Sign of the Times: Bunker Mentality in Davos

Heh-heh-heh:

Presidents, prime ministers and other government officials are gathering for five days of discussions with captains of industry, bank bosses and heads of non-governmental organisations.

So the streets of this Swiss ski resort have been effectively cordoned off by a series of roadblocks and there is airport-style security checks all over the place.

To many, perhaps most, this is understandable. Many of the leaders here have dangerous enemies.

But the way this rarefied gathering of global leaders has decided to create large gaps between themselves and the outside world is also symbolic, perhaps even symptomatic, of deep distrust.

The BBC article is accompanied by pictures of the heighten security around these so-called “leaders”.

So, to recap, the Smaug Elite* deregulate the world, blow up economies all over the place, ruin innocent peoples’ lives, act like making obscene gobs of cash is the loftiest pinnacle of human endeavor to which we can aspire, treat everyone else like lazy parasitical scum who don’t deserve to get paid to eat and live, and as a result, they have to hire small armies to huddle behind when they take to tiny Swiss ski towns to talk about how hard it is to find good help anymore.

I’d say this experiment with the unregulated  free market system is racing towards its inevitable conclusion quite well.  Party on, Ayn Rand!

* Hat tip Hamfast Ruddyneck for the term Smaug Elite to refer to the uber wealthy and their financier class allies.

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Something about this situation felt eerily familiar.  I couldn’t put my finger on it.  Where else had I seen a bunch of super wealthy, arrogant, self-centered sociopaths with a maniacal impulse to rule the world as our leaders, but who also felt obliged to hire battalions of jack booted thugs to provide security against intruders?  Then it hit me:

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