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May
27
2022

To Serve Man
Brian Maher

An invasive species — a globally invasive species — is loose.

It is a fierce predator, an apex predator of vast appetites. Its limitless ambitions span the very globe.

This fi-fo-fum presently besieges a small burgh high in the Alps of Switzerland.

Private jets drop him in and haul him out.

Rolex watches encircle his wrists, Armani clothing adorns his back. He rolls around in expensive automobiles pushed by electricity.

What is this creature, precisely?

Anthropologists label this being Homo Davos –  Davos Man.

Where the Elite Meet

Each year he descends upon the high Swiss resort of Davos. There he lives a grand and gorgeous week in the company of like fellows.

These are the kingpins, the chieftains, the great and the good…

These are the one-worlders, the wowsers, the central planners, the pettifoggers, the pecksniffs, the humanitarians with guillotines…

These are the propaganda-drummers, the think-tankers, the deep staters…

And these are the rent-seekers, the crony-capitalists, the idiots useful and non-useful.

In Davos they huddle in astounding profusion, like locusts in a Dust Bowl farm.

Why do they choose Davos?

Highly Symbolic

After all, Davos lacks the dining, drinking and entertainment venues of a Paris, of a London, of a New York.

Our men inform us the resorts of St. Moritz and Gstaad — to name two alone — boast superior skiing.

Yet Davos is the very penthouse of Europe. That is, Davos is the highest city on the continent, a sort of Olympus.

Is it coincidence they select the highest city on the continent? We hazard it is far from coincidence. Its symbolism is vast.

As Davos Man is above you… you are beneath him… as the lord is above the serf… bigwig above little wig.

From this high perch he sets the world to rights and bosses it about. And let it be known: Davos Man is a very vain and self-regarding fellow.

“The future is not just happening,” uber-Davos Man Klaus Schwab gloated this week, adding:

The future is built by us, by a powerful community as you here in this room. We have the means to improve the state of the world…

Thus Davos Man believes he is an unrivaled engineer — an unrivaled engineer of men. Yet here he falls into fatal error…

Man’s toolmaking skills have made him the master of his physical surroundings… propelling him even into space beyond.

Alas, man’s undeniable engineering skills have instilled in him a massive self-overestimation. He mistakes his ability to engineer his physical world for his ability to engineer his social world.

Mr. Hayek famously labeled it the “fatal conceit.”

He mistakes the inner human universe for the external clockwork universe.

In theory they are one — engineering is engineering. In reality they are two.

The hormone-governed, capricious and willful human being has no existence along the engineer’s x and y axes.

As well plot a love affair along the x and y axes… or a riot.

A Master Opportunist

He may be a poor social engineer, yet Davos Man is a masterful opportunist. He senses his chance and seizes it.

Herr Schwab, from 2018’s convocation:

A new framework for global public-private cooperation has been taking shape. Public-private cooperation is about harnessing the private sector and open markets to drive economic growth for the public good, with environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness always in mind.

The preceding can be reduced to two words: crony capitalism.

Davos Man will profit wildly from the government subsidies underwriting this “new framework for global public-private cooperation.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, it sounds much like the old framework.

Yet the question remains: How precisely would Davos Man improve the state of the world?

Through “global governance.”

The Nation-State Is Obsolete

They argue the nation-state cannot scotch the world’s bugaboos — climate change, pandemics, economic inequality and a hundred other transnational evils.

The sovereign and independent nation therefore represents something of an appendix. It may have once performed a useful service. Yet no longer. It is obsolete in today’s globalized world.

Only global solutions can equal the herculean challenges.

And so global institutions must rise above the nation, argues Davos Man… as the United States government must rise above Kansas and Oregon and Texas and Rhode Island.

Davos Man’s objective is to blackjack national governments into embracing enlightened “global” perspectives. These of course often war with national interests, at times vital national interests — hence the blackjacking.

Above we mentioned climate change. Climate change is Davos Man’s greatest hobbyhorse. It is his central fixation.

The Globalist Lever to Move the World

Climate change is, after all, a menace truly global. Only a concerted global effort can rout it.

And the weaponry required is readily on offer: Centralized economic planning, taxation, wealth redistribution… all on a global scale.

Imagine it — placing a taxable claim on the very respiration of civilization — carbon dioxide.

Old Archimedes claimed he could move the world with a lever of adequate length:

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

Carbon dioxide is the globalists’ lever. The alpine city of Davos is his fulcrum.

From there he intends to move the world.

Is it coincidence — then — that one-third of panel discussions this week in Davos address climate change?

How to Solve “Eco-Anxiety”

Peter Prengaman is the Associated Press’ global climate and environmental news director. He claims these panels “range from combating “eco-anxiety” to helping debt-ridden countries finance a renewable transition.”

How they intend to ease eco-anxiety, we do not pretend to know. Yet we would soothe their fears by reminding them of Davos Man’s botched forecasts…

In 1988, the United Nations fretted the Maldives would be under the water by 2018.

Yet in 2022 the Maldives jut high above the water. They drive a flourishing tourist trade.

Mr. Albert Gore soothsaid in 2009 that the polar ice cap may vanish by 2014.

Eight years on, the ice still caps Earth’s poles. It shows little sign of liquefying. In certain locations it is in fact thickening.

In 2009 climatologist of climatologists — Prince Charles — shrieked that humanity had but eight years to save Earth.

In 2022, five years past the midnight deadline… Earth pegs along yet.

Examples as these multiply and multiply. Only the wayward economic crystal-gazings of the Federal Reserve possibly rival them.

Do as I Say, Not as I Say!

Davos Man likes to moan about the flying public. He argues they should limit their air travel to reduce carbon emissions.

There is irony here — irony twinned with the common human vice of hypocrisy.

Davos Man may sob about aviation emissions all he pleases. He nonetheless rockets around in private jets… expanding his “carbon footprint” to proportions truly obscene.

Here is a certain Matthew Finch. He is with an outfit labeled the Transport & Environment campaign group:

The average private jet, and we are not talking Air Force One, emits two tons of CO2 for every hour in flight. It can’t be stressed enough how bad private jets are for the environment. It is the worst way to travel…

To put it in context, the total carbon footprint of an ordinary citizen — including everywhere they travel and everything they consume — is around eight tons a year.

So an executive or politician taking one long-haul private flight will burn more CO2 than several normal people do in a year.

To Serve Man

Davos Man is nonetheless out to save the climate — and the world.

Yet we trust Davos Man with our future no more than we trust a dog with our dinner. And so we conclude with the irreplaceable Mencken:

“The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false-face for the urge to rule it. Power is what all messiahs really seek: not the chance to serve.”

We are reminded of the old Twilight Zone series.

In one episode an apparently benevolent alien race descends upon Earth. They bear a book with them:

To Serve Man.

Only too late did the humans realize it was a cookbook…

Regards,

Brian Maher
Managing Editor, The Daily Reckoning

 

 

Brian Maher is the Daily Reckoning’s Managing Editor. Before signing on to Agora Financial, he was an independent researcher and writer who covered economics, politics and international affairs. His work has appeared in the Asia Times and other news outlets around the world. He holds a Master’s degree in Defense & Strategic Studies.

 

 

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