One or many geniuses, or one too many alpha males?

I'm about halfway through Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, which Rob had praised highly. Overall, it reads like a sequel to Isaacson's bio of Steve Jobs. Each of which seem to bear the moral that extraordinary men should be forgiven their excesses because of what they accomplish. Personally, I'm not so sure about that.

Meanwhile, I happened upon an article about the "Gilbert Goons" of Gilbert, Arizona, a bunch of rich kids who rage across an affluent suburb and beat up nerds and non-members of their gang. Public pressure eventually resulted in some prosecutions and, in recent days, a plea bargain, in the case of a beating which turned fatal.

Meanwhile, in a bookstore in Portland I ran across a copy of There's Nothing for you Here by Fiona Hill, the National Security Council senior Russia expert who figured prominently in Trump's first impeachment hearing. I remembered the book getting good reviews, so I talked Mary into listehning to it in the car on vacation. It is far from light on detail, perhaps she lingers in the weeds excessively here and there (but who am I to point fingers on that score). But overall it's a great story of determination and professionalism by someone from a disadvantaged background who finds herself with a front-row seat to history -- in a position where in a good administration she would have been listened to.

Hill focuses a lot on what she terms the "infrastructure of opportunity" which helped her make it from a poor post-industrial town in NE England to the White House, and how this infrastructure has frayed and become unavailable to many, not just women and people of color but also people from forgotten post-industrial places like her hometown and the post-industrial Midwest and rural regions of the US (and Russia, BTW), the homelands of global populism. I don't need to recount it all. It's worth reading in general, though she has never met a weed she doesn't like and she can and does get lost there. At it's worst her book is like listening to everyone else you know say things you agree with. At those times, it's a waste of time.

As for the Isaacson, I guess it's also worth reading, though I feel a little guilty doing so. It's easy reading, that's for sure. I guess my big question is whether a culture of swaggering male exceptionalism like that which Musk (and Trump) epitomize can fruitfully coexist with a technocracy which seeks to optimize opportunity for as many as possible, as Hill espouses. Certainly her vision appeals to me more. But it's much harder to bring to pass and a much tougher sell.