Some thoughts on Davos
Social media had some fun with a picture of the unelected leader of the European Union, Ursula Von Der Leyen, stepping out of an Audi A8 6.3 litre 585 HP 12-cylinder monster as she proceeded to lecture the world on the need for de-carbonisation. The traditional media saw nothing amiss here.
The disconnect between our leaders and the rest was on full display. There were lavish dinners, breakaway meetings, private jets and – above all – a pretence that the world would once again bow to their political nostrums.
Then Argentinian president Javier Milei stepped up to the podium:
"Today we are witnessing the global exhaustion of this system that has dominated us for the past few decades. Just as has happened in Argentina, the rest of the world is seeing the deepening of the only truly relevant conflict of this century, and of all previous ones – the conflict between free citizens and the political caste that clings to the established order, doubling down on its efforts aimed at censorship, persecution and destruction."
A new tide of classic liberalism was sweeping the world, said Milei. Stand aside or you will get crushed under foot.
Trump was inaugurated on 20 January and one of his first acts was to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement – for the second time. There goes the climate ‘consensus’.
The event serves primarily as a rare point of unity for political right and left wings, both of whom agree that everyone there should be in jail, declared The Guardian two years ago.
This marriage of corporate and political aristocracy is a pantomime of global concern, where speakers utter phrases so ponderous and full of dread – the looming climate threat, income inequality, global crises – that it’s no wonder they are detested by the people they purport to govern. Being lectured on income inequality by the 1% doesn’t carry the sting of truth it once did.
Trump’s America First policies have placed these elites on notice. There is a new global order taking shape and, good or bad, we suspect Davos will become increasingly irrelevant with each passing year.
