inside recent podcast interviews Regarding Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, host Rex Fridman volunteered that Bezos and SpaceX founder Elon Musk spend time together and build a “friendship that is an inspiration to all of humanity.”
I strongly support that motion, as our country and the world continue to move in a more dangerous direction.
The Amazon billionaire responded in part: I love that idea. ”
But…will Elon Musk?
For the sake of all of us, he should.
In recent years, Mr. Musk has taken playful but sharp jabs at competitors in private space. In addition to Amazon, Bezos is the founder of Blue Origin, a private space launch company that trails SpaceX in terms of successful suborbital, orbital, and human missions.
Blue Origin may be behind SpaceX on some key milestones, but it remains an important company with great potential. And therein lies the point of this exercise. For the well-being of the vastly underperforming, outrageously overpriced, and now politically driven U.S. space program, and of humanity itself, Mr. Musk has grasped with both hands the olive branch that Mr. Bezos is offering, and the two have decided to lead the team. We should find a way to put it together. One is about a shared passion for space exploration.
In addition to sharing my passion for space exploration, as someone who has worked on space-related issues for the Department of Defense, served as a consultant for NASA and the Space Shuttle team, and written two books and dozens of articles on the subject, I says so. More than that, I say this as someone who is very afraid that China has a completely military-controlled space program and is seeking to forever claim the heights of space. Including the surface of the moon.
During the podcast interview, Bezos wholeheartedly praised Musk for his leadership of Tesla and SpaceX. Bezos said in part: “You can't get Tesla or SpaceX without a competent leader. That's impossible.”
If Mr. Musk is open to the idea of working with Mr. Bezos, a logical joint project for both men to consider would be to once again make the United States “a world leader,” as President John F. Kennedy declared in 1962. It's not just about returning to a spacefaring nation. But some of humanity has been permanently displaced from Earth, increasingly facing multiple “apocalyptic” threats such as nuclear war, lab-created viruses, and asteroid impacts.
Mr. Musk should respond to Mr. Bezos' rebuke by acknowledging that the Amazon founder is actually an incredibly talented entrepreneur with a high degree of intelligence and brings invaluable life experience to the table.
Indeed, both men find themselves at opposite ends of the spectrum on some of the partisan and ideological issues that divide much of the world today. But that's exactly the point. We both need to overcome these petty differences in order to make us all better.
While many believe that Mr. Musk has more common sense and pragmatic statements on some of the issues that plague us all, he has moved more to the left on some of these issues. Bezos' visible beliefs are equally important. In fact, they may prove important when implementing real-world solutions.
In a world of over 8 billion people, literally only a handful of humans have the platform, finances, and intelligence to save humanity. Bezos and Musk are at the top of that very short list.
Around the world, government after government is failing its people. Mr. Musk acknowledges that reality, and Mr. Bezos certainly recognizes it too.
As someone who grew up in extreme poverty and was often homeless as a child, I believe that while problems such as world hunger and poverty cannot be solved in a “macro” sense, each can have positive effects in a “micro” sense. We have long emphasized that this can have an impact. level.
On the same “micro” level, Musk and Bezos have the means, talent, intelligence, and comprehensiveness to not only counter what China is doing in space, but in the process permanently acquire a representative of humanity beyond Earth. bandwidth. .
Mr. Bezos and Mr. Musk are right that they are “like-minded,” especially when it comes to their shared passion for space exploration. Knowing that, you should team up before the deadline closes.
The ball is now in Musk's court.
Political and communications consultant Douglas McKinnon served as a writer in the White Houses of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and served as special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the Bush administration. served as
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