Balancing Innovation and Responsibility: The Elon Musk Dilemma

The war in Ukraine has had a new break in trust as Elon Musk has intervened in this war and not provided internet to the Ukrainians. As reported in the Washington Post, the self-proclaimed general decided to not enable the internet for Ukraine as a hope to end the war sooner. This has only made the situation worse as Ukraine is now furious with Musk. That brings up the question on whether a man like Musk deserves to hold so much power.

Elon Musk owns a large satellite company called Starlink. This company operates in 60 or more countries. Starlink gives the ability to provide internet to areas that would require more infrastructure to have it. It is a great innovation but can also be a key bargaining tool. Due to modern combat, much of our weapons use the internet to navigate such as drones, submarines, and tools. If this internet were to be shut off it could cause entire attacks to be rendered useless. This was proven by the intervention held in Ukraine.

Starlink was not enabled for use by the Ukrainians last year on the Crimean coast. This was revealed in early September and the Ukrainians are furious with these actions. Musk claims that he was hoping that the lack of Crimea would stop the Ukrainian offensive from beginning a major war. While this may be true it does not excuse this action as ships in the fleet that would have been sunk in the attack are now launching missiles into cities killing more civilians. While the idea behind what he was attempting may have been noble, he should have never intervened as he does not understand the consequences of what will happen if he continues to. The conflict in the region is ongoing with seemingly no end in sight.

Even if Musk claims that he is doing what he is doing for good intentions, as the saying goes “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” The problem with one man holding so much power is that Elon can make decisions all by himself that can affect entire continents, change directions of wars, and change fates of people. While these decisions cause others to deal with the damage that is caused by these decisions, Elon does not have to deal with the political downfall of these incidents. Once again it is concerning to have a man in this kind of power that can control so much with having to face so little in return. Whether it be adding more people into the decision-making process for turning off the internet and other electronic devices in areas around the world, to getting rid of this problem altogether something must be done or else Elon might make a blunder that could potentially lead to ramifications nobody could be prepared for.