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Muskism : a guide for the perplexed / Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff.
Athenaeum of Philadelphia - Circulating Collection HB835 .S663 2026
Available
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Slobodian, Quinn, 1978- author.
- Tarnoff, Ben, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Musk, Elon.
- Capitalism.
- Free enterprise.
- Wealth--Moral and ethical aspects.
- Wealth.
- World politics.
- Technology.
- Economics.
- Genre:
- Informational works
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xi, 241 pages ; 23 cm
- Edition:
- First US edition.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, [2026]
- Summary:
- A pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal age. Everyone's got an Elon take. He's a messiah. A menace; a genius; a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one theme: they treat him as an individual. Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isn't a glitch in the system--he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through technology: plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you. If Fordism defined the capitalism of the twentieth century, Muskism may define the twenty-first. Fordism helped build the welfare state. Musk undoes it. He thrives on dependence while preaching freedom. His cars run on subsidies; his satellites run the battlefield; his social networks train the AI that trains us. Muskism sells itself as the future but entrenches age-old hierarchies. It offers autonomy for some and exclusion for others. It's pro-natalist but anti-immigrant, futurist but reactionary. It speaks of humanity but warns against empathy. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff cut through the hype and the hate to reveal what Musk really represents: a new political economy, where to be "free" means to serve a Technoking. Muskism isn't about the man. It's about the machine that made him--and the world he's making next.
- Contents:
- Introduction: An operating system for the Twentieth century
- Part One Foundation: Fortress futurism
- The superset
- Sovereignty as a service
- Electric autonomy
- Part two Cyborg: Attention alchemy
- Cybernetic collectives
- Godwin's engine
- State x
- Conclusion: Four futures for Muskism
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 171-223) and index.
- ISBN:
- 9780063484320
- 0063484323
- OCLC:
- 1586390659
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