Since we are mostly Tesla investors, some of us are SpaceX investors and almost all of us are enthusiasts about Mr. Elon Musk there are a couple of serious points we must understand, in my opinion:
First, anything at all that attracts enormous enthusiasm also attracts opposition, normally almost as enthusiastic.
Second, any new technology attracts enthusiastic support and opposition.
Those two characteristics have been with the human race for a very long time. Examining some examples might help us to avoid our preferred conspiracy theses:
One famous cases was the heliocentric findings:
Rachel Brazil explores ways in which the physics community can best combat unscientific thinking, such as the belief the Earth is flat
physicsworld.com
UCLA professor Henry Kelly examines historical canonical legal procedures to correct the popular myths around the Italian astronomer’s belief in a sun-centered solar system.
newsroom.ucla.edu
The Horseless carriage had opposition:
the-horseless-carriage-means-troublele.html
Then the telephone (the dial version):
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www.senate.gov
The lists go on. From my childhood I recall religious leaders, among them my father, insisted that Televison was a work of evil and must be prohibited. He and most of the others changed their views once they could view things of which they approved.
Now we are faced with the multiple threats of electric vehicles, solar and wind power, plus vehicles that can nearly drive themselves and buying those infernal amities via the Internet. We really do not need conspiracies to explain the opposition, nor do we need conspiracies to explain vaccine opposition.
Bluntly, much of the world tries desperately to avoid progress. Trains, automobiles, planes, and on have had such resistance.
Those tend to be called 'conservative' but that word might be better applied to efforts to conserve the planet Earth for future generations. 'Reactionary' is more nearly accurate.
All of us, including me, tend to attribute opposition to Gas and oil companies, coal producers, labor unions.gasoline station operators and automobile dealers,ICE drivers. Those are all true, but they cannot explain the resistance.
Even aircraft automation had violent opposition. The Boeing people viciously attacked the Airbus people because the latter had automation (Fly by wire(FBW)-first in the Airbus A320) , so skilled pilots could not 'save the day'. Then Boeing capitulated with the B777 but kept hydraulic backup, and finally the B787 went all the way with FBW.
The investigations and regulatory impediments have always tried to stop improved technologies. Both Tesla and SpaceX are glaring examples of how rapidly the world is changing. Since the Luddites opposed spinning and weaving machines:
“Luddite” is now a blanket term used to describe people who dislike new technology, but its origins date back to an early 19th-century labor movement that railed against mechanized manufacturing.
www.history.com
As always the biggest risk is the fear of being left behind. That is positioned in many different ways.
Now we have in BEV, automation of driving and reusable rockets the proof positive that Elon Musk and his companies are upsetting the status quoins need to be STOPPED!
Once we all understand that we can go about helping the people who value technological progress to adopt new technology as quickly as possible.
Just remember that the opposition is all about fear of change from a not-ever-existing perfect world. Those people become self-selecting for extinction, from disease, refusal to accept medical advances, and lack of education. Those factors do not in any way lessen their resolve to oppose progress.
How to make progress more rapid is the crucial issue. In the meantime lack of clean fresh water, floods, draught glacial and permafrost melting, viral and bacteria outbreaks accentuate the income disparities and educational failings. We must learn how to avoid histrionics but still accelerate the pace of adaptation.
All of this is the real threat to our investments and more.
