Jumping off a post on here I saw yesterday, I also listened to "Last Man in Davos" by TrueAnon, and I gotta say -

Wow, did that make me depressed. Why aren't more people talking about it? I feel like the Nick Landian techno-capital singularity nightmare is just around the corner, and I feel like no one is gonna stop it.

I do think that as time goes on, and it becomes more well known, that many may start to talk about it. But for real, what do you guys think?

  • zangorn [none/use name]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I'm a third through the episode, and I haven't gotten to the good stuff yet, it seems. But I clicked around and found some articles on it, and it doesn't seem that bad. https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/504499-introducing-the-great-reset-world-leaders-radical-plan-to

    Instead of traditional capitalism, the high-profile group said the world should adopt more socialistic policies, such as wealth taxes, additional regulations and massive Green New Deal-like government programs.

    “Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed,” wrote Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, in an article published on WEF’s website. “In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

    Schwab also said that “all aspects of our societies and economies” must be “revamped,” “from education to social contracts and working conditions.”

    Joining Schwab at the WEF event was Prince Charles, one of the primary proponents of the Great Reset; Gina Gopinath, the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund; António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations; and CEOs and presidents of major international corporations, such as Microsoft and BP.

    Activists from groups such as Greenpeace International and a variety of academics also attended the event or have expressed their support for the Great Reset.

    Although many details about the Great Reset won’t be rolled out until the World Economic Forum meets in Davos in January 2021, the general principles of the plan are clear: The world needs massive new government programs and far-reaching policies comparable to those offered by American socialists such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in their Green New Deal plan.

    Or, put another way, we need a form of socialism — a word the World Economic Forum has deliberately avoided using, all while calling for countless socialist and progressive plans.

    I would like to see a global carbon tax put into place, which would pay to subsidize the good things like planting trees and installing solar panels. They haven't released details, but to me it seems like this might be going in that direction.

    • WhereIsMyChocolate [she/her,they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      That article is interesting. It tries to impart blame on the idea of the 'great reset' on simultaneously 'liberals', 'progressives' and the 'left' as if it's some radical idea from us for advancing towards globalism or socialism or something. I followed the source and read the weforum.org article and my take after that is that it's the opposite - it seems like the world leaders and ceos who attended that meeting, in coming to those policy conclusions, have finally grasped and validated a concept that actual left has been saying for a while - that a move to Sanders-esque policies and large structural changes like the GND would be their best bet, and infact the bare minimum they must do, to keep things from imploding in the foreseeable future.

      They finally realized the current trajectory is severely unsustainable and have now accepted that the best way to keep the system from collapsing is to begrudgingly improve material conditions for people somewhat and adopt those socdem type policies and actually start giving a shit about climate change.

      In that sense, the inner skeptic and pessimist in me would like a chance to respond here and say: I don't really see this as a radical step towards socialism like the writer of that hill article, so much as I see it as a last ditch effort to keep us from going socialist sooner - an attempt to make the current system a little more humane to keep it running and as bonus prevent people from rising up and demanding a new one. RIP to the accelerationists, I guess. But honestly, should this take off and should these sorts of policies be adopted widely soon, I don't really know what to expect. Would this be overall better or worse for the left in the long run?

      • zangorn [none/use name]
        ·
        4 years ago

        a move to Sanders-esque policies and large structural changes like the GND would be their best bet, and in fact the bare minimum they must do, to keep things from imploding in the foreseeable future.

        Seems too good to be true, but the optimist in me will be hopeful for it, again. I used to feel like this going into the Climate meetings. But those have long since been shown to be shams every time. It does seem like every country outside the US is more in line with the demsuc, Bernie style agenda. So maybe they convinced Biden to get on board with it and its good.

        Whats good for the Left? I think this, if it works as the article suggests, is good for the Left. Civilizations go through cycles, because the rich get richer and the powerful use their power to stay in power. They consolidate power and wealth until its too unbalanced that there is either devastation, war or revolution. The pessimist in me says capital has too much power now to let this happen. We're beyond the event horizon falling into a black hole. They will say what they have to say to get our support, but then defang the thing of its good parts before it implements, just like the climate accords. If it works, then thats good for the Left, because we get to improve our lives and keep things going quite a bit longer before the collapse. If its a lie, then we continue on our present course.