Davos is no longer the same...

From global reality to global virtuality: what the participants of the World Economic Forum are talking and fantasising about 

This is the 53rd time the world’s economic and political elites have assembled for their ‘gatherings’ in Switzerland to use the World Economic Forum in Davos to discuss and develop a common global peace policy. 5 days, more than 2,700 guests (including 52 heads of state and 116 billionaires), 5,000 police officers for protection, at least $45 million in security expenses, about $330 million of the organisation’s total budget — that’s what the WEF in Davos is all about today. The numbers are certainly impressive. But…

Photo by David Malan

The world is split, divided and scared...

There is the complete absence of a delegation from Russia among the guests of the forum, which claims to develop a global agenda in the economic (and political) sphere. At the same time, Russia is the 11th country in the world in terms of nominal GDP and the sixth in terms of GDP in terms of purchasing power parity (let’s not mention the 1st place in terms of occupied territory and the 9th in terms of population)! There are no richest people in the world and not one of the 626 Chinese billionaires on this forum (while the PRC is the second state in their number after the USA)! 

Moreover, the agenda of the current congress of oligarchs smacks of pessimism: ‘Co-operation in a Fragmented World’. That is, they were building and creating a ‘global village’, and suddenly all their efforts went to waste. Forget about uniform rules or about promised worldwide prosperity... Where does this come from? It’s obvious!

The American company Edelman, which annually measures the level of citizens’ trust in various institutions around the world, has come up with another study. Only 40 percent of those surveyed around the world (but not in Russia, of course — do not forget about sanctions!) showed economic optimism, saying that they hope to improve their lives in the next five years. 

Strange as it may seem, the richest countries were the worst. Thus, in Japan, only 9 percent of respondents confidently look to the future, in France — 12, in Germany — 15 percent. The main fears are the following: job loss, inflation, food and energy shortages — that is, purely economic factors that are easy to feel for oneself, especially with a previously very good standard of living. 

American researchers have also recorded a very impressive social class gap: the poor trust institutions much less than wealthy citizens. For example, in the US, the discrepancy reaches 23 percentage points. According to the authors of the report, ‘inhabitants of the same country live in very different realities’.

Expectations can come true

The reasons for all this global disunity and fragmentation of the world community were discussed in the early days of the Davos forum. International Monetary Fund, a structure well-known for its globalism, also released its study, in which the main risks of deglobalisation were associated with restrictions on trade in raw materials and high-tech goods that followed as sanctions against Russia and China for military and political reasons. 

While these sanctions are partial, however, in an attempt to completely stop trade in energy and high-tech goods between countries, IMF experts predict a drop in world GDP by 1.2–1.5 percent.

It is symptomatic that, having voiced such bad expectations, world leaders immediately took a step towards their implementation. In particular, the Europeans again started talking about the next package of sanctions against Russia. The only conclusion that suggests itself is that the leadership of the European Union is completely infected with the virus of economic suicide. Indeed, coupled with American and Chinese legislative initiatives aimed at providing large-scale benefits and preferences to national producers (which include cheap energy, inexpensive labour, and tax incentives for manufacturers of modern goods, such as electric cars), ‘final’ sanctions will finally kill industrial European corporations. And then there’s interest rates going up, making new investments impossible...

Escape from reality

But instead of taking a sober look at the economic problems created by their own hands, the leaders of European countries prefer to discuss new deliveries of tanks to Ukraine in Davos. 

The forum is used as another political tribune to promote the alarmist agenda and escalate tensions. No collaboration, just further fragmentation. 

The remnants of the global world (more precisely, that part of it that is still within the reach of the Western elite) are trying to take absolute control. The idea of creating a controlled metaverse was voiced in Davos (that’s right, without quotes, because everything is the pure truth!). 
Klaus Schwab, the founder of the forum, literally announced a ‘global collaboration village’, a worldwide ‘village without borders’ — that is, a new digital platform that Microsoft will be commissioned to create. It will be possible to enter the platform from any device (even a laptop, even virtual reality glasses and even smartwatch), and it will be fully controlled. Interpol is one of the partners in creating the virtual space of the future. 

Relatively speaking, the brave new world is taking on more and more obvious features of a digital concentration camp. Having failed to maintain the global world order with economic preferences and common rules, the power of tanks and other weapons, the world oligarchy relies on consciousness and virtuality.

That’s just satiety from virtual bread and warmth from a virtual fire starving humanity is unlikely to wait.

By Aleksei Belyaev, a political scientist