The Staples High School graduate is a successful entrepreneur. Capitalism has been good to him.
He was an early, and happy, Tesla owner. But even before Elon Musk took his chainsaw to government, the Westport native was uncomfortable with the man behind the automobile.
And with others of Musk’s ilk too: the Bezoses, Kochs and Zuckerbergs, billionaire-types who used their wealth to take government policy matters into their own hands.
In conversations with friends, and in writing, the Staples grad grasped at words to describe those people buying politicians and political favors — as well as those capitulating to them, on the receiving end.
“Oligarch, robber barons — those are anachronistic terms,” he says. “There was nothing in the vernacular.”
So he set out to create one. (The man prefers to remain anonymous. He wants the focus to be on his project, not on him.)
He came up with “Enough Elon.” Playfully, he turned it into one word, spelled phonetically: “Enufelon.”
Then — he is, after all, a very successful entrepreneur — he set about branding it.
He wanted to create an icon, or unifying symbol, to knit together and help galvanize the millions of people who, he knows, feel as he does.
He hired a designer, to bring his ideas — something simple, yet alarming or menacing looking — to life.
The result, after several iterations, is this:
(Along the way — in a very telling moment — the designer expressed concern about the project. “Are you worried about retribution?” the entrepreneur asked. “Yes,” the designer said. Enufelon’s creator promised anonymity, but notes, “What kind of world do we live in, where people are so fearful about something like this?”)
The Westport native secured the Enufelon.com domain, and developed a website. In addition to spreading the word about his word, it offers branded products (coffee mugs, stickers, caps, tees, totes and posters), and provides opportunities to sponsor special events, and license the trademark.
He welcomes collaboration. For example, a union — or politician like Bernie Sanders and AOC – that sells products on their site, can sell Enufelon swag too.
One goal, says the wordsmith, is for “enufelon” to become a symbol of solidarity for the resistance.
Another is for the word to be used regularly, and become part of the lexicon.
A third is to create a .org subsidiary — much as how OpenAI began before spinning out a commercial, for-profit entity. Enufelon’s “.org” could facilitate and sponsor public services such as watchdog groups, think tanks, research into private philanthropy and more.
Items for sale in the “Stuffelon” store, at Enufelon.com.
Enufelon’s inventor notes that trademarked brand names may eventually find their way into the dictionary.
“Escalator” and “thermos,” he says, were once trademarked.
Will “enufelon” one day join them?
On one hand, he hopes so.
On the other hand, wouldn’t it be nice to have it become as anachronistic as, say, oligarch and robber baron?
They’d probably been there before, she says, but much lower on the list. “I would have had to scroll way down to find them.”