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February 11, 2022 - 7:00am
The World Economic Forum — also known as “Davos” — is an exclusive talking shop for the rich and powerful. As a symbol of the neoliberal order it’s long been a target for the anti-capitalist Left. More recently, it’s also become a bugbear of the populist Right. That’s not just because the WEF champions globalisation, but also because of what some see as an elitist plot to radically change our lifestyles.
Apparently, a shadowy cabal is dead set on getting us to eat bugs instead of real meat and to live in pods instead of proper flats and houses. Needless to say, the conspiracy theories are overblown; but, as I explain here, insect protein and tiny homes are definitely on the Davos agenda.
People who have regular cold showers take 29% fewer days off work.
Read more about the cool benefits of cold showers: https://t.co/ngfAhhVLlo pic.twitter.com/SsDH779HCu
— World Economic Forum (@wef) February 7, 2022
According to the conspiracists, we’re being primed to be satisfied with less — not only less stuff, but also less control over our lives. The WEF doesn’t help itself when it puts out videos like this one about life in 2030. Notoriously, it opens with the words: “You’ll own nothing. And you’ll be happy.”
The defenders of Davos point out that this was just a collection of predictions, not a manifesto. Nevertheless, the WEF continues to push some distinctly odd messages. For instance, this week it dropped a new video promoting the idea of regular cold showers. These are good, because people subjected to them “take fewer sick days off work”:
Apparently, there’s scientific research to back this up. But did no one at Davos think about the optics? In case they hadn’t noticed, household energy bills are surging to record highs. A cold shower is all we’ll be able to afford soon. Still, never mind, at least we’ll be able to work harder!
Amazingly, this wasn’t the weirdest video that WEF has released this week. Rather, the prize for that belongs to this effort, entitled “Animals pass on privilege too, say scientists”:
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SubscribeUnfortunately there is the ‘sticky escalator’ trick in play. An organisation or business that sets a future goal in the far future can get there in small unremarkable steps. Once you step on that small sticky step the escalator bears you on to the distant goal and it is very difficult to step off.
So some examples: the EU and ‘ever closer union’. The march through the institutions. The Chinese government. Government nudge units. The BBC and its pro Establishment bias. Perhaps the more ideological political parties. We managed to step off the ‘ever closer union’ escalator but others have not managed it.
The World Economic Forum is bonkers, but successful, because it is pushing the goal of the future further forward and dragging other organisations along for the ride.
Agree and don’t forget all the opportunistic academics pushing a lot of this stuff too because it gets them “impact” and thus ultimately funding.
Yes, the Left operates on a patronage system. You say or publish the correct thoughts and you get funded. Much of academia is like this.
From what little I’ve seen and read of Klaus Schwab, cold showers as character building, and inherited privilege being part of the natural order of things, don’t seem entirely out of kilter with his world view. Hiding the implications of the latter, in modern privilege jargon, is also instructive.
Dictatorship by those trained to rule has been an idea around since Plato’s time. My impression is that Klaus is a firm believer.
Wiki’s opening sentence describes him as a German engineer and economist. No doubt displaying lots of my own unconscious bias’s, but those three adjectives together sound alarm bells from the off.
I look forward to hearing from Galeti
“Klaus”, but otherwise you are spot on.
And I ask: Why do we continue to allow genuine concerns over the concentration of power to be dismissed as ‘conspiracy theories’. Power is concentrated among a select group of global elites. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s a matter of documented fact.
Thanks, I thought something didn’t look right. Now changed
I agree but hasn’t it ever been thus? It doesn’t mean they’re all working together. WW1 managed to kick off despite half the rulers being part of the same extended family.
The achievement of the West wasn’t just democracy, it was establishing counteracting centres of power – the demos, independent judiciary, a free press and, the church.
As the church has slid into irrelevance in the west, the reach of an independent judiciary has been limited by a globalised world, and the free press overtaken by a media controlled by oligarchs, we’re left with an awful lot on the shoulders of the demos.
That about sums it up.
It doesn’t help that he also looks exactly like a classic Bond villain.
He really does. Mind you, not as much as the billionaire supervillain who flew into space in a giant phallus. But still pretty Bond-villiany.
‘German engineer and economist. No doubt displaying lots of my own unconscious bias’s, but those three adjectives together sound alarm bells from the off.’
Unacceptable prejudice IMO.
“No doubt displaying lots of my own unconscious bias” rather indicates a degree of self knowledge of my prejudices.
We all have them. Do you know yours?
Accurate stereotype, I would submit.
The bumdest of the bumd. Looking for creative ways to avoid the moderation package!
Of course the WEF is considered by many to be evil. I’m tending that way.
‘According to the conspiracists, we’re being primed to be satisfied with less — not only less stuff, but also less control over our lives.’
Why do you insist that it is ‘conspiracists’ that see these things? Surely one can spot what is going on without being a conspiracist?
I think he had his tongue planted in his cheek… At least, that’s how I read it.
Count me in that group, by the way.
Cold showers also a “thing” at the moment amongst the more unconventional crowd…unless Wim Hof is a WEF plant (a joke I hope) so maybe they’re even just jumping on a bandwagon this time or helping to reel in some of those of the natural and health persuasion?
I think what I find rather scary is the memorandum of understanding between the WEF and the UN. Here in Scotland, we have an Agenda 2030 strategic plan aligned to the UN. All neat and tidy, and on the face of it, sensible in response to climate change. What is in question is the wish to move to the stakeholder economy where national governments would be just one of the stakeholders. I wonder if Agenda 2030 primed governments to blindly follow messages about how to handle the Pandemic and not to be more discerning about the Science. And then there is The Trusted News Initiative from the BBC which has stunted debate.
Why is reality supposed to be a bad thing? Why do we need to obscure the fact that privilege is inevitable by genetics alone and that parents by instinct want to give their offspring an edge? Why suddenly we are against nature and the woke want to make everyone a victim, just because privilege is an inevitable fact of existence? WEF intentions are not the big danger, the deniers of reality are: the author of the article, the commentators and all those who deny nature and propose equality of outcome and thus a very dangerous legislatively and societally imposed utopía are a real, not conspiracy delusion danger!
I think you may have mis-read the author. It seems to me he does the exact opposite of what you propose. If I mis-read him, I apologize.
Privilege is an inaccurate characterization of what you describe and that is what the author points out. I don’t want to cede the word to the progressives, nor let them corrupt it by applying it incorrectly.
Wim Hof has been recommending cold water showers and cold water swimming for ages. I swam with a local sea swimming group up until Xmas ( no wetsuits) and it was certainly exhilarating. It is hard to explain how vital you feel afterwards and how much more productive the day is after braving the cold water.
I think it was the end goal that was the issue – ie more work being done for the WEF members !!
I got into the cold showers thing last year, though I have to admit that I lost my enthusiasm by Christmas. It does make you feel better I have to say.
That said, it’s not going to help the WEF in its mission to make us all use less energy, because you aren’t supposed to have ONLY a cold shower, it’s meant to be a minute or so of cold water added to your normal shower. You’re actually using more water like this, even if the boiler isn’t working any harder.
The Davos crowd don’t strike me as a lot of people who are all out taking cold showers “for the benefit.”
Cold showers make you feel really good, no doubt. I’ve done it. They also suck and I’ve not found the benefit to be worth the dread.
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