I understood what Elon Musk meant when he expressed that a government on Mars should be a Direct Democracy as opposed to what we have in the United States, a Representative Republic.  Many people took that as a knock against our current form of government, which many would consider the best in the world.  But I think the point of the matter is to regulate what you want the government to do.  I would say that in America, we just voted for a strong CEO type, and coming from the wealthiest man in the world who runs a lot of companies, of course, that would be his recommendation.  When we set up a government on Mars, we should give people the right to vote for a strong CEO type of leader.  Not a government with checks and balances that are meant to keep the brakes on government activism by making it hard to pass things that can slow down your society.  A mature government in a fully functioning country will have different needs than a remote colony of struggling adventurers, so context is everything.   But it’s important to consider how leadership is advanced or suppressed in a culture, depending on the kind of government you want to have.  Personally, I get asked at least two or three times a week when I am going to run for elected office, and my reply is always that I don’t have the tolerance for all that hand-holding.  Politicians have to be patient and need to serve the task at hand.  Where I am a very imposing person.  I expect people to do things my way or to take the highway.  I am not very interested in people who don’t do what I tell them.  And I certainly am not a group consensus kind of facilitator.  Elected office would be very frustrating because it involves too much working with other people to get anything done. 

I certainly understand the need for a time and place to give everyone a seat at the table.  In my own family, I get very frustrated in trying to get anybody to agree on anything when we coordinate events together.  There is always somebody working, there is always someone sick, there is always someone who wants to do something else.  And when it comes to those things and community events, I tend to sit on my temper and let everyone talk until they figure it out.  At those times, I sit back and sit on my hands and wait for everyone to get their minds right.  It drives me crazy, but its what you have to do sometimes when the people you are working with want to think they are all equally able to express an opinion and desire for an outcome.  Our representative government in America is good because it only gives it limited powers to do the bare minimum.  However, innovation and exceptional output come from individual leaders who are very strong-willed and can put people on their backs and take them to the promised land.  That’s the kind of thing I’m interested in.  That is undoubtedly what America voted for in putting Trump back in the White House.  We didn’t vote for a continued bureaucracy of three branches of government checking each other’s power.  As  a strong CEO, we want Trump to impose his will on the executive branch and make everyone else see things his way.  Which is the way we voted for.  That is the kind of thing that Elon Musk is talking about setting up on Mars.  I would say he’s new to this kind of thinking and has the right idea.  But as to government, you don’t want your leadership on Mars to come from the government.  You want a bunch of innovative CEOs competing with each other to drive culture forward.  You want just enough representative government to keep the power and water supply flowing.  The basic infrastructure that the government can provide for a society.  But nothing more.  Our form of government was so powerful because it decentralized the concept of a king.  But in a strongly run company, a CEO is essentially a king.  So, one thing we have never quite figured out in a capitalist culture is how to have a decentralized government that empowers kings to run good companies and give people options through at-will employment.  If they don’t like one company, they can work for another.  If their king is a tyrant, they can leave and work for someone much better.  Meanwhile, the water works, the power runs, and the basic infrastructure needs of society are handled by a government just powerful enough to do so but not so powerful that it takes over everything. 

I fall asleep with all the consensus-building that has been imposed on us by collectivist-based philosophies because they were never going to work.  I’m glad people are doing those jobs for school boards, trustees, and commissioners.  But I am only ever happy when I can point at someone and tell them to do a task.  They perform the task, and everyone celebrates victory.  Rule by Consensus is an academic fantasy by the fans of Karl Marx.  It’s as practical as unicorns and dragons from fantasy and has no business being discussed along with leadership concepts.  Human beings follow strong leaders.  Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, knows through experience what a good leader looks like.  And when traveling to other planets and setting up civilization there, strong leaders will be necessary.  Stalled government concepts will only slow down progress. 

When we talk about why we can’t do things anymore, and everything costs so much money, it’s because our government approach has been wrong.  When we try to build a bridge or a highway, if we look to the past, there was always some strong personality type that was able to wrestle all the alligators and make boots out of them.  This is opposed to the consensus-building approach, in which everyone treats the effort like an Alcoholics Anonymous session.  That approach costs money and time and seldom ever gets anything done.  And I have never been interested in those interactions with other people.  And people who are good leaders check out and do something else.  If you want success in a society, you have to give a means to firm leadership to work their magic.  We didn’t elect Trump to get along with other people.  We elected him to impose his will that we voted for.  He told us what he wanted to do, and we empowered him to do it.  That is what Elon Musk is talking about for Mars and space travel in general.  You never want the government to have too much power.  Our current Representative Republic keeps elected officials talking while the real leaders of the world run companies that employ people for everyone’s best interests.  We don’t look to the government to provide that leadership level, and we never should.  Even though we admire people like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Ronald Reagan, they are exceptions to the rule of a government that needs to have its power regulated and stalled so that a centralized authority doesn’t encumber authentic leadership.  And that is a trick we are still working out on earth.  We see good examples here and there; Elon Musk is undoubtedly one of them.  Trump has always been a successful and influential CEO.  But he doesn’t share the spotlight with anybody.  He has always been the top dog in all his endeavors.  And people dealing with him know it.  I’ve never seen authentic leadership share the spotlight of authority and work.  Rule by committee does not work.  Only strong leadership by influential personalities works.  Typically, those are not the people you want running the government.  You want them out there making money and employing people so that society has options and innovation to build from. 

Rich Hoffman

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