Yesterday's big developments could be an important inflection point in the direction of the country and points to what I've been exploring about societies and technology.
Supporters of Trump don't want to believe he was involved with Epstein's child abuse. So, the reputation of Musk and the credibility of what he stated will immediately come into question. It's a much shorter path to dismiss Musk than it is for them to accept that Trump was complicit, if not a participant, with Epstein. He's been their hope of literally saving the country—Musk’s hope as well. Yet when he discovered Trump's talk of reducing spending was just talk—at least for this bill. And when Trump then went on to claim that Musk's beef was purely about his own business interests, Musk hit back hard.
The drama can draw us in, but then we miss the big picture that I think Musk and Trump's fans have missed.
Trump and DOGE were never going to save the country from financial danger. This is not because the idea of DOGE was bad nor the people behind it incompetent. It's because the nation as an institution is just no longer compatible with the world today. I know it's hard to consider that these budget decisions and moral scandals are not so significant. But if you just step back and look at the slogs of legislation compared to the speed of societal change, the bloat of our government, the growing unrest across the country, and the drifting apart of Americans—the defiance of governors vs the President, mayors vs governors, and citizens vs police (and vs each other); and how technology has historically been the catalyst for these sorts of adjustments, such as with the invention of the printing press in Europe preceding The Reformation… Now the picture looks pretty clear.
It's like if the best, new management had taken over Blockbuster Video in the 2000s. It wouldn't have mattered because the whole video rental store concept was soon to be obsolete. So whether there was infighting between the CEO and the accountant, or whether there were strategic missteps that hastened its demise, these wouldn't really matter because the greater climate of changing technology and consumer activity was always the main factor.
I think if we can see this big picture of what we're undergoing as a society today, we can become less attached to the idea of “saving the country.” It's not about the country being saved; it's about reimagining how societies and governance works in the 21st century. When we start to look up toward people building these solutions, we'll worry less about the drama in D.C. and gravitate less toward people like Trump (or whoever the Democrats put up as their savior for the country).
This is why I’ve visited Honduras a few times, to check out startup societies Prospera and Infinita City. I believe there'll be more such communities popping up. It’s what my video essay I’m working on is all about.