he created Tesla, the first new American car brand since Saturn, the first serious threat to the “Big Three” since AMC, and the first non-big-three American premium/luxury car brand since Packard.
On top of that, Musk does it all with a certain style and tongue-in-cheek view.
He was the inspiration for Tony Stark in Iron Man.
He has six! children.
And he’s not limiting himself to our atmosphere:
I think there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multi-planetary. In order to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen, in which case being poor or having a disease would be irrelevant, because humanity would be extinct. It would be like, ‘Good news, the problems of poverty and disease have been solved, but the bad news is there aren’t any humans left.
We need a generation of Elon Musks as leaders in our country.
We don’t need a bunch of middle managers and accountants who count beans and cut corners, we don’t need a bunch of dreamers who say “that’d be nice”, and we don’t need a bunch of doers who simply act without thinking.
We need men who stand up and combine all of the three–dreaming, making it feasible, and getting it done.
That’s what Musk has done with Tesla.
And that’s what our generation’s leaders need to do with America.
