Watching Elon Musk this week has been a fascinating character study in the saviour complex of Western tech billionaires.
They arrive in your country selling you the future. Welcome them, and youโre a country that wants progress. Make them wait, and suddenly your people are victims who need rescuing from their own institutions by the chosen one.
Itโs a pattern. When Thai rescuers didnโt use the mini-submarine Musk sent for the trapped boys, and diver Vernon Unsworth called the idea impractical, Musk attacked him as the โpedo guy.โ
When Brazilโs Supreme Court ordered X to comply with its rulings, Musk called the judge a โdictator.โ
The script rarely changes. Only the country does.
The colonial mindset isnโt always about wanting to rule a country. Sometimes itโs the assumption that you arrive as its saviour, and if the country doesnโt immediately recognise you as one, something must be wrong with the country.