Recently, both the cryptocurrency and technology circles are watching the dramatic resignation of Musk, and a netizen's brilliant comment has gone viral: 'If Musk runs away, he is Kang Youwei; if he doesn't run, he is Tan Sitong!' #Musk
Goodness, when this metaphor came out, those who understand history just burst out laughing — it turns out that the political mess in the beautiful country has long been foreshadowed by our ancestors in historical dramas!
Historical scripts are being sold off: Musk's 'reform in the beautiful country' feels too familiar.
To be honest, Musk's operations this time are simply transporting the script of the 1898 Hundred Days' Reform to modern beautiful country.
Kang Youwei once teamed up with Guangxu to carry out the Hundred Days' Reform, but when Cixi turned against him, he hurriedly rolled up his bedding and fled to Japan; Tan Sitong could have easily slipped away but chose to leave a line 'I laugh with my sword facing the sky', sacrificing himself to set an example for later generations. This plot fits Musk perfectly without any sense of incongruity!
Musk's reform checklist, every item crazily steps on the landmines of the beautiful country's interest groups:
Cutting 100,000 civil servants is like Kang Youwei wanting to abolish the imperial examination system;
AI anti-corruption has exposed the military spending 320 million to build a 'one-time dock', which is similar to Tan Sitong’s scolding of the Qing bureaucratic corruption.
There’s still a cut of 1 trillion dollars in deficit, directly disturbing the military-industrial complex and Wall Street's cheese; isn’t this just overturning the dining table of the Eight Banners' sons?
The 'roadblock' on the path of reform: the same moral character across ancient and modern times, in China and abroad.
But Musk wants to reform, and the resistance is absurdly high! Officials in the beautiful country earning 200,000 a year have secretly saved 20 million, which is no different from the Eight Banners' sons in the late Qing Dynasty who lay around eating imperial rations.
The rednecks of the beautiful country oppose the H1B visa, and it’s exactly like the stubborn faction of the Qing Dynasty instigating the Boxer Rebellion with 'Support the Qing and eliminate the foreign'.
The most severe thing is economic sanctions, causing Tesla's stock price to plummet 45%, which is just like Cixi cutting off funding for the reformists.
The most critical issue is that Musk neither has the means of Zhang Juzheng to control the bureaucratic system nor the mass foundation to overturn the old order.
He is like Kang Youwei, wanting to renovate in an old house, only to discover that the walls are full of termites. Such reform has been doomed from the start to be a victim of a power game.
Musk's multiple-choice question: Be 'Kang Youwei' or 'Tan Sitong'?
Now the question is: What should Musk choose? Follow Kang Youwei and run away, leaving his reform ideals completely dead;
If he learns from Tan Sitong and goes hard against them, he might be devoured by the interest groups. But old businessman Musk is not a saint, and in the end, he still chose 'saving his own life' — resigning and running away!
Honestly, let’s not laugh at him for being cowardly. The beautiful country has only a little over 200 years of history; how could it nurture someone like Tan Sitong who dares to risk his life? Compared to our 5000 years of history with dynastic changes and bloody reforms, Musk's 'reform in the beautiful country' can at most be considered a low-budget remake.
History has long written its conclusion: the escape of Kang Youwei, the sacrifice of Tan Sitong, and Musk's resignation are just different actors in the same script across different times and spaces!
So, brothers in the crypto circle, while enjoying the spectacle, remember the lessons of history — in the face of interest groups, relying solely on idealism won’t work; either have hard power or the determination to sacrifice oneself; otherwise, no matter how big a boss, they can't escape the 'true fragrance law' of history!