The Guardian | Muskism by Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff review – how Elon Musk is reshaping the world by Christopher WebbHenry Ford changed the face of industry forever – what kind of economic model do Musk’s methods presage?Genius industrialist or clownish conman, humanity’s saviour from a rapidly crumbling planet or rabid social media troll – the verdicts on the world’s richest person vary in flavour, but most share something in common: they focus on Musk as an individual. In their study, Quinn Slobodian, a historian at Boston University, and Ben Tarnoff, a tech writer, wish to reframe the conversation. The most important question, they argue, is not “who is Musk?” but “what is Musk a symptom of?”As the title suggests, their answer is “Muskism”, the coinage a deliberate nod to Fordism, the shorthand for 20th-century capitalism built on the pairing of mass production with mass consumption. If Fordism was the last century’s operating system, Slobodian and Tarnoff contend that Muskism is this century’s. Continue reading...Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/mar/26/muskism-by-quinn-slobodian-and-ben-tarnoff-review-how-elon-musk-is-reshaping-the-world#elonmusk #technology #muskism #fordism #capitalism
