Maduro vs. Musk

“Let them fight”—that’s what I said to myself when I heard Elon Musk accept a challenge from Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Musk drew Maduro’s ire for calling out what was almost certainly a fraudulent election. It was reported that on national television in Venezuela, Maduro asked, “Do you want to fight? Let’s do it. Elon Musk, I’m ready. I’m not afraid of you, Elon Musk. Let’s fight, wherever you want.” In response, Musk posted on X (which he owns), “I accept,” later adding, “He will chicken out.”

Trash talk? A dare to step outside for a round of fisticuffs? I’m sure there are many of you out there wondering, “What is this, middle school? Friday night at the town dive?” Of course, what makes it all so surreal is how this played out over television and social media and that it involves an internationally renowned business magnate and a corrupt South American dictator. At first glance, this seems a historical anomaly. In some ways, due to the rise of communications technology, it is. But, in many other ways, it is not—not, at least, if we look at a wider sweep of history.

Let’s look at what is most surreal about this situation. National leaders are expected to have a sense of dignity and gravitas about them. Whether good or bad, we presume to find some decorum when it comes to the men and women who run the countries of this world. Meanwhile, the world of internet discourse, particularly on X, is marked by bluster, humor, and irreverent criticism. The word “august” does not come to mind. It is the digital commons. And Musk is a master in that space—not just as an owner of X but as a user. As a free man, he called a spade a spade. And Maduro lost his temper and probably lost the battle for public sympathy in doing so. A man who has military assets at his disposal stooped to speak belligerently about a critical statement on social media. It reveals a fragile, sensitive ego—one that is not prepared for the open give-and-take one finds on the internet.

Meanwhile, as one of my fine WORLD Opinions colleagues observed, there’s something of the feudal warlord when it comes to Musk and our current cultural moment, particularly when we consider the agonistics of social media. And, while this may not be a great thing, it is a thing.

In the current situation, Maduro seems to have challenged Musk to meet him upon the field of honor, to grant him “satisfaction” as the days of the duel would phrase it. Threats of single combat sound odd to those of us who grew up in the modern age. But if we take a step back and take in a wider historical screen of vision, it’s not really that unprecedented. As the saying goes, history might not repeat itself, exactly, but it surely does rhyme.

There’s a kind of person who thinks such historical reversals or revisitations are impossible, and he might even find himself deeply distressed when events like this occur. Why? Because he has a certain worldview about history—a historiography that demands unchanging, inalterable progress. And the progress looks “just so.” We find uncouth “big talk” from national presidents deeply weird. But history has always featured these kinds of behaviors and events—maybe not in our lifetimes or, more likely, in our own safe, secure, and stable lives here in the prosperous West. Some of us just think we are exempt from history when we’re not. Two major leaders—one of which enjoys a celebritylike status while the other sits atop a corrupt political regime—just threatened to fight it out. They are not the first. Yes, it may strike us as strange, but it’s not that strange.

Nor is our feeling of smallness when titans on the world stage come to rhetorical (hopefully not physical) blows. Perhaps we feel like the pitiful peasants of old—the seemingly forgotten nobodies who never made it into the history books. Perhaps our best course of action is to cheer on Musk as he challenges Maduro’s legitimacy.

But, for the Christian, there is something else to consider. All the “great men” of this world will come under judgment because all men come under His rule. And all of us have significance. Each of us is made in the image of God and will have an eternal destiny, either inside or outside the kingdom of heaven, which has a very different understanding of greatness than the world. The wise, whether great or small, will trust in Him, lean not on their own understanding, and acknowledge Him in all their ways. No matter how weird the world may get, that’s the only way forward.