Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Fellow conspiracy realists, it's your guys. We're back with another
classic episode. This is a two-chapter episode. We got super
into something called The Great Reset. This comes to you
courtesy of a pandemic known as COVID-19. It's a weird
(00:20):
way to introduce that one. Remember when we first found
out about this, guys?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Got it.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Good.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Now get inside. That's a Bo Burnham for you. That
was the thing. What was that pandemic really about, right?
And this hinges on some of the concepts that floated
around early on in the pandemic, that this was a plan,
a plandemic. The idea that some force, unseen, unknown, wanted
(00:48):
us to all be inside, to all reset how money worked,
not just in one country, but across the world.
Speaker 2 (00:56):
Yeah, it's like some real biblical stuff. It's the idea
of burning things down to rebuild. In whose image?
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Why, the folks at Davos, of course.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
This episode is brought to you by the World Economic Forum.
From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is
riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Hello. Welcome back to the show. My name is Matt.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
My name is Noel.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
They call me Ben. We're joined, as always, with our
super producer, Paul Mission Control Deccans. Most importantly, you are you,
you are here, and that makes this Stuff They Don't
Want You To Know. This is one of those episodes,
I don't know if you guys ever think about this,
but this is one of those episodes where I thought
the people in the audience today might be somewhat distinguished. Guys,
(02:03):
we might have We might have some very powerful people
tuning in to today's episode. And that is wild because
these people, if you are listening, welcome. These people are
under the effects of disasters that all of humanity is
currently struggling in. We live in what is sometimes called
(02:25):
interesting times. The global pandemic shook and for a time
silenced human routines. The environment is degrading at a pace
faster than a square pusher or a Conlon Nancarrow song.
I'm sorry, it was on my bucket list to work
in a reference at some point in the show to
that guy. Multiple regions of the globe are moving closer
(02:46):
to all-out hot war. Inequality is spiking. Everybody knows this.
We live amid one of the greatest eras of wealth
redistribution in human history and not in a way that
benefits the vast majority of humanity. In short, we've painted
ourselves into one hell of a corner. And like we
said before on the show, everybody admits there are serious problems.
(03:09):
No one agrees how to fix them. For the past
few years, a transnational, not-for-profit organization called the World Economic
Forum has been, according to them, working towards solutions to
these existential threats. Their newest plan is something called the
Great Reset Initiative. It kicked off at their annual Davos
(03:32):
meeting last year, back in 2020. It's got some powerful proponents,
some powerful cheerleaders, and it has a lot of critics
from across the gamut of any spectrum you could imagine.
And it also possesses more than a healthy dollop of
stuff they don't want you to know. This is inspired
(03:53):
by a listener who I believe called in.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Is that correct?
Speaker 1 (03:56):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
And really thrashed us, but left with this, like, why
haven't you covered this topic? And, and in a lot
of ways as a, this, we would have covered this anyway,
but also a little bit of a, how about this buddy? We're, we're, we're, uh,
we're doing this episode.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Well, you know, as always, thank you for taking the
time to reach out to us, fellow conspiracy realists. Let's
get into it to understand the Great Reset Initiative and
to understand why so many people love it and why
so many more people are terrified of it or hate it.
We have to first understand what Davos is. So here
(04:39):
are the facts.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So Davos is the name that's used as shorthand for
an annual four-day conference organized held by the World Economic
Forum that meets in Davos, Switzerland. It's like kind of
the creme de la creme of, you know, venture capitalists
and influencer types, but more like people at a high,
high level of that kind of world. The roots of
(05:02):
the organization date back to 1971, when a gentleman named
Klaus Schwab, the professor Klaus Schwab, founded what was originally
called the European Management Forum, which was a nonprofit foundation
based in Geneva. And in the first year, Schwab invited
450 executives from influential companies across the West of Europe
(05:22):
to the first European management symposium at the Davos Congress Center.
Speaker 3 (05:28):
Yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
And their stated goal is we're going to take all
these leaders of European business, European firms, and we're going
to introduce them to what Professor Schwab calls American management practices.
So far, so good. It's a little dry, right? I mean,
business conventions happen all the time, or they used to,
(05:49):
and there doesn't seem to be anything abnormal about that.
This became an annual event. You know what I mean?
Like a really, a much less cool Dragon Con, where
everybody's kind of wearing the same costume. And it continues today.
Over time, it experienced mission creep, we could call it.
(06:11):
It broadened in terms of its scope and in terms
of this actual conference that you just described. No, Davos
itself grew. By the next decade, pretty soon after 1971,
political leaders realized that this meeting was an enormous opportunity
(06:32):
to promote their interests. Some of the most powerful businessmen,
and they are still largely male, Davos, we're all in
one place. We're sitting ducks for you to come and say,
this is why you should invest in my country, or
this is why you should agree with my ideological system.
So it kind of, you could argue that it either
(06:52):
evolved or it was kind of appropriated toward other ends, right?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Yeah. It's a great place to spread a thought virus.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Yes, exactly.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
That's one way of referring to it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
I like that, Matt.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
I guess we could jump forward here. So it began
doing that, right? Like you said, just after the 70s
when it was formed. Then 17 years later, 1987, after
it was formed, it changes its name to officially the
World Economic Forum. And this is, it's kind of confusing
because you've probably heard of this many times before. It's
(07:29):
been like just dropped somewhere in an article or somebody
in passing mentioned the WEF or the World Economic Forum
or Davos. And to get it, put it all together
and to realize exactly what it is and what it means,
it takes some digging. Just so be aware of that. Oh, yeah. Yeah,
we are.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
We are spending maybe a little more time than usual
on the background. But I would argue it's because even
our here are the facts part is going to get
very crazy in just a moment, actually. We'll still tell
you when the really crazy stuff begins. But the background
here is already weird.
Speaker 3 (08:04):
Yeah, and it's not all scary stuff. There have been
really great things that have come about largely because of,
like you said, guys, the close interaction that these leaders
get to have with each other at Davos.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah, Greece and Turkey were on the precipice of war
in 1988. They were able to step back from that
by signing the Davos Declaration at that conference. Leaders from
South Africa during the Mandela era met at Davos in
1992 amid enormous political tension, right? And the list goes
(08:42):
on and on. Yasser Arafat met with other Middle Eastern leaders.
This was, well, if you want to be very cynical,
these were great photo ops, but they also did have
an impact on policy. The conversations mattered.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
And this isn't like a recognized extra governmental body, right?
Even in as much as like the UN is that thing, right?
It's just like a very high optics kind of event,
a meeting of the minds. And these things, these agreements
that we're talking about would certainly be what you would
consider non-binding since they're absolutely not connected to actual government,
(09:20):
but it's a good look. And it's a thing that
was like, okay, we're going to join hands and kumbaya
this out and then have like an understanding and it
behooves every member of the agreement to kind of play
nice because it's a good look, right?
Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
There's a, you know, peer pressure doesn't go away when
you become a billionaire or a head of state. You
just have different peers exerting different kinds of pressure. This currently,
like I love the point we're making here. Currently, it
can be difficult to define what the WEF is in
(09:56):
a single, honest, and accurate sentence. You could say it
is a think tank. You could say it is a
charitable foundation at times. It is all of those things,
and it's other stuff too. Reading the official literature of
the WEF is, and this is no ding on their writers,
(10:16):
it's not that much help. Honestly, it is full of
terms that are very slick, that are vague, perhaps by design,
but do generally seem to indicate positive, beneficial goals for
the world overall, regardless of creed, nationality, etc. It describes
(10:37):
itself as, quote, the international organization for public-private cooperation. Shout
out military-industrial complex, right?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
According to, again, their official literature, the WEF and Davos
is independent. It is impartial. It is somehow not tied
to any of the special interests of, again, the tremendously
powerful people who go there every year for four days.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
And you can learn way more than you'd like to
learn about Davos and the World Economic Forum if you
go to that website, their official thing. Oh, man, you
will love it. Read their codes of conduct. Just grab
some tea, sit down and just go all the way
through it. You'll love it. It'll be a great Saturday evening.
You can, though, more interestingly, read their like broader aims
(11:28):
or at least their stated aims, right? Their focus areas,
the things that they want to cover in each year's
session or that they have covered in the past and
then what they are looking to cover. Oh, and there's
some things in here that are really interesting, Ben. Mastering
the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Sounds nice.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It sounds spooky to me. It's one of their big
three concepts or areas of focus. So the WEF says
the Fourth Industrial Revolution, quote, represents a fundamental change in
the way we live, work, and relate to one another.
(12:10):
They describe it as a new chapter in human development.
They talk about promise, peril, cadence, speed, depth, all the
good hits from corporate boardroom meetings. But what it really
is taken to mean in practical terms is an acceleration
of the digital revolution into things like automation of industrial
(12:35):
and manufacturing concerns, smart technology, machine-to-machine communication, machine learning, and
the Internet of Things, which I think we've all heard
various projections about that for a number of years now.
Their other two big proposals are solving the problems of
(12:56):
the global commons and addressing global security issues. These are
two very important things. These are two crucial things for
the survival of not just the human species, but all
the species that have currently evolved to live in a
pre-industrial world, pre-industrial environment. The commons, I think, especially is
(13:19):
a very dangerous thing. Global commons means things like natural
resources that all people share and, to a degree, rely on.
A problem with the global commons would be something like
Water rights being given to a corporation that then takes
the water out of the local ecosystem with damaging long-term effects.
(13:41):
How do we fix that without breaking civilization as we
know it?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And bankrupting Nestle.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Oh, yeah, exactly. There's something a little eerie about the
idea of these rich and powerful super influencers discussing the
next phase of human evolution.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
That's a little cringy.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
To me, for some reason. I don't know why.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
At the very least, it feels like it could easily
be tone deaf.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Right. So, like, who is this for? Right?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
Like, you know what I mean? Like, which humans are
we talking about?
Speaker 3 (14:14):
There's a potential for a great puckering to occur when
you really think about that.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
A great puckering of a collective butthole?
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Is that what you're talking about? Well, in all the ways.
There's puckering.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
So, okay, current state. The Great reset initiative, as we said,
began last year. Around 2,500, maybe ballpark 3,000 people attended
the annual meeting as participants, as speakers, or as the
primo stakeholders. You can call them if you want to
(14:47):
be a little crass. Who are these people? Well, the
number includes everyone from prime ministers to environmental activists like
Greta Thunberg to bankers, of course. It's funny because some
bankers have a lower position in the hierarchy. I'm going
with the Dragon Con example. This is just a side note.
(15:09):
You know how some people will go to Dragon Con,
a very popular convention here in Atlanta, Georgia. They'll go,
but they won't pay for a Dragon Con pass. They'll
hang out. And try to sneak into parties and stuff.
Some of the bankers at Davos do the same thing.
Or there's like a gray market trade in the badges
(15:30):
you need to be admitted to the city. And so
they'll buy these at inflated prices from hotels. They'll just
hang out at those hotels and then they'll wait for these,
you know, these powerful people, these financial industrial whales to
come through grabbing some drinks after, you know, the meetings
or the lectures. And then they'll be like, hey.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
By the way.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:53):
Yeah. They'll be like, hey, Paul Deccan, Goldman Sachs. Pleasure
to meet you.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
The Goldman Sachs here.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
The Goldman Sachs.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
Applebee's.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Who's your boss? The actual Goldman Sachs.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Applebee's is the hotspot for hobnobbing of the rich and
famous and powerful. It makes me think of my hometown
of Augusta, Georgia is very well known for the Masters
Golf Tournament, which is another meeting of the rich and powerful.
And really hard to get official tickets to the actual tournament,
but practice round tickets are a little easier to come by.
(16:24):
And I remember when I was a kid, Me and
some friends would hang out outside, wait for people to come,
and they would just give us their practice round badges,
and then we'd sell them, rinse and repeat, and then
enough to buy ourselves a nice steak dinner at Longhorn.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
Nice, nice.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
I went in once just to check it out, and
then I think I went one other time with somebody
that actually had real tickets, but not my scene. But
it was definitely fun to feel like the little Oliver
Twist urchins, you know, begging for, can I please, sir,
may I have your practice round ticket?
Speaker 1 (16:53):
And some people at Davos would love that narrative because
it's very free market, isn't it? That's a good one.
Get something and then sell it for a price a
willing buyer will engage with. Yeah, it also includes Bollywood actors.
It includes presidents.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yes, U.S.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Presidents. Donald Trump, when the Trump administration was still in office,
he went to the last Davos meeting. And the size
of this thing, the sheer magnitude is crazy. There are
two great journalists who wrote an article about this for
the New York Times, and they noted just the sheer
(17:32):
magnitude of this event. That's Michael J. de la Merced
and Russell Goldman.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, and what they state is specifically about the population
of Davos. So you can imagine it like any smaller
town that is a vacation destination or something.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Generally, there are going to be very few people living
there year round. But when it's season, when it's time
for the season, wherever that place is, my goodness, there
are going to be a ton of folks running through.
And these reporters noted that the general population of Davos
is about 11,000 human beings just at all times. There
are 11,000 people who are going to be there. Then
(18:15):
when Davos rolls through and they've got those four days,
they got the conference, it's about 30,000 people. So it
triples almost in size. And they call it the world's
most expensive networking event. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
I mean, it's sort of like not that much different
from places like Sundance, you know, or– even the masters.
Like I said, I mean, Augusta is, is not a
small town, but they depend on that business so much
like restaurants and hospitality, you know, companies and, and you know,
places that do events and all that, they live and
(18:53):
die by that tournament. And when, you know, COVID happened
this year and it didn't happen properly, or they did
it like a virtual masters with no humans. That was
a big hit for the economy.
Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
These are, these are big hits too. In the case
of Davos specifically, we're going to see that it bears
those similarities just outlined, but it goes so much further.
It's cloak and dagger stuff when you get to the
bottom of it. But oddly enough, as this organization continues
(19:24):
to evolve or experiences mission creep, whichever way you see it,
There is a note that the audience changed. So many,
many more political leaders now and academics who were the
original audience of the conference back in 1971 are now
by far the smallest group represented. The people that were
thought to have the theoretical know-how to tackle big problems.
(19:49):
There's also... a ton of press. So unlike Bohemian Grove
or some other elite closed-door get-togethers, you know, like an
IMF meeting or something, the media is all over this one.
Some form of media has access to all official sessions.
And some of these sessions are even broadcast online. So
(20:10):
you can watch them even if you are not a
Davos man, which we'll get into that weird phrase later.
Of course, this doesn't mean you, specifically you, fellow conspiracy realists,
get to see everything. That's because the entire, this is
what makes it different from Dragon Con or the Masters
or any other convention, the entire city of Davos is
(20:31):
locked down during this event, leading up to it and
then after. You cannot get in. anywhere in the city,
unless you have been invited by the WEF in some capacity.
And there's also, you know, despite all the talk about
dignity for every person and combating inequality, right? Despite all
(20:53):
that talk, there is an intensely hierarchical badge system. I
think this is just like cartoonishly paradoxical, but I understand
if they have to, why they have to do it
this way. The badge system determines your access. Wait for it.
White badges are the best. Those are the top members
of this four day society and civilization. Orange is that's
(21:15):
the press. You can go some places. We can't go
all the places. Uh, and then there are other colored
badges for support staff. Cause remember Matt said the population
goes up to 30,000, but we said there were like
2,500 to 3,000 attendees. The rest of that is like
security support staff, uh, Drivers. Drivers, caterers, personal bodyguards, personal assistants.
(21:41):
You know what I mean? The sort of small social
ecosystem that gathers around powerful individuals, right? They rarely travel solo. So, yeah, cool, cool, cool.
Still very equal, I'm sure. The idea here is that
through honest, transparent conversation, these– they refer to themselves as stakeholders–
(22:04):
will be able to cooperatively tackle those issues that are
simply too big for an individual entity, be it state
or corporation, to solve. So building consensus, the theory is,
allows the groups to make plans that, just like pollution,
do not stop at any single political border. It's kind
(22:25):
of a cool idea if it works.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
Does it work, Ben?
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Does it work?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Well, no.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Thank you for that. It's a great question. Does it work? Well,
it depends on who you ask. As you might imagine,
there are a few bits of controversy about this idea
of the rich and powerful enacting huge initiatives that go
(22:56):
beyond the bounds of a nation or a private entity.
There is controversy. Maybe just a little bit. Let's pause
for a word from our sponsor, who might be Davos,
or owned by someone who goes to Davos, and then
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Speaker 2 (24:56):
And we're back with more on Davos, the ultra, ultra exclusive...
gathering of the minds, but the minds belonging to the
global elite, essentially. You know, captains of industry, CEOs, presidents, influencers,
heads of state, startup, venture capitalists, things like that, but
(25:19):
all in the service of furthering the narrative that is
human existence. But to what end? Well, let's talk about that.
Speaker 3 (25:27):
There are a bunch of things here, and most of
them start with G. The first one is the greater good, right?
That's what this whole thing is. We've talked about it
a lot in the past in this show, but there's
another one. There's another really big G and something else.
What has it been?
Speaker 1 (25:43):
It is globalism.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
It is.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
This is sort of the we're a family show, but
for four days, Davos becomes the G spot for globalism.
I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (25:53):
Did you see my delay? Okay. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
The WEF doesn't see itself as a world government. To
your earlier point, Noel, they say we're not, you know,
the UN. We're just people of a like mind getting
together to have an honest, well-intentioned debate. But Some critics
argue that this organization and this gathering in particular gets
(26:19):
uncomfortably close to doing the things a world government would do.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Isn't this the kind of stuff that would be red
meat for like an Alex Jones type conspiracy theorist who's
always talking about the global elite and the globalists and
wanting to turn us into a bunch of drones mindlessly being,
you know, controlled by some sort of puppet government?
Speaker 1 (26:38):
Very much so. Very much so. it's difficult to overemphasize
that fact. So I'll just say, yes, capital yes, underline it,
pop some highlighter over that because you are on the money,
my friend. Most years that this, so these meetings, this
is the big one, but other smaller meetings occur in
different regions throughout the world. And they're more focused on
(27:02):
what I guess they would consider more localized issues. But
regardless of where these occur, whether it's regional or the
big one in Switzerland, most years, there are going to
be protesters, anti-globalization protesters on the scene. Also, shout out
to Bono from U2, who says, he described Davos once
(27:22):
as the fat cats in the snow. I don't know.
Does anybody have a good Bono voice?
Speaker 3 (27:27):
It's hard.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
It's hard. You know, he's got a classic Irish lilt,
but with a little extra something that I can't quite
put my finger on, so I'm not going to attempt it.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
All right. All right.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
Well, Send us your best Bono impressions. The anti-globalist perspective
encompasses a lot of stuff. It's not just the Alex Jones.
It's not just what people might consider domestic right-wing politics.
It's also people who are– you might consider them far left.
(27:57):
And these folks, while they clearly don't agree on a
bunch of other things– They argue that the WEF and
other similar institutions like the ones, Matt, you mentioned earlier, WTO,
maybe IMF, G7, things like that. They say what these
folks are actually doing is leveraging capitalism and globalization to
(28:17):
do the exact things that they claim to prevent, to
accelerate poverty, to degrade the environment, all the while making
a nifty profit. That's again, that's not our show saying
this That's what the multitudes of critics and protesters in
this vein are saying. And then there's also the controversy like, okay,
(28:40):
you're helping the world, but what is the world to you?
Because the world is something different, I guarantee you, to
every individual you will ever meet. And in the case
of Davos, where it cost, I think, $ 28, 000 or equivalent
to go, there's this idea that that these folks may
be disconnected, that the world they believe they are saving
(29:03):
may not be the world that the average non-Davos person
wants to be saved, or it's not the world that
they experience. And that's what leads us to this thing
called the Davos man. Sounds like a caveman, right?
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Yeah. Well, that's the thing, man. The Davos man is
almost like, it reminds me of 007 or a spy
or somebody. You've got no allegiances. I don't need to
worry about this continent that I'm currently on or the
borders around this state where my house is. My allegiance
is to humanity. I don't need any of that stuff.
(29:40):
And a lot of it has to do with that
level of wealth that you can reach where you can
drop $ 28, 000. And it's not like the best out there
bonus you could ever imagine receiving or a lottery ticket win.
It's just some extra money that you have.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Right, right. It's like the Davos person is transnational. They're
saying things like, if you ask where they live, they
would say, well, traditionally, my family originates in Greece. We
were in shipping and transporting. I feel a kinship with
the Greeks. I am there, over time, every winter or so. Yes.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
Wintering in Greece. Summering in, perhaps, Ibiza. But typically, these
are also the types of people that would consider themselves
citizens of the world.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Well, and that's a great idyllic thing, right? It is.
In a lot of ways, being a citizen of the world,
I think, is a positive. And I think that's one
of the reasons it's used a lot of times in
the PR world. for these kinds of organizations, because if
we could see everybody on the planet, you know, as
(30:50):
a sibling, essentially, and all of those that, I'm sorry,
I know you guys get on me for Kumbaya-ing a
lot of the time, but this is, but it, it's.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
A beautiful thing. I've never accused you of Kumbaya yet.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (31:00):
All right. Well, maybe guests have a lot, but, but it's,
it's just, it is a beautiful thing. And I, and
I don't want to, I don't want anyone out there
listening to this thinking that that isn't, a cool thing.
It's just, it's a rose colored glasses kind of situation
in most cases.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
It's also being said typically from a place of extreme privilege.
And it's not something that is attainable to most. We
would all love to be citizens of the world, but
unfortunately it requires a lot of resources and capital and
the ability to not be tied down to a family
or a location or whatever, whatever it might be, you know,
(31:41):
normal people, things.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
Yeah, well said.
Speaker 3 (31:44):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (31:44):
You talk to the average, like if you average out
the world, you talk to the average person, describing themselves
as a citizen of the world is going to be
far down on the list of things that they say.
I do want to clarify, if you are an attendee,
like if you were there to speak at Davos, just
(32:05):
to speak, prime minister, et cetera, et cetera, then the
conference itself is going to be free for you. But
if you're there to represent a company, you're like, I'm
the king of Facebook or whatever title they go with,
then you pay the equivalent of $ 28, 000. At least you
did in 2020. And you're absolutely right, Noel, Matt. I
(32:26):
agree with you 100%. Being a citizen of the world
and not being limited by ideology, creed, or any other
demographic slice– that is ultimately, that should be the goal
of the species. The problem is the human brain is
bedeviled by some hard physiological limits. Dunbar's number, you know
(32:49):
what I mean? Not conclusively proven, but pretty compelling in
the argument that there's a limit to how many people
one person can also think of as people instead of
just like, you are the function. You are the reason
the garbage moves on Tuesdays. How do you have a family?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
That's amazing. But there's another thing to take into account here,
and it's something that you've noted here, Ben. We're talking
about it in this ideological way, but there's a very
real mechanical reason for people to at least want to
view borders of nations and countries and continents as a
(33:33):
thing of the past because– they oftentimes are able to
operate on a level that supersedes, that goes beyond those borders,
where you've got a company or global economic, like it's
a global economic forum, where you're, you know, when you're
thinking about shipping, you're thinking about these big movements that
(33:55):
are way bigger than any country.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, hold up for a second. Let's take a quick
pause here for a word from our sponsor and then
back with more on Davos.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And we've returned.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
Yeah. Everything we've said is correct. We are trying to
be very fair because these are tremendous, profound, possibly world
changing ideas. But there's a guy we'd like to introduce
you to. He's a political scientist named Samuel P. Huntington.
He coined the phrase, the Davos man. He describes this
(34:34):
type of person, in his opinion, as people who have, quote,
little need for national loyalty, view national boundaries as obstacles
that thankfully are vanishing, and see national governments as residue
from the past, whose only useful function is to facilitate
the elite's global operations. The implication being that Davos, to
(34:56):
some people, serves not the world, but their own ideological
or financial goals. And we've talked about this in the
past in the show, like the rough sketch of the
evolution of the human species, right? It goes family, and
then it goes religion, and then it goes state, and
then it goes corporation. And we're at the point right
(35:17):
now where it is increasingly less crazy to ask if
we are going to enter into a post-nation-state civilization. you know?
And if so, when does that happen? And the truth is,
there are a lot of, well, there's a segment of
the human population that has no problem with that, that
(35:37):
believes that nationalism or the existence of the nation state
has become increasingly anachronistic or increasingly unhelpful to the overall goal,
which is the spread of humanity ultimately to the stars.
But then, There's another thing, and we got close to
it earlier in today's episode. Is this democratic?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, not so much. I mean, it depends on how
much stock you put into how far-reaching the types of
conversations that happen at things like this actually are. And
I think we can all pretty much conjecture that it's
quite far-reaching because, I mean, the folks that are there
that are in on the conversation have their fingers literally
on maybe not an actual button or lever, but they
(36:27):
have the means to make changes or to maybe not collude,
but there's a certain amount of that at these closed-door
kind of sessions, these types of things, much like a
Bohemian Grove or what have you. But yeah, I mean,
it is a criticism and I think a damning criticism
that Davos enables people a very undemocratic form of decision-making
(36:53):
because we, I mean, literally we, the three of us, we,
most of the people listening to the show, I think
maybe don't have input in these conversations in how political
leaders are influenced or, or the decisions that they make
when they are entering into these, these conversations at a
thing like this.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
These are informal.
Speaker 2 (37:14):
These are like country club conversations where, You pay the
price of entry in order to be in the same
room as these huge decision makers, these huge influencers. All
of this stuff happens informally after hours. And of course,
it's a closed door event. It is invite only. It's
a club made by the highest of the high of
(37:37):
elite society. And odds are it's a club that the
likes of us and many of our listeners are not
invited to.
Speaker 1 (37:44):
Yeah, this kind of exclusivity is appealing to the people
who are on the inside, but it's strange to the
majority of the people who are not in this inner circle.
This brings us to the newest project, the newest Davos initiative.
The purpose of our two-part episode this week, it's something
(38:05):
called The Great Reset. This was the name, the official
name of the 50th Davos meeting that was held in
June of 2020. What was it? You could dig into
all of the research. You can look at the speeches,
the conversations, the debates that were held. And if you
(38:26):
get to the very bottom, the simple idea of the
Great Reset, it is best described, just my opinion, as
a laundry list of s * * * we need
to fix and fast. That is what it is. Doubtlessly,
some of the more aristocratic attendees would be scandalized by
that crass language. But take it as you will. That's
(38:49):
the reality of the situation. Maybe... You know what, to
be fair to them, let's not just have our editorializing
of it. Maybe we can give a quote direct from
their website about what the Great Reset, if not what
it is, what it wants to do.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
Yes, here are the official aims of the Great Reset.
To offer insights to help inform all those determining the
future state of global relations, the direction of national economics,
The priorities of societies.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (39:25):
Priorities of societies. The nature of business models and the management.
of a global commons to transform capitalism into something new
capitalism 2.0. That that's me. I think that's me through
Ben's words.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
I mean, that's, that's the idea, right? That's like, let's
rethink capitalism. In his book, Professor Schwab argues for the,
I don't want to necessarily call it a buzzword, but
the phrase they use to describe this is something called
stakeholder capitalism. Stakeholder would be defined in theory as anybody,
(40:09):
any individual, entity, or organization that will be affected by
decisions made, by problems solved, or by problems accelerated. And
so they're saying what we're doing is we are telling
businesses specifically that you have more responsibilities than merely giving
(40:32):
your shareholders a good profit report at the end of
every quarter. You have other stuff you need to do,
which is something a lot of people can agree with. Davos–
through the great reset initiative wants to build a quote,
new social contract that honors the dignity of every human being.
And on the face of that, that sounds amazing because
(40:56):
there are very few examples in the human species of
of a society or a group dynamic that ever managed
to honor the dignity of every member of the group
or stakeholder. Fine, I'll take it. I'll start saying stakeholder
too now. It's over. We've gone full corporate. But that's
(41:19):
the official answer. That is what the Great Reset is
supposed to do. And at this point, I think we've
raised some good concerns, some hopefully fairly accurate lay of
the land here. Folks, when Matt, Noel, and I work
on these kinds of stories, we do run into things
(41:40):
where we say, this has to be a multi-part show.
And it's not ever a decision we make lightly, but
we also feel that we need to do our best
to actually explore all of this stuff. So consider this
part one. or chapter one, an introduction to Davos, an
(42:02):
introduction to the Great Reset. And tune in for our
very next episode, part two, where we are going to,
assuming Illumination Global Unlimited lets us get away with it,
we are going to dive straight into all the crazy,
crazy stuff surrounding this idea.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, if we're not Stuck in La Crosse, Kansas,
which we might be for a little bit. I know
we have to go do that speaking thing or whatever,
but don't worry about that.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
We got some fun in La Crosse.
Speaker 3 (42:33):
We got some fun. Okay. I just want to say
when I hear or when I first heard this concept
of the Great Reset, I thought it was a fictional story.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
I thought it was.
Speaker 3 (42:43):
This is not true. This is not the reality of
what it is necessarily at all. But I imagined it
as some dastardly plan. The Great Reset. it sounds like
what you do when your, when your computer malfunctions or
your network shuts down and you unplug the thing, wait
for a while and plug it back in because it's
not working. Something has gone awry. We just need to
(43:05):
kill it for a while and then restart it. And
in my mind, I hear them talking about society, essentially
about civilization, about humanity. Uh, that's what I picture at
least when I first, you know, at least when I
first encountered this concept of the great reset.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Yeah. It's got, it's got the sinister vibes of the
Georgia Guidestones in some ways, you know, like be not
a cancer on the earth and maintain population under 500,
you know, million or whatever. So yeah, I can see
how you would go there, Matt.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
And I just, I wonder what everybody else immediately thinks
when they hear what we've discussed thus far. And I'd
like to, you know, If you haven't already researched, hang
in there for the second part of this. But, you know,
I'd love to hear what you think before we even
get into the specifics.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
I think we all would. I think we'd all love
to hear what you think. I mean, is this a
situation of burn the village to save the village? I
also thought of turn it off and turn it on again.
Tell us, tell us. And if you have attended Davos,
whether as a journalist, support staff, or, you know, one
of those people at the top, of this four-day civilization's
(44:18):
pyramid with a vaunted white badge. We also want to
hear from you. We try to make it easy to
find us on the internet. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all the hits.
You can find us there. We'd love to hear from
you also on our community page. Here's where it gets crazy.
There's some great discussion going on there. But if you say,
(44:39):
you know, I'm a billionaire, right? And because I'm a billionaire...
I think social media is for peasants. I don't enjoy it.
It makes me feel like I need to call in
my assistants who wash my hands anytime I have to
touch a keyboard that goes to social media. I'm much
(44:59):
more of a direct one-to-one kind of contact person. Well, Warbucks,
we have a solution for you.
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Boy, do we ever. You can find us on the
usual social media locations of Note, Facebook, And Twitter, where
we are ConspiracyStuff. Instagram, where we're ConspiracyStuffShow. If you wish,
you can also join our Facebook community, Here's Where It
Gets Crazy, where you can get in on the conversation
about Davos, globalism, the elite, or, you know, maybe lighter fare.
(45:29):
A meme or two thrown in for good measure. That's
a fun spot, and all you gotta do is name
a name of anyone involved with the show, or make
Ben laugh, or just say something that lets us know
You're not a Russian bot, and you are aware that
this is a podcast, and this is a podcast community page.
Speaker 3 (45:43):
Yes, and if you don't want to use social media, hey,
guess what? We have a phone number. It is 1-833-STDWYTK.
Give us a call. Tell us your name, whatever you
want us to call you. Give us your message. And
if you want any personal stuff just to talk to us,
do that at the end. We ask that you keep
it as short as you possibly can and only send
(46:03):
one message per topic if possible. If it's longer than
that and you want to add more stuff, send some links.
We recommend you send us an email. We are... Stuff
(46:33):
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