On this website you can compare the story of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the acquisition of twitter by Elon Musk.












I created this website to illustrate the similarities and connections between the new and the old, to highlight concepts that we seemingly
have culturally understood since 1818.

It is interesting how as a society we have understood certain defects that capitalism includes, yet we have failed to recognise them as an
outcome of a changeable system. Rather we see them as an absolute reality that can’t be changed.

Mark Fisher explains this well in his book “Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative?”. Defining “Capitalist Realism” as:

“The widespread sense that not only is capitalism the only viable political and economic system, but also that it is now impossible even to imagine a coherent alternative to it.”

We as a culture have become blind to capitalism, and perceive it as the only viable way to run our economies. Because of this we have also accepted all of capitalism’s flaws into this “reality” and fail to see them as things that can be changed.

Some of these flaws are understood to be immoral and wrong, but blame isn’t ever put on the system. We can see this in the classical story “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens from 1843. Where the main character Scrooge is a ruthless exploitative capitalist who throughout the story is shown by spirits that his lifestyle of greed will end in eternal punishment.

















We understand that Scrooge is immoral, yet we won’t even dare propose to change the system that allows Scrooge to exploit others. This is because even anti capitalism is built into capitalism.
This is once again explained well in “Capitalist Realism” Where Fisher states:

“In fact, capitalist realism is very far from precluding a certain anticapitalism. After all, and as Žižek has provocatively pointed out, anti-capitalism is widely disseminated in capitalism. Time after time, the villain in Hollywood films will turn out to be the 'evil corporation'. Far from undermining capitalist realism, this gestural anti-capitalism actually reinforces it.”

What I want to highlight through this website is society recognising certain concepts being immoral or dangerous, yet not recognising, or refusing to recognise, the root cause of those concepts.

We can point to stories like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley to prove that we have understood these concepts for over 200 years, and we can compare it to the acquisition of twitter by Elon Musk to illustrate that these concepts are still relevant today.

For example, the story of Frankenstein suggests that ambition is dangerous because it has the potential to become evil. In the story of Frankenstein this evil comes from the creation of the monster. Frankenstein is so driven with ambition to do something great that he becomes blind to the consequences of the monster’s creation.

The same can be said for Elon Musk’s ambition to have more “free speech” on twitter. Accounts of banned public figures such as Donald Trump, Kanye West, and Andrew Tate were reinstated after his acquisition. His ambition for a better platform is in this case making him blind to the consequences that a figure like Andrew Tate might have on the way young men interact with women.












Ultimately the main connection between the stories is this theme of power. Frankenstein has such incredible power that he can create new life forms, Elon has such incredible power that he can buy one of the biggest companies in the world and play around with it however he sees fit, regardless of the societal consequences.

This is because of his incredible wealth, that he has been able to gain through this system of capitalism, being the richest man in the world, almost makes you a demi god. It allows you to have far more influence over the lives of regular people than anyone ever should have. Twitter is a mild example of this, but I think it can serve as a cautionary tale of what is to come if we allow such power to exist.

Who cares if a social media platform dies or becomes a safe haven for extremists? What is important to realise is that this is the tip of the iceberg. What will happen when this power extends into governmental bodies, or other companies and services that affect the public in an even more important way?

Twitter is Elon’s first “Frankenstein” but what could be next?

Fill out these boxes to see the 2 stories broken down and/or compared.

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For sources,
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