24 January 2019

The World Economic Forum, an invitation-only gathering of the mega-rich elite, this year “aim[s] to foster systems leadership and global stewardship while recognizing the actuality of a more complex, ‘multiconceptual’ world”. Anand Giridharadas explains what these gatherings are really about: “Conferences and ideas festivals sponsored by plutocrats and big business — such as the World Economic Forum, which is under way in Davos, Switzerland, this week — host panels on injustice and promote ‘thought leaders’ who are willing to confine their thinking to improving lives within the faulty system rather than tackling the faults. … The only thing better than being a fox is being a fox asked to watch over hens.”