Elon Musk and the new world order: the hijacking of the global conversation

01/12/2025 02:00 AM

How can we publicly debate policy in the face of the rising – and polarising – influence of the X owner and others whose only aim is to serve themselves

How should we as a society interact with one another, debate, come to decisions? What impels politicians to focus and act on one thing and not another?

The Athenians had the Agora, where (male, slave-owning) citizens gathered to debate and decide the issues of the day. In the early 20th century, John Reith envisioned the BBC, in a most patrician way, as a space where the nation could come together to enhance the (supposedly) British values of democracy, reasonableness and debate.