Slobodian, Quinn: Muskism

A map of the worlds that made Elon Musk, and a guide to the ideas behind his attempt to redesign reality.

After Henry Ford published his autobiography in 1922, his name became an “-ism.” Out of one man emerged an ideology that defined capitalism in the twentieth century. Now, a century later, Elon Musk has similarly captured the popular imagination. He has been hailed as a messianic genius and dismissed as a reckless buffoon. But, as Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue, Musk is much more: an avatar for an entire worldview.

Muskism is an operating system for the twenty-first century. It envisions governments run like startups, where software programmed by a small clique implements policy automatically and at scale. In both politics and industry, human labor evaporates, and power flows to those who own the machines. Muskism presents itself as a modernizing, forward-looking project, but it wants to harden differences of an enduring and old-fashioned sort. It is futurism in the service of hierarchy.

To understand the world that Musk aims to build, Slobodian and Tarnoff believe, we must first understand the worlds that built Musk. The passages of Musk’s life—from South Africa to Silicon Valley, SpaceX to DOGE; his obsession with science fiction, anime and demographics; his addiction to social media and gaming—help us see the origins and dynamics of Muskism. But Muskism isn’t just about Musk. It’s a blueprint for a new global order. As governments and corporations adopt Musk’s playbook, coming to terms with Muskism will become essential for deciphering the forces shaping our future.