What if Everything You Thought About Elon Musk Was Wrong?

What if Everything You Thought About Elon Musk Was Wrong?

[Note: This is not an endorsement or condemnation of Elon, the Trump administration, or anything else. It’s an analysis of what I see happening at a macro level. Hate the game, not the player.]

Elon Musk has long been seen as a disruptor—whether in electric vehicles with Tesla, space travel with SpaceX, satellite internet with Starlink, or the fabric of our communication systems through Twitter/X. Personally, I think he’s the greatest entrepreneur of my lifetime. I also find some of his actions deplorable. Like Mark Zuckerberg, who has pushed the VR market forward while destroying the lives of teenagers, it’s a paradoxical existence.

But Elon’s recent actions have taken a more profound turn. He's moved beyond technological innovation to orchestrating global systems influencing governance, finance, and communication. To understand Musk’s strategies and the impact of his growing influence, we need to apply a lens that transcends traditional political or business analysis. This lens is Spiral Dynamics, a model created by Clare W. Graves in the 1970s that explains how human values and societal structures evolve across various stages of development.

What is Spiral Dynamics?

Spiral Dynamics is a developmental model of human consciousness, values, and behavior, initially developed by psychologist Clare W. Graves. He referred to his work as the 'Emergent Cyclical Levels of Existence Theory' (ECLET). The term 'Spiral Dynamics' was later coined by Don Beck and Christopher Cowan, who expanded on Graves’ research and introduced the color-coded system to make the model more accessible and practical. Graves, a professor of psychology, developed this model based on decades of research into human motivation and personality. He conducted extensive empirical studies, interviewing thousands to understand how people adapt to life conditions and societal challenges. From his findings, he proposed that human values and behaviors emerge in response to evolving external circumstances, forming distinct stages of development. It outlines how individuals and societies evolve through different value systems, shaping their worldview, decision-making, and interactions. Each stage is represented by a color, ranging from Beige, symbolizing basic survival instincts, to Turquoise, where holistic and interconnected thinking emerges. 

Tiers of Consciousness in Spiral Dynamics:

First Tier (Beige through Green)

These stages focus on immediate survival, belonging, societal roles, and stability. As individuals and societies progress, their priorities shift from self-preservation to cooperation and broader social awareness.

• Beige (Survival Instincts): Basic physiological survival needs drive behavior.

• Purple (Tribal Consciousness): Safety and belonging within a close-knit group; reliance on rituals and traditions.

• Red (Power and Domination): Egocentric and impulsive; seeks power, control, and dominance.

• Blue (Order and Structure): Values discipline, order, and rules; believes in absolute truths and structured hierarchies.

• Orange (Achievement and Strategy): Success-driven, competitive, and individualistic; values innovation and progress.

• Green (Community and Egalitarianism): Emphasizes social responsibility, diversity, and emotional intelligence.

Second Tier (Yellow, Turquoise, and Coral)

A shift occurs at this tier, where thinking becomes more systemic, integrating multiple perspectives. Individuals move beyond rigid ideologies and focus on sustainability and adaptability.

• Yellow (Systems Thinking): Embraces complexity, adaptability, and pragmatism; values efficiency and long-term impact.

• Turquoise (Holistic Integration): Recognizes humanity as an interconnected whole; prioritizes sustainability, unity, and balance.

• Coral (Metasystemic Control) is the least understood stage. It operates beyond conventional governance, redesigning systems for long-term survival and control.

Spiral Dynamics provides a roadmap for understanding human and societal evolution, helping individuals and organizations navigate change and transformation with greater insight.

Elon Musk and the Coral Playbook

While disruptive, Musk's earlier ventures, PayPal, Tesla, and even SpaceX, primarily operated within established frameworks. However, his recent activities signal a departure from this pattern. He is no longer playing within Orange capitalism or Green social idealism. His moves—seizing financial control through DOGE, securing global infrastructure dominance via Starlink, and manipulating media narratives via Twitter/X—resemble Coral-level thinking. This is not about political ideology or economic success but about designing systems that grant lasting influence while remaining undetected.

Coral doesn’t seek direct authoritarian rule; instead, it subtly integrates control mechanisms into democratic and corporate structures, ensuring that real power is concentrated behind the scenes. If we fail to recognize this shift, we risk misunderstanding how power is wielded in the 21st century.

1. DOGE and the Seizure of the Financial System

The recent DOGE financial coup was Musk’s most elegant move yet.

• DOGE gave him direct control over government financial flows—a single chokepoint over federal funding.

• With it, he can reward allies, punish enemies, and de facto control policy without congressional approval, though time will tell if that stands the numerous court challenges underway.

• Unlike traditional fascism or corporate capitalism, this is invisible control. People still think they live in a functioning democracy when, in reality, one man now dictates economic priorities.

If a government agency loses funding overnight because Musk decides it isn’t needed, does democracy still function? Or has he rewritten the rules without anyone realizing it? Or does it even matter? It’s entirely possible the whole public spectacle is a slight of hand. While everyone focuses on the USAID defunding, departmental layoffs, and credit card limits for government employees, does anyone know what backdoor controls are installed? 

2. Starlink, SpaceX, and Government Infrastructure Domination

Musk owns and operates over 50% of the satellites currently in orbit, with plans to launch tens of thousands more. Starlink was marketed as a way to bring internet to the underserved. But in reality, it has become a global communication infrastructure that no government fully controls.

• Ukraine’s military relies on Starlink (for now.)

• U.S. and European forces use it for defense and logistics.

• Global trade routes are increasingly dependent on Musk’s satellite network.

• NASA and the U.S. military now rely on SpaceX for satellite launches and cargo missions, consolidating government access to space under Musk’s control.

What happens when Starlink becomes the only reliable communications network and SpaceX becomes the only viable launch provider? Musk can selectively deny access, prioritize certain regions, or shape global narratives. Now, with DOGE influencing NASA staffing and finances, he also gains visibility into classified contracts and competing suppliers, further solidifying his dominance over space infrastructure and government operations. That’s Coral thinking—control through necessity, not brute force.

3. Social Media Platforms: The New Centers of Control

The real power struggle today isn’t between traditional media networks—it’s happening on social media platforms, where control over information flows is more opaque and systemic. Platforms like Twitter/X, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok have become the new centers of influence, subtly shaping discourse, amplifying or suppressing voices, and steering public perception without most users realizing it.

Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X for $44 billion in 2022 was widely analyzed through an orange lens, with most of the media discourse focused on his loss of advertiser support and declining enterprise value. However, this analysis misses the deeper play—Twitter/X was never just an investment in financial returns. Instead of simply controlling a single media narrative, Musk now controls the infrastructure of discourse itself. By embedding himself into the core of a social media ecosystem, he ensures that all political, economic, and cultural discussions are subject to his influence, regardless of whether the platform appears to be succeeding or failing financially.

• Social media companies operate at a Coral level of influence, not through direct censorship alone but by designing algorithms that determine what people see, shaping global narratives while appearing neutral.

• Unlike traditional media, which often operates at an Orange or Green level, these tech platforms wield power invisibly, making them far more adaptable and difficult to regulate.

• Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter/X is a direct example of Coral thinking—rather than controlling the message through a single outlet, he now controls the system itself, deciding which voices get amplified, suppressed, or outright de-platformed. His influence extends beyond individual tweets to shaping the very infrastructure of digital discourse.

Unlike traditional propaganda, which relies on direct messaging, Coral-level social media manipulation is about shaping entire ecosystems of information flow. It determines what people discuss, what becomes newsworthy, and even how reality is collectively perceived—all while maintaining an illusion of user-driven content.

4. Tesla: More Than Just an EV Company

Musk’s ability to navigate the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel stance while ensuring Tesla remains indispensable is a Coral power move—adapting to the system’s incentives while maintaining long-term control over key infrastructure. While the administration pushes for traditional fossil fuel expansion, Musk ensures that Tesla remains vital by embedding it into national energy and security frameworks.

• Aligning with the Administration Where Necessary: Musk has positioned Tesla as a national security asset, mainly through battery production, AI, and autonomous vehicle technology.

• Leveraging Existing EV Mandates: Despite Trump’s push for fossil fuels, existing EV and emissions regulations remain. Musk benefits from government subsidies for battery production and charging networks, lobbying to ensure any rollbacks don’t directly harm Tesla.

• Tapping into Crypto’s Energy Demand: Musk’s support for crypto mining (particularly DOGE and Bitcoin) aligns with Trump’s anti-central bank, deregulation-friendly stance. He can position Tesla’s energy storage and solar products as part of the energy infrastructure for crypto mining, keeping Tesla relevant in a shifting policy environment.

• Keeping Access to Government Contracts: Tesla’s AI and robotics are integrated into military and defense applications, ensuring its strategic importance for national security.

Tesla isn’t just competing in the EV market—it’s embedding itself into the fundamental logistics, energy, and AI-driven future that societies will depend on. This is Coral thinking: Musk is positioning Tesla as an indispensable system in the next phase of global infrastructure rather than trying to own everything outright.

• Energy Domination: Tesla’s battery technology and solar infrastructure position it as a key player in the transition to renewable energy, allowing it to influence national and global energy policies.

• Data Control: Tesla’s fleet of vehicles is constantly gathering data on roads, traffic, and driving behaviors, which feeds directly into AI systems and autonomous vehicle development.

• Supply Chain Leverage: The company has secured lithium and battery supply chains, giving it influence over the critical resources of the future.

• Autonomous Mobility and AI: Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology is not just about convenience—it’s about controlling transportation infrastructure at scale. If Tesla’s robotaxis become dominant, entire cities could become dependent on Musk’s vision for mobility.

What’s the Endgame? The Future of Power Dynamics

Coral thinkers don’t install dictatorships—that’s too obvious, too inefficient. Instead, they design systems people willingly adopt while ensuring total backdoor control. While traditional fascism exerts control through overt force and suppression, Coral-level power structures operate more insidiously—through integration into critical systems that become impossible to function without. The result is a form of control that appears voluntary yet is nearly impossible to escape.

Coral power prefers democratic facades like the United States, where institutions are increasingly shaped by corporations, over overt authoritarianism. These systems appear to function in the public’s interest but are subtly hijacked so true power operates unseen. Musk’s growing influence over American financial, technological, and military infrastructures suggests that the U.S. may now fit this model, with its institutions appearing to function democratically while reoriented to serve elite, unseen interests.

Musk’s alliance with Germany’s far-right movements suggests a strategic play, leveraging populist sentiment to gain political leverage while maintaining plausible deniability. Coral thinkers don’t align with ideologies—they use them as tools to fortify their systemic control. In Europe, the right-wing nationalist movements challenge the EU establishment, creating an opportunity for Musk to influence economic and technological policies constrained by the centralized EU government. 

Musk’s approach isn’t about taking over the government. It’s about making government irrelevant. Why fight for political control when you can own the infrastructure that politics depends on?

Imagine a future where:

The financial system runs through DOGE-like networks, controlled by corporate leaders.

Musk’s preference for cryptocurrency isn’t just about decentralization—it’s about shifting financial control away from traditional institutions and embedding it within corporate-controlled blockchain systems. Unlike central banks, which are bound by regulations and public accountability, crypto networks can be designed to prioritize the interests of those who control the mining infrastructure, exchanges, and transaction mechanisms. This aligns with Coral’s approach—leveraging alternative financial systems to bypass governmental oversight while maintaining strategic control over global monetary flows.

All communications, defense, and logistics depend on private Starlink networks.

Musk's control makes him an indispensable global government and corporation infrastructure provider. Starlink’s ability to provide internet in remote or contested regions has made it a critical asset for military operations, emergency response, and economic stability. This puts Musk in a unique position where he can grant or deny access to communication networks, effectively deciding who gets to participate in the global information economy. Governments, corporations, and militaries now rely on a privately controlled system that is beyond the direct reach of regulatory oversight and traditional national security frameworks. By embedding Starlink into the core functions of modern governance, Musk has achieved a form of infrastructural sovereignty that no private individual has wielded before.

AI-driven policy decisions replace elected officials.

Unseen Coral players can optimize outcomes to meet their needs. Musk’s growing investments in AI, from Tesla’s self-driving technology to OpenAI’s foundational research and Grok, signal a shift toward algorithmic governance—where decision-making power moves away from democratic institutions and to those who control the AI models. This isn’t about building smarter systems; it’s about using AI to optimize political and economic control, reinforcing Coral’s dominance over global infrastructure. Much like how AI algorithms influence social media, those who control the algorithms control the future in a world where AI dictates policy.

Tesla’s dominance in energy, AI, and autonomous transport makes it an unavoidable global infrastructure pillar.

Its network of charging stations, battery storage systems, and self-driving capabilities are not just about cars—they are about controlling the movement of people and goods on a global scale. As governments push for the transition to electric vehicles, Tesla’s infrastructure becomes an inescapable backbone of transportation policy. Combined with its AI-driven autonomy efforts, Tesla has the potential to dictate how future cities function, who gets access to transportation, and how energy is distributed. This makes Tesla not just an automaker but a key player in reshaping the geopolitical and economic landscape.

That’s the world we’re heading towards.

How to Expand Your Awareness of the Game Elon Musk is Playing (Through a Spiral Dynamics Lens)

If you’re coming from Tier 1 of Spiral Dynamics and want to understand the kind of thinking that might be happening at Coral, you’ll need to shift how you see complexity, time, and systems. Coral is still an undefined stage, but it’s thought to involve hyper-complex thinking, deep time awareness, and seeing patterns most people miss.

Practical Steps to Start Thinking in a More Coral-Like Way

1. Move Beyond Either/Or Thinking

Most people think in black and white terms—right vs. wrong, good vs. bad. Coral-level thinking recognizes that reality is more complex and often paradoxical.
✅ Example: Instead of asking, Is Musk a genius or reckless?—try seeing how he can be both simultaneously, depending on the context.
🔹 Try This: When you feel strongly about an issue, ask: What’s another way to look at this that could also be true?
📖 Recommended Reading: The Power of Paradox by Kamlesh D. Patel).

2. See the Bigger System Musk is Operating In

Musk isn’t just running separate companies (Tesla, SpaceX, X, Neuralink)—he’s building interconnected systems that shape the future.
✅ Example: Starlink isn’t just about the internet—it’s a global infrastructure that bypasses traditional power structures.
🔹 Try This: When Musk makes a big move, ask: How does this connect to his other projects?
📖 Recommended Reading: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows

3. Practice Seeing Through Different Lenses

Different people experience Musk’s actions in different ways depending on their worldview.
✅ Example: His Mars colonization idea means different things to different mindsets:

• Red (Power-focused): A bold, warrior move

• Blue (Order-focused): A reckless distraction from Earth’s problems

• Orange (Achievement-focused): A huge business opportunity

• Green (Equality-focused): A dangerous project that ignores social and environmental issues

• Yellow (Systems-focused): A logical step in human evolution

• Coral (Hyper-complex thinking): A way to change the entire concept of what it means to be human

🔹 Try This: Next time you see a big decision, ask: How would different people with different values interpret this?
📖 Recommended Reading: Integral Psychology by Ken Wilber (explains how different worldviews shape perception).

4. Train Yourself to See Patterns Within Patterns

Coral thinking involves noticing hidden structures in how events play out.
✅ Example: Musk’s tweets might look like jokes, but they also influence stock markets, public opinion, and political narratives all at once.
🔹 Try This: When you see a trend in media or business, ask: What’s the bigger pattern this fits into?
📖 Recommended Reading: The Master and His Emissary by Iain McGilchrist (explores how different modes of thinking shape perception).

5. Shift How You Think About Time

Most people think in short-term cause-and-effect. Musk’s strategies often work over years or even decades.
✅ Example: When Musk talks about AI or brain chips, he’s not just reacting to today’s problems—he’s laying the groundwork for where technology will be in 20+ years.
🔹 Try This: When making decisions, ask: How would this look if I zoomed out 10, 20, or 50 years into the future?
📖 Recommended Reading: The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch (explores long-term progress and knowledge creation).

6. Go Beyond Just Rational Thinking

Tier 1 thinking often gets stuck on “prove it to me” logic. Coral thinking blends logic with intuition and pattern recognition.
✅ Example: Instead of just asking, Is Musk’s vision realistic?—consider, What kind of reality is he trying to create?
🔹 Try This: When faced with uncertainty, ask: What does my gut say? What patterns have I seen before that might give me a clue?
📖 Recommended Reading: Wholeness and the Implicate Order by David Bohm (introduces the idea of reality as an unfolding process).

Final Thought

If Musk is “playing a Coral-level game,” he’s likely shaping how people think and act on a massive scale by using long-term, interconnected strategies. To see the game more clearly, practice looking at the bigger picture, noticing patterns, and thinking beyond black-or-white perspectives.

Don't like this vision of the future? Can anything be done about it?

Coral strategies rely on opacity and are undermined by transparency. They thrive on complexity and stay three steps ahead of traditional power structures. Regulation is futile—every rule will be anticipated and circumvented. And Musk and Trump are already tearing apart regulation structures. So, how do you deal with a system based on Coral thinking?

With decentralized systems awareness.

Elon Musk is playing a game most people don’t even know exists. The question isn’t whether he’s right or wrong—it’s whether anyone else can keep up.

Spiral Dynamics shows us that power is no longer about winning arguments or elections. It’s about controlling the fundamental systems that society relies on. Musk has mastered this at a level few in history ever have.

You can call him a nepo baby, a grifter, or the guy who "stole Tesla" with his daddy’s emerald mine money. But what if you’re wrong? What if dismissing him is just a failure of your imagination? Musk doesn’t care what you think about him—because he’s already playing a game you don’t even realize is happening. And if you’re still stuck debating his ethics, you’re already three moves behind.

To ensure the future remains open, adaptive, and genuinely free, we must wake up to the reality of Second-Tier power dynamics because Musk is not the last Coral thinker we will face.

The question is: Will we evolve in time to meet the challenge?

With love,

Bob Cooney

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