Boiling the Ocean

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. — Confucius

There seems to be legions of sanctimonious martinets who believe that they can cure the Earth of all the ills that we vandals are forcing upon the innocents. We are killing porpoises by eating a tuna fish sandwich and befouling our seas by drinking our soda with a plastic straw.

These many social justice warriors fight with placards and bullhorns to save the spotted owl, the snail darter, allow fluid gender men to use ladies rooms, ban Big Gulps, stop global warming, fight for free speech (oops, that’s an obsolete one), stop illegal alien babies from being RIPPED from their mothers’ arms, allow transgender high school boys to wrestle in girls’ tournaments, castigate “white supremacists,” get rid of the Electoral College and on and on and on. There is no end to the things that Rosie O’Donnell, Barbara Streisand and Joy(less) Bahar clamor that we must remedy TODAY! (Why so many women social justice warriors?)

Bottom line: It would seem that the energy expended by all these combatants to force the rest of us to do mostly silly things might be better spent performing just one or two small acts that repair something meaningful ... like how poorly educated many of our children are. Maybe each should begin by inspiring just one recalcitrant child into a respect for knowledge.

If everyone who wants to boil the ocean would just make a cup of hot tea for a thirsty elder, we would be far better off ... with far less angst ... and far fewer blasting megaphones.

Boiling the Ocean

There is little doubt that Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, SpaceX and now possibly SolarCity is a technical genius, a brilliant manager and a true visionary.  He has just released his newest Master Plan that outlines what he wants his companies to become ... the leaders in sustainable energy production and Earth/space transportation innovation. He has a very clear and, in many ways, appealing notion of what the world should be like ... see: CNBC Story. Read this hyperlink ... it is fascinating.

However there might be some downsides to this vision. Please don't call me a Luddite, but I have the following reservations regarding Musk's manifesto:

1) Musk has a very full plate now for his ideological ambitions. I worry that he is trying to boil the ocean and this will eventually overwhelm him. Building the next major car, truck and bus company, an important space exploration company, and a major sustainable energy provider ... all at the same time, although admirable objectives, seem a little overly ambitious.

2) I have, in the past, shown some skepticism about the probable pace of self-driving car technology. Tesla, Google and the other pioneers in this arena, IMHO, are ignoring a basic fact of human nature ... and that is to be in control of things. Yes, some will wish to turn their driving over to a computer, but I doubt that we will ever see the Indianapolis 500 comprised of any autonomous race cars.

3) His devotion to sustainable energy has been rewarded so far by the current administration's green agenda. Recently Spain, Great Britain and Germany all have backed away from their commitments to killing carbon. If Trump wins in November, it is likely that the U.S. government's subsidy largess may begin to dry up. This largess has been a key ingredient in Musk's marketing success.

I do hope I am wrong ... but I am not a buyer of Tesla's stock.