Wednesday, 19 January 2000
.....
As Niel rightly points out, the NY Times misses a grand
opportunity to point out the absurd hypocrisy of the World
Economic Forum talking about inclusion. But we can rationally
lament the Times missing this opportunity only if we
presuppose that the Times is at all interested in pointing out
the hypocrisy of global elites.
But that would be a fatal presupposition. As Noam Chomsky has
relentlessly demonstrated in countless instances, the
Times serves the interests of the global elites; it serves the
interests of all those self-congratulatory wankers who gather
in Davos. The Times isn't likely to do any hypocrisy
finger-pointing, not this late in the game.
But concern for the ideological interests of the Times is in
one sense misleading; the wankers at Davos who are worrying
about stuff like 'inclusion' and 'egalitarianism' are in their
own, very limited way, quite sincere. They do want to make
Davos more inclusive.
But the $64,000 question that has to be asked is, "more
inclusive of whom?" And when one asks that question, it
becomes obviously clear to anyone who is at all honest that
the World Economic Forum's much ballyhoed concern for
inclusion is simply a concern to broaden their understanding
of who is included among the global elite. After all, they
certainly don't want any of the unwashed hoi poilloi
attending; otherwise they wouldn't be so gleeful in basking in
Davos's remoteness, nor would the WEF have strong-armed the
Davos Lower Chamber of County Council and the canton of
Graubunden to deny an application to demonstrate and protest.
See also NY Times on Davos <http://monkeyfist.com/articles/84>
This is Davos and the Propaganda of Inclusion <http://monkeyfist.com/articles/86>