Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Is the Great Reset a myth? Is it a Right wing fantasy? A global climate conspiracy?
According to the World Economic Forum website, the Great Reset is an initiative to build a fairer, more sustainable world, through international cooperation. An attempt to reassert the authority of governments over capitalism, to close remaining tax loopholes, and to ensure fairer outcomes for everyone. There’s just one problem. If the WEF Great Reset initiative succeeds, civilisation could end.
Great Reset or grating global conspiracy theory? Either way, don’t dismiss genuine anxiety
Parnell Palme McGuinness
November 21, 2020 — 12.00amI have a clear-eyed view of the world, you have a bias, and they have a conspiracy theory. This is the way the declension usually seems to work. Our anxieties are real and the anxieties of others increasingly bizarre.
Earlier this month, Senator Pauline Hanson moved a motion to reject the World Economic Forum’s “Great Reset”. The senator asked Parliament to “note that adopting the policies would devastate the economic wellbeing and individual freedoms of Australians” and that the Australian government should boycott all World Economic Forum events in protest over The Great Reset agenda.
…
The Great Reset imagines a radically different economic system. In the words, and word order, of the global management consultants McKinsey, the agenda will be climate change, sustainability, social justice and the pandemic. A frequently cited phrase from a WEF 2030 prediction is that “you’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy”. To some this means communalism; others hear communism. Whether you see this as a shining vision or a dystopian dispossession depends largely on your social and ideological vantage point.
…
Read more: https://www.smh.com.au/national/great-reset-or-grating-global-conspiracy-theory-either-way-don-t-dismiss-genuine-anxiety-20201120-p56gee.html
I’ve got to say I’m not a fan of someone telling me I no longer own my stuff. But lets go to the source – how does the architect of the Great Reset describe his own initiative?
Now is the time for a ‘great reset’
03 Jun 2020
Klaus Schwab
Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic ForumCOVID-19 lockdowns may be gradually easing, but anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun, and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s. But, while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable.
To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.
There are many reasons to pursue a Great Reset, but the most urgent is COVID-19. Having already led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, the pandemic represents one of the worst public-health crises in recent history. And, with casualties still mounting in many parts of the world, it is far from over.
This will have serious long-term consequences for economic growth, public debt, employment, and human wellbeing. According to the Financial Times, global government debt has already reached its highest level in peacetime. Moreover, unemployment is skyrocketing in many countries: in the US, for example, one in four workers have filed for unemployment since mid-March, with new weekly claims far above historic highs. The International Monetary Fund expects the world economy to shrink by 3% this year – a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points in just four months.
All of this will exacerbate the climate and social crises that were already underway. Some countries have already used the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse to weaken environmental protections and enforcement. And frustrations over social ills like rising inequality – US billionaires’ combined wealth has increased during the crisis – are intensifying.
Left unaddressed, these crises, together with COVID-19, will deepen and leave the world even less sustainable, less equal, and more fragile. Incremental measures and ad hoc fixes will not suffice to prevent this scenario. We must build entirely new foundations for our economic and social systems.
The level of cooperation and ambition this implies is unprecedented. But it is not some impossible dream. In fact, one silver lining of the pandemic is that it has shown how quickly we can make radical changes to our lifestyles. Almost instantly, the crisis forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office.
Likewise, populations have overwhelmingly shown a willingness to make sacrifices for the sake of health-care and other essential workers and vulnerable populations, such as the elderly. And many companies have stepped up to support their workers, customers, and local communities, in a shift toward the kind of stakeholder capitalism to which they had previously paid lip service.
Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need. That will require stronger and more effective governments, though this does not imply an ideological push for bigger ones. And it will demand private-sector engagement every step of the way.
The Great Reset agenda would have three main components. The first would steer the market toward fairer outcomes. To this end, governments should improve coordination (for example, in tax, regulatory, and fiscal policy), upgrade trade arrangements, and create the conditions for a “stakeholder economy.” At a time of diminishing tax bases and soaring public debt, governments have a powerful incentive to pursue such action.
Moreover, governments should implement long-overdue reforms that promote more equitable outcomes. Depending on the country, these may include changes to wealth taxes, the withdrawal of fossil-fuel subsidies, and new rules governing intellectual property, trade, and competition.
The second component of a Great Reset agenda would ensure that investments advance shared goals, such as equality and sustainability. Here, the large-scale spending programs that many governments are implementing represent a major opportunity for progress. The European Commission, for one, has unveiled plans for a €750 billion ($826 billion) recovery fund. The US, China, and Japan also have ambitious economic-stimulus plans.
Rather than using these funds, as well as investments from private entities and pension funds, to fill cracks in the old system, we should use them to create a new one that is more resilient, equitable, and sustainable in the long run. This means, for example, building “green” urban infrastructure and creating incentives for industries to improve their track record on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics.
The third and final priority of a Great Reset agenda is to harness the innovations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to support the public good, especially by addressing health and social challenges. During the COVID-19 crisis, companies, universities, and others have joined forces to develop diagnostics, therapeutics, and possible vaccines; establish testing centers; create mechanisms for tracing infections; and deliver telemedicine. Imagine what could be possible if similar concerted efforts were made in every sector.
The COVID-19 crisis is affecting every facet of people’s lives in every corner of the world. But tragedy need not be its only legacy. On the contrary, the pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world to create a healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous future.
License and Republishing
World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.Written by
Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
Read more: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset/
Just in case the adults don’t get onboard with the Great Reset, the World Economic Forum has teamed up with Sesame Street, to reach out to the kids (h/t James Delingpole).
Although the Great Reset mentions sustainability and Covid-19, I suspect these concepts were loosely bolted on to the core idea to win broader support. The main focus of the Great Reset appears to be global political and economic unity, along with some concerning ideas about private property, and an especial emphasis on harmonising global taxation and fiscal homogeneity.
Why do I think Schwab’s Great Reset could lead to the downfall of civilisation?
The reason is if it works at all, Schwab’s Great Reset would put all our eggs in one basket.
Nations rise and fall all the time. Once great powers like Spain, Czarist Russia, the British Empire and Ottoman Turkey are now a shadow of their former glory. China, which a hundred years ago under the decrepit Qing dynasty was the plaything of greater powers, now challenges the USA for global supremacy.
Anatolia and Arabia for a thousand years preserved and built on the knowledge of ancient Rome and Greece, while much of the West tore itself apart in an orgy of cruelty and murderous barbarism. Constantinople (Istanbul), Aleppo in Syria, and Babylon Baghdad in Iraq were great centres of learning during periods of enlightened rule in the first millennium and early second millennium.
I think the pattern is pretty clear.
The point is, overall progress has continued despite the rise and fall of nations, and the incompetence and short sighted greed of politicians, because for more than two thousand years there has always been a safe haven, somewhere in the world for people of learning to flee the violence and barbarism of failed states and tyrants.
If the world’s nations embrace the Great Reset all this could change. If nations commit to marching in lockstep, there will no longer be an independent safe refuge, because all nations will make the same mistakes at the same time. The next fall could be global. A global fall which affects every nation simultaneously could take down everything.
Klaus Schwab, the architect of the Great Reset, was born in Germany in 1938.
Correction (EW): The House of Wisdom was in Baghdad, not Babylon.
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The Glorious Revolution of William of Orange in 1688 is, IMO, the model for this Great Reset.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony Charter was revoked. the Pine Tree Shilling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_tree_shilling
was revoked. The Colonies were to have nothing and be happy.
It sure looks like the US is to be reset, yet again.
It s lawful that Prince Charles of Reset (unreliably informed not far from Somerset) is key speaker. I wonder if William has dreams?
Those who actively ignore or even alter history are condemmed to repeat it.
This time, things will be different.
Riiiiiiight.
I notice that Loydope and Griffidiot have weighed in with the usual lickspittle leftarded guff.
For decades, socialism has been the overwhelming drumbeat in schools, and those chickens are now coming home to roost, with a quasi-socialist and globalist incoming administration. We had just better hope that the Dems don’t end up with a 50/50 split Senate, with Harris as the tie-breaker.
Enough of this moronic talk about the election being “stolen”. TraitorTrump lost, stf-up, and get over it. TraitorTrump is the one, actually, who is attempting to steal an election.
Given the documented cases of corruption, how do you know that Trump lost? Or do you just assume that he must have since you hate him so much?
As Solzhenitsyn says in his foreword to Igor Shafarevich’s “The Socialist Phenomenon”:
“Indeed, no precise, distinct socialism even exists; instead there is only a vague, rosy notion of something noble and good, of equality, communal ownership, and justice: the advent of these things will bring instant euphoria and a social order beyond reproach”
….this is the rosy notion that’s still swirling around in the heads of most of our Western leaders. An infectious idea that still exists even after millions die under it’s malicious regime. It seems no vaccine has been found.
Is there any reason on Earth that Social Engineers should be trusted? Their track record is not just bad, but abysmal. Repudiate the lot of them.
I’m reminded of the Silverstein poem, “The Land of Happy”. I won’t post it as I believe it is still under copyright.
The last line of the poem is the best…”what a bore!”.
Quite.
You see when these stupid notions of Utopia rise up in the wake of a crisis as they always do, this little poem should be toted out and shoved in those idiots faces. There is no Utopia, because we are individuals, it’s that simple. No 2 people on this Earth think the exact same way, even twins that share the same DNA do not think the exact same way. So therefore this hive mentality idea is moot. There is no “if only” world where all that “could be based upon an idea is”. Why? Because nobody buys the idea completely. It’s naïve, childish, and quite frankly unrealistic to force people to cooperate over an utopian idea. Because one man’s utopia is another man’s hell. Where there is forced cooperation there is strife. We know this, we are smart enough to write down our own history so that future generations can learn. All this proves is that whoever is touting this Great Reset has not bothered to read. I would suggest they start with The Land of Happy and then pick up The Hunger Games for a bit more extensive reading into the subject of “Utopian” societies where everyone does their part for the “greater good” i.e. whoever is in control. And once that perspective is rooted in a fiction story, read our own history and see where the references played out in real life. Because I can guarantee you, the realists already have and understand.
These notions of Utopia have deep roots. Thomas More, in the Tudor 16th century, wrote about a fictional Utopia which reads like a North Korean handbook.
There is no private property on Utopia. (Utopia’s an island).
The houses are rotated between the citizens every ten years.
All able-bodied citizens must work; thus unemployment is eradicated.
Slavery is a feature of Utopian life and it is reported that every household has two slaves.
The slaves are either from other countries (prisoners of war, people condemned to die, or poor people) or are the Utopian criminals.
A welfare state with free hospitals.
Euthanasia permissible by the state.
Privacy is not regarded as freedom in Utopia; taverns, ale-houses and places for private gatherings are non-existent for the effect of keeping all men in full view, so that they are obliged to behave well.
Gambling, hunting, makeup and astrology are all discouraged in Utopia.
…….. and of course no Utopia is complete without – women confess their sins to their husbands once a month.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_%28book%29
Those who think they will be in charge of things will be in charge of picking the organic crops from the field by hand (no tractors, no oil, because climate change) at the end of a gun.
My father in law escaped from Hungary in 56. Came here to the US for freedom. Communism/Socialism has never worked. But you can’t ask those who have died from it. Only those that have escaped or survived it. It only serves those in power at the top. Climate change/Covid-19 is a means to that end. Let’s ban ICE cars in UK, California for 2030. Push the Great Green New Deal. Lets destroy the economies of the world that rival China. The pipe dreams of Wind and Solar. Look at the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, California. Shutting down Nuclear, Coal, Gas as power generation. Keeping the Third World from pulling themselves to a better life. Telling us we have to live with intermittent power for our society. Loydo and Griff would not know if at all, that’s it is too late. Let’s destroy the world as we know it. Mass starvation without the means to grow food. No power to stay warm in winter (UK is already there). They have started already. I say to save the world let them be the first to go! We will not morn them. Destroy their life as they would destroy ours.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/11/it_was_a_bloody_communist_who_killed_jfk.html
The clowns are googlewashing neoreaction too? Huh.
A Reset Is Not a Revolution: http://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/06/ol8-reset-is-not-revolution/
The American Thinker has a good article today on “The Great Reset”https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/11/suddenlythetermisoneveryoneslipssoitstimetounderstandwhatitreallymeans.html
Also covering the great (in his own mind) A Cuomo Thanksgiving orders to control people . An international emmy award for his TV work. But we are starting to resist their control. And the lockdowns must end.
It’s time for anyone who can afford to, to find a Gulch and Go Galt. Because civilization is about to be overrun by barbarian hordes, both domestic and foreign, and the police are on their side, not ours.
The Great Reboot. The Blue Screen of Death. Year Zero. Utopia, Heaven, you can’t get there from here.
Free Enterprise is what we are really talking about here.
Capitalism is a pejorative invented by communists to equate Free Enterprise with unsavory Communism.
Freedom is what the socialists and communists don’t like about Free Enterprise.
It’s a simple choice: Do you want to run your own life, or do you want faceless bureaucrats and selfish politicians to run your life for you? You would run your life for your benefit. Faceless bureaucrats and politicians would run your life for their benefit.
How about: the Great Reset is government opacity because it posits a technocracy of intertwined algorithms not answerable to the people, existing for the purpose of keeping us safe and efficient and in compliance with needed reforms to build a just world and save the planet (and, BTW, ensure that a technocracy/corporatocracy maintains power and control. No more threatening yellow vest protests, although BLM protests actually play right into the Great Reset mentality.) Meanwhile, the Great Reset is individual transparency, because everything about you will be tied to your digital immunity certificate (got to keep us all safe!) and (automated?) compliance with our beautiful reset will be deemed necessary by all right-thinking technocrats and those who march to the mainstream media.
Please, no one bother to ask what our ultimate “greater good” is (it can’t possibly be individual freedom, can it?) The algorithms, programmed by only the wisest minds (you listening, Klaus?) will decide for us.
Government opacity, individual transparency. What could possibly go wrong?
The other labels– capitalism, socialism, communism, Nazism, etc.– maybe don’t matter. Think government opacity, individual transparency. We’re getting a taste of how this opacity might look in the government’s response to Covid-19, which is a mass of confusion, misinformation, and misleading directives.
Everybody on board? I suppose if they give us free alcohol we’ll be fine.
“…but anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying.” Because they are creating the anxiety.
“There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun…” Because they created it and forced it.
“…and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s.” It will only happen if you continue to force it.
” But, while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable.” And as usual, they create the problem then provide the solution to the problem they just created. Perfectly typical isn’t it?
This sounds like the GND. Or the GND sounds like the Reset.
The GND is less than one yard from the end zone, having progressed most of the way down the field on a bogus pass interference call, even though the receiver Joe Biden couldn’t catch a cold.
Unbelievable!
Actually it sounds like the hunger games. And those in power, along with the mega rich celebrities and athletes, will be with the “Party” in the cities while the rest are banished to the districts. None of these politicians think their lives will change at all and they’ll make it better for everyone else. It’s their reward for “fixing things”. They believe all of that.
In Canada I believe we’ve past the point where there’s more than 50% of the population with their hands out now and so they (foolishly) believe this is a good idea. After all, the rich will work, they won’t. The rich will be mandated to give them their earnings and belongings and they’ll be better off. Few of them recognize that the rich will either move, if there’s somewhere to move to, or will see the futility far, far faster than the handout people will give them credit for. So work will cease. These same handout people don’t have an ounce of understanding that the government doesn’t have ANY money of its own. They think the government makes and prints money.
One of the real dangers we face is that so many work for the government instead of in the private sector now. Even though many of those receive a salary of more than $100k per year they are not productive jobs. When those dependent on gov jobs exceeds those in the private sector we reach a real tipping point (not be confused with the fake tipping points imagined by climate alarmists). These people will not allow policies against their self interests.
More than 50% of the people did not choose this. It is is being forced on them via subterfuge and deception.
Spot on!
Productivity>profit>capital investment.
Unproductivity>losses>dilapidation.
They cannot grasp this concept.
“…governments should improve coordination (for example, in tax, regulatory, and fiscal policy)…
At a time of diminishing tax bases and soaring public debt, governments have a powerful incentive to pursue such action.”
Translation: the Government has a money shortage so, it must increase taxes and regulations – duh!
“…the crisis forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office”
I trust that when attending the next Davos meeting Herr Schwab will leave the private jet at home and join the other proletariats on busses and trains.
My first impulse was to copy and link this far and wide as a tocsin bell. But I’m afraid too many people will think that the man has some great ideas.
Less than two weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director called for a “new Bretton Woods moment.” Meanwhile, the IMF is not the only entity pushing for a “great reset,” as the World Economic Forum (WEF) and other mainstream entities have been promoting the financial reboot propaganda.
Canadian iconoclast Rex Murphy. opportunity? opportunism!
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-the-great-reset-no-one-asked-for