James Sherry

The Author of The Oligarch in Epistolary Communication with Elon Musk *

To the excellent Elon Musk:

Anyone who hopes to gain the favor of an oligarch offers what they think influential people enjoy. Supplicants present ostentatious building plans, brilliant patent filings, and expensive gifts such as cars, paintings, and baseball cards.

Although lacking the capital for such a princely offering, I am keen to bestow some proof of my appreciation. Thus, I present this treatise on the networks of power that I have written after years studying technology, finance, environment, and language.

These reflections, channeled through a work of great antiquity and importance, Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, remind us of the timeliness and timelessness of the subject of leadership by small groups. Some of the perspectives herein may contradict conventional wisdom, but I ask you to keep an open mind.

Though I consider this book barely worth your attention, I trust that you will be kind enough to accept it. The best gift I can offer is the opportunity to understand in the shortest time what I have learned through years of anguish and compromise, weathering the ubiquitous clamor and assault of disinformation.

Productive and effective people consider their relationships from many points of view and do not act on essential truths. Filmmakers photograph mountains from the plains, and in order to screen the plains, shoot from the peaks. There is no privileged position of comprehension. Diverse evidence must be correlated.

Take then, this little gift in the spirit that I offer it. If you consider it, it will become apparent how to reach the prominence promised by your skill, focus, and good fortune. And if, Elon, from your mountaintop, you sometimes turn your eyes to these lower regions, you will see how much your work means to the world.

Yours truly,

James Sherry

After Elon Musk read this letter at the beginning of The Oligarch, he replied in a flurry of notes:

Dear Mr. Sherry:

The personal approach that you take in your writing can’t address all the problems that leadership must deal with. Leaders are sometimes forced to act to retain power, especially when threatened by opposing forces, exercise power through legislation and war, and sometimes must let things take their course. The fewer things I have to allow out of my control, the happier and more successful I am because no one can run my business as well as I can. The same is true for government. The fewer issues that a leader leaves for Congress and the Courts, the more successful the administration. Sometimes this appears frightening to people who don’t have their hand on the tiller of state. But trust me when I say, I and the elected officials know what we’re doing. The alliance of the state and corporations is the best form of government.

Dear Mr. Musk:

If the state were in good order and operated as a separate entity, then you might have a good point, but external issues, climate change in particular, are already threatening our current situation especially with the droughts and storms in the middle of the country. Our will is determined as much by our surroundings as by what we learn. You seemed at one point to be concerned about slowing climate change when you were working on Tesla but now seem distracted by other ventures and other ideas. I wonder how you think the combination of government and corporate leadership can slow climate change. Government like climate operates as a network where free flow of information and other forces allow them both to operate effectively. You seem intent on making all decisions yourself.

Dear Mr. Sherry:

The earth is 70% water. The ecological problem is one of energy plus transport; there’s plenty of water. Energy comes readily from sun and wind, and the cost of storage has dropped tenfold in the past five years. Who will control these forces and the destiny of humanity? The combination of intelligence and ability drives powerful results. I and my colleagues have those gifts if you give us leave to act. You see how few words I can use to answer your question.

Dear Mr. Musk:

Perfection has never been the object of our lives, although some leaders try to control people by asserting perfection as a goal. Complex systems always need to accommodate events outside expected ranges. Although we always seek to improve, no one expects error-free results although we often imagine them. Sane people want shared power and to avoid giving total control to any one person or group. Would you be willing to share power? Do you want to share what you have in your community of billionaires with others? People want to chart their own course and control their own lives. Are you willing to give people freedom to act and live as they wish?

Dear Mr. Sherry:

People sometimes make good judgements but often need guidance from their superiors who are specialists. The terms of our control of ourselves are determined by our culture of leadership and those specialists who know what’s right in their domains. You need to acknowledge that control of our lives is minimal. Leadership in political, educational, and moral spheres must best be given to those specialists with knowledge and talent in their fields. Leadership is a skill that I and others possess. We need freedom to act in these perilous times unfettered by overly burdensome regulation. We leaders should be given control to manage the world into a better place. This is especially true during times of climate change when populations must give control to leaders to solve difficult problems quickly rather than through burdensome legislative processes.

Dear Mr. Musk:

It is the duty of leadership elected by the people to manage for the benefit of the people not to make it easier for leaders. Most of the DOGE cuts have been of services to the poor or of agencies that regulate the rich and corporations. Government leaders are intended to be elected servants of the people, not corporate owners seeking to maximize profit. Government is a service to the people and not a business to manage their labor. While I agree with the value of specialization, the purpose of government action cannot be determined by leadership alone.

Dear Mr. Sherry:

The people do not understand what is to their benefit since they usually strive for immediate gratification and rarely can resist current desires for a better future. We need leadership to develop the efficiencies that make invention and progress possible. The people need to follow our lead and perform as we direct.

Dear Mr. Musk:

Our nation was founded to avoid government dominated by a single leader and to give the people a say in how they are governed. Instead of following the leaders our system allows in some cases each state and as relevant each person to develop their own path in concert with others who are moving in the same direction. The government has been built of the people, by the people, for the people, and not by and for self-serving technocrats. The corruption that unfettered power of one or a few individuals brings to the state is the ultimate inefficiency, Mr. Musk. Rather than grasp after power, speak as the leader of the Troglodytes:

“You offer me the crown, and if you absolutely insist, I must of course accept it; but rest assured that I will die of grief to see the Troglodytes, free since my birth, submit now to a master.’

As Monesquieu concludes: “With these words he burst into tears.” **

NOTES

* Editor’s note: James Sherry is the author of The Oligarch (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). “This is an idea that keeps on giving,” says Sherry. He adds that “Trump and Musk are perfectly attuned to the author’s style. –LH   

**Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Persian Letters, trans. by Raymond N. MacKenzie (Hackett Publishing, 2014): Letter XIV.