On 12 April 2021, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who currently has a net worth of approximately $175 billion, changed his Twitter bio to say “Technoking of Tesla, Imperator of Mars.” This change immediately sparked headlines in Newsweek, NDTV, and dozens of other news outlets. Ordinarily, one person—even an ultra-wealthy CEO—changing their Twitter bio probably wouldn’t make the news. Elon Musk, however, has a massive cult following of adoring fans who, for the most part, wholeheartedly believe that he is a brilliant, forward-thinking, polymathic genius who is single-handedly ushering in a new era of technology and freedom. Thus, everything he does automatically attracts attention.
I’m sure that some of Musk’s fans are reading this. I hope they will forgive me for the fact that I am not one of them. Indeed, I think that Musk has risen to where he is to a large extent through exploitation, that he isn’t nearly as personally brilliant as most of his fans think he is, that he has an obnoxious personal ego the size of the planet Jupiter, and that he is generally a rather odious person. I do, however, want to talk about Musk’s updated Twitter bio because I think it reveals a lot of startling things about how Musk thinks of himself and his position in the world.
Meaning of the word imperator
The word imperator is a Latin third-declension masculine noun derived from the first-conjugation verb impero, meaning “to command.” As I discuss in this article I published in November 2020, this word originally applied to any representative of the Roman state who possessed imperium (i.e., the legitimate authority to issue official commands and expect unquestioning obedience).
By the early first century BCE, however, imperator had become an honorary title that soldiers could confer upon their commander after an especially great victory. Julius Caesar apparently really liked the title, because, in around 46 or 45 BCE, he forced the Roman Senate to grant it to him as a praenomen, making it part of his official name. This is said to have been one of the many things Caesar did that enraged the Senatorial elites.
As a result of this, on 15 March 44 BCE, a group of Senators assassinated Julius Caesar in the Theatre of Pompeius Magnus in Rome. Several decades of civil wars and political chaos ensued. Eventually, after a lot of violence, Caesar’s grandnephew Octavian emerged as effectively the sole autocratic ruler of the entire Roman Empire. On 16 January 27 BCE, Octavian forced the Senate to grant him the titles Augustus, meaning “Majestic One,” and Princeps, meaning “First Citizen.” This is traditionally seen to mark the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of a new period of Roman history known as the Principate.
Octavian also maintained the title of imperator and this title became applied to later Roman emperors as well. The word passed into Old French as empereor, into Anglo-Norman as emperour, and finally into English as emperor. In modern usage, this word generally denotes an absolute ruler—a person who at least nominally rules with nearly completely unchecked authority and whose commands must be obeyed without question.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the Augustus of Prima Porta, a famous marble statue of Augustus dated to the first century CE
How Elon Musk is portraying himself as an absolute ruler
It is well known that corporations generally do not function on a democratic basis, since workers are beholden to the commands of their superiors, whom they generally have no voice in selecting. When Elon Musk calls himself the “technoking of Tesla,” though, he is essentially saying the quiet part out loud; he’s portraying himself to the public not as a chief executive, a businessman, or even a powerful rich person, but rather as an outright king.
By calling himself specifically a “technoking,” rather than simply a “king,” Musk seems to be indicating that he sees technology as the ultimate source of his authority. This suggests that, on some level, he thinks that the people who control technology are deserving to rule, which is rather disturbing, considering that this clearly goes against democratic principles, such as the notion of the “consent of the governed.”
Moreover, by calling himself “imperator of Mars,” Musk is clearly trying to portray himself as not merely a king, but an absolute ruler in the mold of Augustus. He is also simultaneously portraying the entire planet Mars as his absolute possession—a thing that is his by right. This suggests that, at the very least, he believes that the planet Mars is open territory for centibillionaires like himself to claim as their dominion by fiat.
These are all things that every person who values the idea of a free, democratic society should find disturbing. Elon Musk is one of the richest, most powerful, most influential human beings on the planet right now, not only through the enormous economic capital he controls through his various companies, but also through his highly manufactured personality cult as a “tech daddy.” (The British YouTuber Abigail Thorn has already made a very astute video analyzing this personality cult and how it serves as a marketing ploy to get the public to buy into the idea that ultra-wealthy tech executives should be allowed to run the world.)
Even if Musk is using the titles “king” and “imperator” as a joke, this still demonstrates that, at least on some level, he thinks about himself in monarchical terms—and that he is not afraid to use these terms when addressing the public. When a man of Musk’s stature is openly describing himself as a “king” and “imperator,” it is generally not a good sign for democracy.
ABOVE: Photograph from Wikimedia Commons of the planet Mars, of which Elon Musk has already declared himself the “imperator”
Tech executives and their obsession with “great men” of the ancient world
Unfortunately, Elon Musk is far from the only ultrawealthy tech executive who thinks of himself as a modern-day equivalent to the kings, emperors, and other so-called “great men” of the ancient world. Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon—who is currently the wealthiest person on the planet, with a net worth of approximately $196.8 billion—also apparently thinks of himself in a very similar manner.
On 20 December 2020, the magazine Logic published an interview titled “Inside the Whale: An Interview with an Anonymous Amazonian,” in which the “Anonymous Amazonian” who is mentioned in the title describes what life is like at the Amazon corporation. Fascinatingly, the interviewee notes:
“Jeff Bezos studies other ‘great men’ in history and imagines himself to be a kind of Alexander the Great. There’s even a building on the Amazon campus called Alexandria, which was the name of one of the company’s early projects to get every single book that had ever been published to be listed on Amazon.”
Ultrawealthy “tech daddies” like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos like to portray themselves to the general public as brilliant entrepreneurs and pioneers who are supposedly leading humanity into a new era of progress and science, but, when they talk about ancient history, they do so in a way that subtly reveals a way that they think about themselves that they don’t often project publicly. In their own minds, these men like to imagine themselves as fierce conquerors with armies ready to kill on their behalf at the slightest command and as emperors ruling with supreme authority over vast subjugated populations.
If that’s not scary to you, you may want to do a bit of introspection.
ABOVE: Photograph of Jeff Bezos, the richest man on the planet, who apparently thinks of himself as a modern-day Alexander the Great
My 10 yr old at the time son wanted us to refer to him as the Imperer of Barsoom. His spelling. I was willing. I was so tired of him insisting his name was Calvin and his little brother was Hobbes. Although the neighbors were still confused.
If the Tharks back him…
As I see it, No one lives on Mars and Elon Musk is not a signatory to the Outer Space Treaty which came into effect October 10, 1967. So acting as an independent person he can make any claim he wants as to the planet Mars. Now all he needs to do is establish some sort of legitimate on planet permanent base to give credence to his Imperial ambitions. With Space X doing what it is doing, this becomes more and more likely every day.
If he can be the first to establish a permanent settlement on Mars and do it using his own resources then personally I don’t have an issue with him calling himself whatever the hell he wants. I can’t imagine any other space faring nations allowing him to claim the whole planet once they are able to make it to the planet and establish their own bases. Unfortunately I don’t think Elon will actually still be alive (or in good enough physical shape) to venture to Mars when the technology is available.
I hope this is a joke.
Do you mean that you hope my article is a joke or that you hope Elon Musk’s description of himself as “Technoking of Tesla, Imperator of Mars” is a joke?
The article.
My article is not a joke. Why would you hope that it was a joke?
Elon Musk: haha im technoking
Reaction of Spencer Alexander McDaniel: “when they talk about ancient history, they do so in a way that subtly reveals a way that they think about themselves that they don’t often project publicly. In their own minds, these men like to imagine themselves as fierce conquerors with armies ready to kill on their behalf at the slightest command and as emperors ruling with supreme authority over vast subjugated populations.”
BTW, might want to change your imperialist middle name.
you Techno king are a bastard and suck
It’s funny, I immediately knew Elon Musk would be too much of a “cisgender” heterosexual male for Spencer to tolerate.
There is nothing inherently wrong with a person being a cisgender heterosexual male. The problem with Elon Musk is not that he is a cisgender heterosexual male, but rather that he is a power-hungry centibillionaire who describes himself publicly as a “king” and “imperator.” He’s also really obnoxious and egotistical.
A lot of famous people were obnoxious and egotistical. A lot were not, of course. But a lot of high achievers are obnoxious and egotistical. This doesn’t just apply to politicians, it applies to artists, scientists and leaders of all sorts.
As George Bernard Shaw said “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
This is not entirely true, but there is a bit of truth in it.
People like Musk, Bezos and Gates do see themselves as lords of the world. Benefited by a culture which foments this mentality, and pushed further by their own psychological issues (Bezos is a pretty clear case of psychopathy, so is Gates, and Musk does seem to suffer from a severe caade of narcissism). They are a bunch of petty tyrants trying to increase their power, wealth, and prestige. Besides, the “great” conquerors in history were a bunch of murderous bastards who still depended of hundreds of thousands (and more) of soldiers to do the work.
Besides, calling them high achievers is an overstatement. Considering they are mostly businessman with a focus on tech, (which has a particular injerence in the current world affairs), who know how to sell themselves. Not brilliant innovators or true high achievers. Most of them were already born in pretty wealthy families (and many of the innovations were made by other smarter men, with the investments and aval of the us state).
Nice note. I thought it would be larger, but still good to put in words how much of a pathetic petty asshole Musk is, and yet, the danger people like them pose to the world.
YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT
I just read your piece on the “Dark Ages” before this. Reading this one now, it’s clear the present is the real Dark Age. Humanity has suffered for thousands of years at the hands of tyrants and we still worship them.