On Threats, Near and Far
The World Economic Forum circus arrived in the tiny resort town of Davos, Switzerland for its annual rumination on ways to take over the world, or as they see it, save the world. From reports I read, it was replete with the usual oblations to the gods of sustainability and depopulation. This year even featured a bona fide witch doctor on stage, whose strange incantations were hailed as a “striking blend of tradition and modernity” by one publication. Seems like witchcraft and the WEF might be a match made in.. well, you know.
Attendees heard some of the world’s movers and shakers worry about war, the threat of “fascism, nationalism, disinformation”, climate catastrophe and the dangers of artificial intelligence.
The prospect of a second Trump administration and what that would mean for the world seems to have also been a hot topic of discussion: “Joe Biden’s political skills are a laugh line, and the air toward the Trump restoration is more or less resignation,” wrote one journalist who had been mingling with the Davos crowd. Trump critic Anthony Scaramucci was banking on the WEF’s track record of getting things wrong: “There are three reasons Trump’s not going to be president, and the first is that everyone here [at Davos] thinks he’s going to be president again,” he said. Don’t worry about the other two.”
(A clip from Davos’ 2017 conference began circulating on the internet last week, in which WEF founder Klaus Scwhab speaks hypothetically about a time when elections may not be needed due to the predictive power of AI. Fact checkers pointed out that Schwab was not issuing a call to action but expressing his fear of the potential dangers. Tomato, tomato?)
Whether by design or because they are clueless about how the regular person views them, some decidedly non-WEFy folks were invited to the address the Davos luminaries. Loose cannon Argentinian president Javier Milei dropped by to rail against abortion and social justice, and to tell them that “collectivist experiments” are the root of all the world’s problems.
President of the Heritage Foundation, Dr Kevin Roberts was also invited to speak during a panel discussion. Dr Roberts fired off at delegates for downplaying the global threat represented by China’s ambitions, for promoting open borders as normal and for scaremongering regular folks about climate. He even went so far as to say that a future Republican administration would do well “to compile a list of everything that’s ever been proposed at the [WEF], and object all of them wholesale.”
Whether the WEF set take the scolding under advisement remains to be seen. Maybe they don’t mind being lectured as long as the tonguelashing came from someone who can afford the price of admission? Dr Roberts said he is not expecting these elite’s sense of “noblesse oblige” to kick in any time soon. But we can pray.
While Davos has a reputation as being the economic equivalent of a mobster syndicate’s annual general meeting, Semafor’s Ben Smith pointed out that they have been wrong about a lot of things, politically and economically. So we needn’t fear them, not just because they’re fallible, but because every human scheme eventually comes to nothing.
Judah’s foolish king Asa, who trusted in armies and pawned treasure from the house of God in a bid for safety, was told by Hananai the seer: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” It is God who changes times and seasons and knows what lies in the darkness of men’s hearts. They can try and change the world, but it is Jesus Christ who deposes kings and raises up others, no matter the schemes of men.