[Insight & Opinion] Innovative Entrepreneurs and False Prophets

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In 2021, the American news magazine Time selected Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, as the Person of the Year. There is no doubt that Musk is an innovative entrepreneur. He revolutionized the global automobile market with electric cars, founded SpaceX with the goal of sending humans to Mars, and through the Starlink project, became a cosmic power holding 40% of the world's satellites.

Before Musk, in 2010, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, and much earlier in 1999, Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, were each named Time's Person of the Year. All are entrepreneurs who have achieved remarkable accomplishments. Although never chosen as Person of the Year, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs?widely recognized as icons of innovation in this era?are also among those who have not only amassed tremendous wealth but truly changed the world, the industrial landscape, and the daily lives of humanity. Their achievements in their respective fields deserve ample respect and praise.

However, caution is necessary. The halo effect refers to the psychological tendency to evaluate all other unrelated traits of a person positively or negatively based on one prominent characteristic they possess. It is the generalization of a single aspect's evaluation to all other dimensions. Yet, authority earned from achievements in one field does not automatically guarantee recognition in other areas. Their accomplishments do not imply that they possess exceptional wisdom on every issue in the world.

Daron Acemoglu, a professor at MIT and the 2024 Nobel laureate in Economics, warns of the so-called "Vision Oligarchy," where elites dominate even the public's thoughts about the future. This means that executives of large information technology companies, who share similar mindsets and attitudes toward life, control the public's thinking.

Today, capitalism has become the religion of the 21st century, and the giants of the IT industry have risen as prophets worshiped by humanity. We seek answers from Bill Gates on almost every issue, from politics to healthcare and ethics. Although Elon Musk is far from an expert on virtual assets, markets move at his mere words. The public, impressed by their astonishing economic success, pays excessive attention and trust to all their words and actions, but this is dangerous.

The prophets we believe in are often arrogant, narrow-minded, and dogmatic individuals?creative geniuses who can cruelly announce layoffs just before Thanksgiving when families gather. Although their outstanding talent and great fortune have combined to achieve significant accomplishments, they are not saints, nor do they have answers to all of humanity's problems.

As Time described when naming Elon Musk Person of the Year, he is a genius and a clown, someone who stands out with sharp remarks. People commonly live under the "illusion of knowledge," believing they know more than they actually do. This illusion is especially easy for those who have achieved great success in one field, as they hide "deep within comfort and privilege" and resist criticism.

The important point is that the dictatorship of reckless elites becomes possible with the approval of the public. However, being a genius does not change the standards of right and wrong. What is right remains right, and what is wrong remains wrong, regardless of who says it. The Bible calls those who achieve remarkable feats but speak falsely "false prophets" (Deuteronomy 13).

Sangcheol Kim, Economic Commentator

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