Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed

ISBN: 0063484323

Author: Slobodian, Quinn

Condition: New

A New Yorker Most Anticipated Book of the Year A Financial Times Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of the Year A Kirkus Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book of Spring 2026 A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the YearA pyrotechnic examination of Elon Musk as a symptom and avatar of our postliberal ageEveryones got an Elon take. Hes a messiah. A menace; a genius; a clown. The verdicts differ, but they share one theme: they treat him as an individual.Muskism argues otherwise. Elon Musk isnt a glitch in the system-he is the system. His worldview promises sovereignty through technology: plug in, power up, and become self-reliant. But the more you connect, the more he owns you.If Fordism defined the capitalism of the twentieth century, Muskism may define the twenty-first. Fordism helped build the welfare state. Musk undoes it. He thrives on dependence while preaching freedom. His cars run on subsidies; his satellites run the battlefield; his social networks train the AI that trains us.Muskism sells itself as the future but entrenches age-old hierarchies. It offers autonomy for some and exclusion for others. Its pro-natalist but anti-immigrant, futurist but reactionary. It speaks of humanity but warns against empathy.Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff cut through the hype and the hate to reveal what Musk really represents: a new political economy, where to be free means to serve a Technoking. Muskism isnt about the man. Its about the machine that made him-and the world hes making next.