A friend of mine recently asked if I had considered writing a blog about The Great Reset. I had to look up what on Earth he was talking about. Where was this reset button ? What were we resetting ? I researched and found that it was the Headline Strategy spelt out at the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in June 2020 at the height of the pandemic. HRH Prince of Wales led the charge with a call to create a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being. The three components were fairness, sustainable and equitable. A Socialist programme birthed by Capitalists.
I walked the streets and the woods on my daily exercise, boosting my steps and racking my brain as to what I would write. Over and over again the song of Leonard Cohen ‘ Everybody Knows ‘ kept coming into my mind and I began to sing it on my journey. The song was written by Leonard in conjunction with Sharon Robinson in 1988 and released on the album ‘ I’m your Man ‘ ,exactly can you believe 32 years ago today. It’s been described as ‘ somber’ and ‘ bitterly pessimistic’ yet I would say it was incredibly realistic and a life warning. Poor Leonard died last year and he produced some amazing songs, the master wordsmith. Doesn’t Everybody know that ?
The reset surely is in his lyric from the song ‘ the fight is fixed , the poor stay poor, the rich get rich, that’s how it goes, everybody knows ‘ . How possibly is the Great Reset really going to address this basic fact of life that despite revolutions and political permutations the fact is fact, Lennie got it right in one, disparity exists, equitable pursued but never found. Someone has to create the garbage and someone has to clear it , someone meantime has to pay for it. Fairness is never found in Courts where access for the average is impossible on cost grounds and the guy that cut the cake always gets the largest piece. As for sustainable well it’s been like this for a few thousand years, I call that sustainable. Obviously we’ve seen Peasant revolts, barricades, red books, umbrellas and water canons, toilet brushes etc but the people eventually go home.
Using the technologies coming out of the 4th Industrial Revolution will be implemented but I sense that the game will not change. Yes we will have a global digital currency, we will like moles be moving and living underground. The online guys will have to be taxed and the free internet will be charged to enter once we are all suitably addicted to screen and keyboard. We will be tagged and digitalised on passports, motorways and movement. Travel will be documented and contactless payment a norm as they track every penny and profile every push of our buttons. Offices will be like redundant factories as the new norm of working from home no longer regarded as a stigma. The NHS will decide if we are too fat to operate on or worth saving, BMI of individuals will be computed and algorithms will allocate an assist or an abandon. Religious communities will gather online and people will keep streaming away from churches as Parishes are packed away by the Managers. Unemployment will be set as a new norm and those will be kept alive on survival packages. Those that fit life’s way will survive not the fittest. Families will stay together as the kids can’t leave home and afford to buy their own freedom fiefdom. What’s wrong with that ? Nothing of course but the Great Reset is that we will all be living in smaller space and the view on the world will be virtual. Driving will be a luxury and life will get faster, as each day merges into one, not knowing the line between weekday and weekend, a seamless sentence.
So where are the bright spots, why is this guy writing so downbeat? Well we will live longer than three score and ten, we will be eating healthier and less, we will be thinner, we will marry those within three miles of us not the usual seven. We will holiday at home and discover the beauty of our nation. We will work 60 hour weeks to keep up with all the e mails and calls from the boss. We will become better people with less time to damage others and the environment. We will have more disposable income with less places to go and less to do. Women and men will knit more, DIY and home improvement will be our social life. There’s a lot to look forward to and only those over 50 will remember the halcyon days of strikes, three day weeks, 16% interest rates, fish and chips out of newspaper and the back row at the movies. Yes there is a Great Reset and we also saw one throughout the 20th Century on probably 4 occasions. As Solomon once said there’s nothing new under the sun. It’s now China’s time to be the world leaders and they will undoubtedly see the biggest move towards universal capitalism ever seen. That move alone will prosper them, India and Africa can follow. We had our time. Everybody knows.
qbitblogger 