Rupa Subramanya finds Chrystia Freeland's book The Plutocrats (published in 2012, before Freeland became a World Economic Forum [WEF] trustee) to be a great introduction to the world of the WEF,
The best critique of the World Economic Forum came from Chrystia Freeland herself | National Post - Rupa Subramanya:
September 14, 2022 - "In a recent interview with the CBC, Adrian Monck, managing director of the World Economic Forum (WEF), said that, 'Canada should be talking about a lot of things right now. It shouldn’t really be talking about the World Economic Forum based here in Geneva'.… Monck’s dismissive, even patronizing, remarks were in response to claims that the organization has an outsized influence on government policies around the world, including in Canada. I’ve been critical of the WEF in the past for pushing a far-left, radical ideology centred around the 'great reset'; and especially critical of the fact that Canada’s deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, serves on its board of trustees. This is terrible optics, as it suggests a direct line from Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s executive chairman, to the cabinet of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
"Based on this fact alone, you might think that Freeland would be the last person in the world, maybe other than Schwab himself, to say anything that could be perceived as critical of the rich, powerful and glamorous people who gather high up in the Swiss Alps. That might now be true of Freeland, who’s as much of an elite insider as it gets, but, before she became a politician, she was a journalist, and her magnum opus was a book called, Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else, which was published in 2012. I’ve been re-reading the book and was struck by just how on the mark she was.
"The book’s central focus is, ironically, how plutocrats — the super-elites who sit at the top of the economic, political and social pyramid — attempt, and often succeed, in turning the rules of the game in their favour, by shaping government policy and public opinion. As becomes vividly apparent in Freeland’s engaging read, Davos is the playground where the plutocrats hash out ideas with other members of the powerful elite, from prime ministers and presidents, to celebrities, bankers, academics and others who help shape public opinion and guide public policy.... In an especially telling passage in Plutocrats, she writes...
It can be fun to imagine the super-elites who went to Wall Street and their Harvard classmates who became economics professors and those who became U.S . senators participating in a grand conspiracy (hatched ideally, at the Porcellian Club) to rip off the middle class. But the impact of these networks is much less cynical, and much more subtle, though not necessarily of less consequence.
"When people spend a lot of time together in an environment where work and socializing intermingle, whether in a university fraternity, at Davos or at other venues where powerful people routinely come together, a shared mindset develops of what needs to be done, whether to combat equality, ameliorate climate change or handle the COVID-19 pandemic. That shared mindset is often pushed on and society in order to influence public opinion and, ultimately, government policy. As Freeland wrote, 'Some farsighted plutocrats try to use their money not merely to buy public office for themselves but to redirect the reigning ideology of a nation, a region or even the world.'
"There has long been a revolving door between the top echelons of government, the private sector and academia, especially in the United States, and to a lesser extent in places like Canada. This is not a conspiracy theory, it’s merely a fact. The WEF facilitates this by creating a forum for the world’s political and business elite to mix and mingle.
"Critics of the theory that wealthy individuals would want to implant the WEF’s left-wing ideology in their home countries might assume that the wealthy, by definition, would be pushing for free markets and minimal government intervention. This is a rookie error, as Freeland aptly notes:
The bigger issue of the relationship between plutocrats and the state can’t be reduced to business batting for smaller government. Often, a big, intrusive state is the plutocrat’s best friend — true of state capitalist regimes like China and Russia and of industries, like the defence business, that live on state largesse, or of companies, like the U.S. steel industry under George W. Bush, that have lobbied for and won protectionist legislation.
"None of this should be controversial. It certainly wasn’t when then-journalist Freeland published her book: the only negative consequence she received after it came out, as she herself joked, was that she got uninvited from a bunch of private parties at Davos. Her basic message was widely accepted. Fast forward to today, when basically the same message coming from voices on the right is derided as a conspiracy theory intended as disinformation and misinformation, as Monck alleges. I wonder how Monck would respond to Freeland’s critiques of his organization? Then again, I wonder how the Freeland of today, a cozy insider at Davos, would respond to the Freeland of yesterday."
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