I Don't Believe In Elon Musk

Sorry about all the downer posts. Writing about how I'm feeling is a double-edged sword, because on the one hand it's better for me to write about it and get it out of my system instead of bottling it up, but on the other hand it is a bummer to read about. So, apologies again to my anonymous friends in Poland and Equador. One thing that would be great would be if even one person who has ever read this blog would leave a comment, or in some way acknowledge that they've read it.

Today was okay, not great/not horrible. I'm just trying to get through the remainder of the year and then we'll see what happens in 2018. Normally I have always looked forward to the Christmas season, one of my favorite times of the year, but this year I will be glad when it is over.

All of this is so Not Me. I am usually the biggest cheerleader for Christmas, for all things joyous, for life itself, and I will be again. It's just been a rough few days, but the bad feeling will pass.

I heard about the lights in the sky this evening over Southern California, but I didn't see them. I wish I had, because the pictures on FB, and the video footage, look pretty spectacular.

However.......(there's that word again, always portending doom, haha)......now where was I?

Oh yeah:  However! You may be surprised to find out that I am not a SpaceX fan.

Sounds like another curmudgeonly opinion from Yours Truly, right?

Well, even if it sounds like it, it's not. For one thing, I am not a curmudgeon.

I am the opposite.

But for another more appropriate thing, appropriate to the situation, I grew up during the heyday of NASA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The feats of NASA are the stuff of legend (even though I personally believe that technology exists that makes rocket propulsion obsolete).

But NASA was the Real Deal, a national program that was promoted all across the country with pride. Every young boy and probably a few young girls knew the names of all the astronauts. They were real heroes, beginning with the Mercury program, and then the Gemini which got us ready for the Moon, and then Apollo, which took us there. It was a National effort, a monumental experience shared by the whole country, and - when we got to the Moon - it was shared by the whole world.

But time causes forgetfulness, and it also causes great programs to be run down. Money is an issue, and politics. Politicians should be run into the ground, but that's another story.

But another group of people whom should be run into the ground are phony baloney entrepreneurs and copycats, and those who publicize them, and those who run false operations.

I am not a curmudgeon, but I am a student of many things.

And I have an intuition that I believe to be unsurpassed.

Sounds arrogant, I know, but you'd have to be me to understand, and anyway, in this case I am sure a lot of people in the Space Industry would understand, and especially at NASA.

And so, I ask the question, "Who the hell is Elon Musk"?

Seriously. Who is this guy?

Nobody had ever heard of him until about five years ago. Then he, as the press would have it, "created" the Tesla automobile. No doubt a great car, from what I've heard.

But seriously, had you ever heard of this guy before that?

And then suddenly, a new car is created. A fantastic car, though expensive. And you never hear much about the company that makes the car, but only about one guy, the founder, Elon Musk.

A guy you had never heard of before.

That is called a Cult Of Personality, created by the press.

And then, after he created the Tesla, he was tunneling under our cities, intent on creating great transcontinental subways and undersea tunnels. And again, you never heard in the press about the company, or if anything had been accomplished.

The only thing that was written about was Elon Musk, a guy nobody had ever heard of previously, with a weird name that sounds good in the media.

And now, after the Tesla (indeed a good car by all accounts), and the tunneling (of which no evidence exists), we are now being delivered into media-induced fascination with SpaceX. Great name, right?

They shoot off occasional rockets (which are an outdated technology), and because of the intense promotion, and because most importantly of The Cult Of Elon Musk ( a one man Cult Of Personality), we are supposed to believe that he is gonna send us to Mars or what ever the latest promotion is.

I think today the promotion was that he is gonna send a Tesla to Mars.

I know - I am well aware! - that I can come off as a wet blanket when I comment about things like this, in the way that I comment about them. It's like your Dad saying, "back in my day"......! Or, "get off my lawn", haha.

I know that it sounds like a curmudgeon to bad mouth SpaceX.

But actually, it's anything but that.

As I said, I was born into the Space Age of NASA, and I have seen the Real Deal, even if rocket technology is now outdated, though still used for "public performances".

More important, as it concerns SpaceX, is my intuition.

I am certain that my intuition is reliable. It has been my greatest asset in navigating a sometimes difficult life. And in my adult life I have studied many military programs closely. All space programs fall under military jurisdiction, just for your information.

And that is why I don't believe in SpaceX as an alternative to NASA. It is a private company, which should tell you something right off the bat. Hmmm, shall we privatize space, anybody?

And shall we corporatize it?

We have a good frontman, a guy with a photogenic name. All we've gotta do is keep promoting him, that he is a supreme genius. The people of the world, or at least in America, will fall in line.....

Except me, your local skeptic. I am not under the thrall of Elon Musk, whoever he is and whatever he represents. All I know is that he is a guy that nobody had ever heard of until perhaps five years ago. He's not like Bill Gates, whom we knew about from the ground up, from when he started Microsoft, and who took years and years to become who he has become.

Elon Musk may be a computer genius, and he may have "invented" a nice car, but I think now he is a frontman for a private space company that wants to corporatize outer space, and other planets.

Thank goodness he doesn't have the means to do so, because his technology doesn't compare to NASA, and even their tech is outdated by what actually exists within Black Projects in this country.

I can always smell a publicity stunt or otherwise deceptive story from a mile away, and I am sorry but I don't believe in Elon Musk. It's just my intuition.

Back tomorrow. I'll be writing from home.