Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion, and it was for this belief?

On April 25, the board of directors of the famous social platform Twitter officially announced that it had reached a final agreement with Musk, musk will fully acquire Twitter at a price of $54.2 per share, with a total size of about $44 billion.

This means that after more than a month of struggle and countermeasures, Twitter's board finally compromised with the world's richest man with nine companies, including Tesla, SpaceX and StarLink. As soon as the news came out, it triggered countless revelry of supporters and protests from opponents.

As one of Twitter's most well-known users, Musk has more than 80 million followers, and he has long been willing to transform Twitter. The media summed up his possible future plans for Twitter: allowing users to re-edit what they posted; making Twitter's algorithms public and open source; cleaning up junk bots, and more.

However, what has attracted the most attention is Musk's dissatisfaction with Twitter's "restriction of free speech". He said, "I oppose censorship that goes far beyond the scope of the law," and Twitter's censorship of user content, which in his view fails to comply with the principle of free speech, "fundamentally undermines democracy."

Amid the cheers, there are also more skeptics about Musk's true purpose and what he calls the possible consequences of free speech.

Considering that who controls The Twitter Tubing, who controls the public opinion in the United States and the Western world, and also controls the mainstream thinking of the current human world, Musk will control the mainstream public opinion and huge wealth of the world at the same time after owning all the shares of Twitter. Many people worry that this is a signal that individual oligarchs are trying to dominate the world.

The New York Times posted that Musk could use Twitter to promote his investment projects and overwhelm critics. Although he claims that Twitter will become an "inclusive place for free speech," users should understand the meaning of this sentence: this refers to the "freedom of speech" of people like billionaire and the world's richest man, Musk, not the "freedom of speech" of ordinary people.

Some people also suspect that Musk's own understanding of "freedom of speech" is not clear and contradictory. He describes himself as an "absolute liberal of speech," but this conflicts with "within the limits of the law."

As Bill Gates expressed concern at the May 5 Wall Street Journal event: How will Musk handle misinformation and hate speech on social media platforms? "How does Musk feel about claims that 'vaccines can kill people' or 'Gates controls humans through vaccines'? Is this something he thinks should be spread? ”

Whether or not Musk's advocacy for free speech came from the heart, this idea of "complete freedom of speech" was vividly embodied by John Mill in his famous book "On Freedom" nearly two centuries ago, making the most rebellious voice of the era.

When we look back at Mill's life, we can see how this masterpiece, which is still regarded as a Western classic, originated from his personal experience. We may also think about whether Musk's own experience has influenced his vision and ambitions.

01

The struggle for individual freedom and autonomy

For John Mill, his father's upbringing shaped him so deeply that he suffered a serious psychic crisis in his youth. The process of his coming out of depression is also the process of his free reflection on the individual.

John Mill's father, James Mill, was the father of British utilitarianism and the chief English disciple of the legal reformer Jeremy Bentham. Bentham believed that reason was the supreme commander of life, and that the reform of reason and reason itself could bring happiness to mankind, and James Mill agreed with this idea, so he used the principle of good wisdom to raise his son, molding him into a utilitarian, making him a man committed to human happiness.

Old Mill

Under these lofty spiritual goals, Little Mill had an extraordinary childhood. From the age of three, Mill began to study Greek, reading a large number of Greek works in Greek and then latin at the age of eight. As a teenager, he began to study political economy and logic, and was already trained in advanced mathematics.

During this extraordinary upbringing, Mill had no contact with children his age, and he didn't seem to know much about how different his education and experience were from others. In this education system, the only thing missing is the recognition of the role of emotion, tenderness, and feeling. As a result, John Mill was groomed to be an emotionally disabled person.

At the age of sixteen or seventeen, unaware of the troubles of the situation, he and other young people with radical political views formed the Utilitarian Society. They argue for making people understand "what is their true interest," that is, "changing selfish feelings, and making "human beings new" through reason.

John Mill

Although he thought he had firmly established himself in the purpose of life—"to be the innovator of the world," almost without warning, Mill's faith was shattered. At the age of 20, he suffered a serious psychic crisis. He was "in a state of nervous numbness, as is the case that everyone occasionally encounters, and was not interested in the stimulation of entertainment and pleasure: I felt in my heart that the things that used to be happy had now become boring or irrelevant to me."

As he pondered whether the goals he had been indoctrinated with since childhood would make him happy and happy, his inner voice told him "No!" Further, "the whole foundation on which I live is based collapses." All my happiness was originally the constant pursuit of this goal, and now that this goal has lost its attractive power, what is the meaning of the means of pursuing the goal? Life seemed like an emptiness for me. ”

Then he came out of this depression in time, relying on the romantic poetry of Wordsworth and others. Through personal feelings and experiences, Mill realized that life and thought must not only have reason, but also include emotions.

Mill's own deep experience made him extremely sensitive to how important public perceptions are to the formation of a person's character. Rather, his experience has made him particularly aware that growing up in an atmosphere of intolerance or non-collision of views creates people with mental and emotional disabilities, as in the environment in which he was raised.

Furthermore, in On Liberty, he is adamantly opposed to an intolerant society, as is the case with his childhood experience, where the views of his father and Bentham overwhelmed everything. For more than a hundred years, On Liberty has been one of the pioneers in defending freedom of thought, speech, and individual action. It is the most prominent expression of individualism in the 19th century.

Mill turned to believe that a collision of ideas was necessary, first of all, to keep people's speech more or less frank, and second, to let people express their views freely. Mill also realized that, no matter how well intentioned, suppressing a certain part of the truth would hurt those who did not know. He firmly believed that no one or any organization could control the truth alone.

This belief led Mill to argue that the free expression and free action of the individual must be defended, one for the happiness of the individual, and the other for the happiness and development of mankind. Both goals are closely related to his own life experiences.

02

The immediate cause of Mill's claim

After Mill's emotions were ignited by the poetry of Wordsworth and Coleridge, he began to fall deeply in love with Mrs. Taylor, who was two years younger than him, and threw himself into a difficult and painful long life experiment. This experience made him have a deeper desire and pursuit of freedom of action.

Mrs. Taylor was a monotheist who embraced radical politics, and Mill fell into it the first time he saw her: "Outwardly she was beautiful and witty, with an air that made all who approached her feel naturally noble." At heart, she is a deep and strong woman, with insight and intuitive intelligence, and the temperament of a meditative poet..."

From then on, Mill and Mrs. Taylor developed an intimate and seemingly entirely platonic relationship. This relationship lasted for twenty years until Mr. Taylor's death. During this time, Mill worked with her, discussing his articles with her, and she made up a large part of his life.

Harriet Taylor

However, he also paid a high price. Even his most radical friends disapproved of their relationship. Friends did not associate with Mill, and Mill cut off contact with these people. Even by the time they married in 1851, Mill's friends and family were still opposed.

In fact, the antipathy of friends and family toward them was not only due to Victorian customs, but both contemporaries and later researchers believed that Mill's praise for Mrs. Taylor's talent was exaggerated.

However, it is the reaction of relatives and friends that makes Er deeply aware that the subtle pressures of society can and will inevitably affect individuals. This is a subtle pressure that tends to be consistent, and in the long run, it will make people mediocre.

Mill resented the pressure to work through social organizations such as family, neighborhood, and church, because he believed that these hindered the attempts necessary in life, as he and Mrs. Taylor experienced. Mill was convinced that Mrs. Taylor's presence with him would unleash her talents, and that her talents would only be unleashed through the experiments of the two of them in life.

Mill's emotional belief led him to write some extreme words in On Freedom. In fact, it is such a contradiction that the most rational and abstract discussion of individual freedom is rooted in the love and love of its author.

In turn, Mill looked forward to a completely free atomized individual. On Freedom is not just about freedom, it's more about "progress." To ensure progress, Mill was only partially concerned with protecting general freedoms. Rather, his first concern was to protect the freedom of a particular person in society— genius. Mill believed that only great men (great men and women) could make human progress.

In other words, Mill wanted to guarantee the freedom of the great for the sake of human progress, writing that "genius can breathe freely in the air of freedom." People with geniuses... More individual than everyone else—society will only provide a few molds of personality, lest everyone form their own personality and cause trouble, but geniuses, more than anyone else, cannot unharmed themselves into those limited molds. ”

This elitism and the belief that great men can advance ethnic progress seem to coincide with Musk's ideas.

Mill's love for Mrs. Taylor led to his extreme individualism and liberalism leading to women's emancipation. In that era, this was the most progressive voice. He believes that the most arrogant case of collective repression of the human spirit and obstruction of the outstanding individual occurs in the subservience and debasement of women in political, spiritual, moral, and sexual aspects.

In Mill's view, the fact that society and all its sub-organizations have pushed women into such an abhorrent situation is a straightforward and self-evident reason for the pursuit of freedom of thought and social freedom. Freedom of thought and social freedom can break the consolidation of customs, untether, and allow the ability of the geniuses in human beings to be fully utilized.

Mill's thought course revealed that even in that era of great socio-political pressures, the growth, love, and even setbacks of a single writer could open up a field of intellectual, moral, and social prospects, even though it had been overlooked.

03

Musk: Dreamer or liar?

Mill's life experience and thought context clearly reflect how much a person's past experiences affect his thoughts and actions. For Musk, can we infer his goals and ambitions from the course of the first half of his life?

In fact, people tend to polarize their statements about him, as well as himself. Some fans of Dabo believe that his real purpose is not to make money, but to change human beings through funds, so that humans eventually become multi-planetary species. In their eyes, Musk is like the Columbus of the new era, even greater and more advanced.

And there are many people who question Musk, thinking that he is just a liar, that his essence is still a big capitalist, and that his class determines that his fundamental purpose is to pursue profits. Furthermore, Musk's vision of changing humanity is just a cover for him to attract money and support from all sides.

And many people are terrified of what he envisions, believing that this will not lead to human liberation and freedom, but will lead to new forms of totalitarianism and exploitation.

From his authorized biography, we can see that Musk was brilliant from an early age and received an excellent education in a wealthy family in South Africa. He developed the video game Blastar at the age of 12 and sold it for $500; at the age of 14, he felt an existential crisis, read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy to find answers, and set his life's ambition to save humanity.

For these early experiences, some people think that it is indeed musk's motivation for human colonization of Mars, and others think that it is Musk's own fabrication. But in any case, Musk did start to explore the space industry in 2000 and founded SpaceX, which has been at the forefront of the world's aerospace technology in many technologies so far.

Outside of the space industry, Musk has also been involved in founding, investing in, or managing a number of technology companies, including Neuralink's experiments with human brain-computer interfaces, which have also caused a lot of ethical and political controversy.

The problem is that people can't confirm whether Musk's biography and remarks are true from the heart, or whether they are just an excuse he uses to hype and raise funds. Although many people will speculate from his actual actions, a person's subjective situation and objective performance may not be completely consistent. Perhaps, musk's real purpose of acquiring Twitter, and his real goal in life, will not be conclusive until decades later.

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Editors: Sun Jiajing, Huang Hong

References to the viewpoint: From Rousseau to Nietzsche, [American] Frank S. By M. Turner; A. Lofthouse, ed.; translated by Wang Ling

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