COVID-19: The Great Reset
THE MACHINE STOPS
If you haven’t yet heard about the so-called ‘Great Reset’, I can assure you that very soon, you will. Many of you, though, will already be familiar with the term even if you’re not fully aware of what it means. It most commonly refers to the plans of globalist bodies such as The World Economic Forum, recently set out in the book COVID-19: The Great Reset by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, and co-author Thierry Malleret. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but if you can manage to wade through it, the authors set out the massive global changes which they regard as necessary for our survival as a species; changes which they believe the current pandemic response can help push through.
The pandemic has already instigated sweeping changes in almost every aspect of our lives. Millions of jobs have been lost and entire industries reduced to ruin. Every level of society has been affected. Meanwhile, crises in global systems have been deepening for decades. Tipping points in the financial system, energy supply, and the environment loom ever larger. In the spirit of never letting a crisis go to waste, will COVID-19 be used as a vehicle to usher in political, economic and social change on an unprecedented scale?
From ‘The Great Reset’ section of the World Economic Forum website:
“The COVID-19 crisis, and the political, economic and social disruptions it has caused, is fundamentally changing the traditional context for decision-making. The inconsistencies, inadequacies and contradictions of multiple systems — from health and financial to energy and education — are more exposed than ever amidst a global context of concern for lives, livelihoods and the planet. Leaders find themselves at a historic crossroads, managing short-term pressures against medium and long-term uncertainties.
“As we enter a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery, this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons. Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being.”
My extensive video review of the book is here.
My earlier talk COVID-19: What’s Really Happening? provides further background.
TECHNOCRACY
What are the possible implications for personal freedom in the wake of the crisis? In my video COVID-19: Four Things to Watch For the following points are considered:
1. Social credit system — rewards for ‘good’ behaviour.
2. Mandatory vaccinations (or negative test) — ‘passport’ for international travel.
3. Digital currency — no cash, all transactions recorded.
4. Universal Basic Income — subsistence income instead of a job.
All of these systems either already exist or are at various stages of development and implementation in most countries. These are hallmarks of a technocracy. From Wikipedia:
“Technocracy is an ideological system of governance in which a decision-maker or makers are elected by the population or appointed on the basis of their expertise in a given area of responsibility, it’s the rule by the best qualified citizens, particularly with regard to scientific or technical knowledge. This system explicitly contrasts with representative democracy, the notion that elected representatives should be the primary decision-makers in government, though it does not necessarily imply eliminating elected representatives. Decision-makers are selected on the basis of specialized knowledge and performance, rather than political affiliations or parliamentary skills.”
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
Most people’s experience of the pandemic has been very different from that portrayed by the media. Unable to travel, socially isolated, and imprisoned at home, the primary source of information about what’s happening in the world has been the Internet and TV. How might our perception of reality be affected by the fact that what we are told is happening differs so much from what we actually experience? Subjective vs objective reality and dealing with cognitive dissonance are the subject of my talk COVID-19: Where Exactly is the Pandemic?
WELCOME TO DYSTOPIA
The draconian response to the pandemic is already having a huge social, cultural, and psychological impact across the world. The millions of lives damaged and destroyed by so-called ‘social-distancing’, self-isolation, and mandatory mask-wearing — in addition to those laid waste by lockdowns — some claim has already far outstripped the relatively small number of lives that may have been saved as a result of stopping society in its tracks. In COVID-19: Anti-Social Distancing I ask: What does the future look like if these severe restrictions continue? Must we all stop living in order to save lives? Meanwhile, COVID 19: The Dystopian Age of the Mask asks whether we are happy to rationalise the transformation of our everyday lives, or are we concerned by the proximity of today’s world with some of the most basic dystopian tropes?
If the mainstream media in most parts of the world are to be believed, the projected changes in how we learn, work, travel, socialise and communicate — if we continue to do these things in any meaningful way — are simply inevitable. As noted, major shifts in global systems do indeed need to take place if we are to avoid cascading failures in the coming years. However, whether mass destruction of markets, private property, and personal freedoms are the best and only methods to achieve this, is another matter. One way or another, a great reset is coming.
