Nothing?

You will own nothing and you will be happy? This World Economic Forum ‘threat’ sounds at first take alarming but think about it for a moment. Were it actually possible it sounds like quite a good idea. No, really; everybody has a place to live, in which they are happy. The heat stays on, there is plenty of food and the roof gets fixed when it needs to be fixed. And although it doesn’t belong to them, neither do the headaches associated with ownership. And they will be happy. What’s not to like?

I’m assuming that in return we all put in a fair day’s work at which travail we are suited and content, thus being occupied in work which we if not enjoy at least endure reasonably well. And presumably, if we are going to be happy, maybe the more mundane duties are filled by the young and fit, but not arduously so. Bin men and ditch diggers maybe only have to put in half the hours of labour that a solicitor or an accountant need perform. And those of an artistic bent are free to indulge their passion for as many waking hours as they feel the urge.

In order to be happy, of course, one has to feel that life is worthwhile, so presumably universal, cradle-to-grave healthcare is free to all, as is unlimited opportunity to indulge in suitable leisure activities. Also, I would expect, life-enhancing ventures such as travel and sport, music and theatre… and picnics, I guess? But even as I write this I am wondering about how horribly uniform we would have to become for any of this to function.

A contentedness with our lot is something vouchsafed to relatively few of us, and a feeling that others are getting more than they deserve seems to be woven into the very thread of our DNA. Those with children will take more out of the system than those with none, or will we all be compelled to breed to a certain minimum? And there will always be slackers, of course. How do we incentivise everybody to give equally of their time and talents?

And also, in order to provide for all this, your local leisure centre is going to have to be utilitarian – more council gym than David Lloyd.  Your theatres more school hall than West End. Your restaurants more Wimpy than Ivy. Your cars more Trabant than Tesla, perhaps. The holiday resorts would necessarily be more Benidorm than the Algarve, but it would be free, see? And you will be happy. Now I come to think of it, it sounds terrible. In fact it sounds a lot like Communism in its strictest forms.

Klaus Schwab’s grand dream is just that. And yes, he has influence and yes, he has acolytes and yes indeed he may even, as Common Purpose and other left-thinking organisations have, inserted his ‘young leaders’ into governing institutions. But they have been doing this sort of thing for a great many years. The royal courts, and religion before that, all have sought to impose their grand vision on mankind and few have resulted in glorious redemption. And it’s all because of you.

Come over to the dark side, Luke...

Yes, you, you ungrateful animals who would bite the hand that feeds you. Of course, if having a belief in a grand conspiracy to enslave us all is important to your life view, who am I to deny you? Some people need a bit of doom to cling to, even in the best of times, so why not indulge in some exciting domination fantasy while times are grim? But as things stand I’m not holding my breath for Schwabby and his Dr Evil chums. Humanity is a work in progress and I don’t fear a new world order… I’d just like to see the old one sorted first.

The Little Reset

So much for The Great Reset. The hideously complex wish list of the World Economic Forum never had a chance of getting off the ground. It looks like nothing more than a tidied-up mind-map (another faddish nonsense) resulting from a drug-fuelled weekend among idealists and crazies… and people with far too great a regard for their own influence and power. As a unifying, totalitarian plan for the future it was only ever pie in the sky.

Yes, influencers operate throughout society; from the shouty bloke down the pub, through the fleeting fame of celebrities spouting new age drivel, to the very heart of governments. Your offspring inform you of the imperatives of the day – climate change, human rights, trans activism, socialism, and so on, and you listen indulgently. Government spokespeople spout jargonistic new initiatives to revolutionise society itself. But the ultimate success of change agents has to be measured by results.

And the results are far from the overarching centralised power so many warn against. And look at who is doing the warning: The clearly deranged Kate Shemirani, the serial nutjob David Icke, and Jeremy Corbyn’s even madder older brother. Yes, there are more credible dissenters out there – scientists and doctors and even politicians – but, far from being silenced, they are being heard. Over and over again. In fact, we her little else.

Boris Johnson’s lunatic advisors have come up with some barely credible ideas to ‘save the planet’, but they have been rebuffed and ridiculed as they should be, and nobody has yet been jailed for rinsing their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher. Only today it has been announced that the date for replacing gas boilers has been pushed back another five years. To my recollection this is the fourth or fifth time that unrealistic ambition has been postponed.

All I am saying is what I have been saying – and seeing – for years. As little as you think your vote matters, collectively we actually do influence what governments do. They need to be re-elected at some point but in between elections they float the wildest of ideas, possibly in the full awareness that these are just pipe dreams, and I am sure that sometimes they are surprised by what is accepted and what is rejected. We might not get what we think we voted for individually, but we do end up with what a collective voter base elects.

The plain truth is that we all have our ideas about how we would rule the world, ideas that receive a big slap in the face should we dare to air them. Try it for yourself; make a bold statement on social media of the way forward and see the alacrity of those who leap in to tear down your ideas. This is exactly what appears to be happening around every part of the agenda for this proposed great reset. The bits that stand up will be accepted and adopted. The rest will just be abandoned.

Governments, especially democracies, have a terrible track record in enacting controlled change, no matter how benevolent their intentions. (I really don’t subscribe to the biblical notion of ‘evil’, and never have.) Of far greater efficacy are the movements started by charismatic individuals, as incredible as they may be. I was reminded today of Joseph Smith, who claimed to have been visited by God and as a result founded the Mormon Church. Now, that is crazy, but today there are over 16 million of them, all following a made-up religion. (For the avoidance of any doubt, all religions are inventions of man.)

I’m not alarmed at all. I remain unconcerned about all the clamour in the world today. People are rejecting perfectly good advice and believing the outlandish. But at the same time, other people are listening to alternative voices to the official channels, some of which are undoubtedly sound, while some of the official advice has been shown to be unreliable. How do you decide what is correct and what is not? I suspect we are are all driven more by apparent consensus than fact, no matter how much we tell ourselves otherwise.

On every subject of concern – climate change, Covid, communism, energy, population, social engineering, and so on and so on – there are as many opinions as there are individuals. An argument that appears to hold water today will be dismissed tomorrow and in a week you may be amazed you ever endorsed it. This will never change, but, as for the much-vaunted great reset, it’s already been reset. Well done, you freedom warriors, you!