“Pretending to do something when you’re doing nothing is an art form in itself.”

— Sue Grafton

“Today, the situation is completely different,” Bonner wrote in an essay titled They, the Elite. “The elite are not outsiders; they’re insiders, eager to protect their power, status and wealth.”

Let’s explore that a little.

Bonner’s “paranoia” [not the right word, but the right sentiment] is not unfounded. It clues into an age-old idea put forth by one of capitalist theory’s favorites, Joseph Schumpeter. Apart from his concept of “creative destruction” and the importance of the entrepreneur in the economy of business development, Schumpeter believed capitalism was doomed from its inception.

In typical academic fashion, he wrote of a paradox at the center of the hissing -ism:

I felt it my duty to take, and to inflict upon the reader, considerable trouble in order to lead up effectively to my paradoxical conclusion: capitalism is being killed by its achievements. Its very success undermines the social institutions which protect it, and “inevitably” create conditions in which it will not be able to live and which strongly point to socialism as to the heir apparent.

Oof. Brain pretzel.

Don’t get us wrong, Schumpeter believed that capitalism generates the highest standard of living conceivable because it continually creates new goods and services for the consumer, new methods of production and transportation for the worker, new markets and new forms of industrial organization for the producer, all the while destroying obsolete ways of doing things. In other words, capitalism is a process of invention and innovation that constantly disrupts the economy and improves people’s standard of living.

(Source: Jon Tyson)

What Schumpeter feared– and, I think, what Bonner fears– is an idealistic rejection from within. As in, those who benefitted from the hothouse of American innovation suddenly decide to turn against it in an attempt to stop everyone else from benefiting as they did.

We think immediately of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and its cabal of capitalist beneficiaries. They’re thesis seems to align with this fear that, according to Schumpeter, the capitalist process ultimately shapes “things and souls” for socialism. Think: “You will own nothing and be happy” or The Great Reset or the millions and millions displaced by global warming created by this great industrial mutation, capitalism. God forbid socialism surpass capitalism in productive efficiency!

What if all that is hoo-haw?

What if, They, the Eliteare actually “a big nothing burger,” exclaims our Session guest this week, Ryan Daniel Moran. He continues:

Since you already believe the WEF is an evil organization, your brain will lump me into “the agenda,” into being on the evil side. And your brain will discard any evidence to the contrary because we see what we believe.

I think the World Economic is a very benign, not that influential, nothing burger. And I am amazed at how much air time our peers give to an organization that is basically just a conference.

The issue then, is not in fighting the global cabal– after all, we are powerless against such an omnipotent axis– the issue is in not getting distracted from the maintenance of one’s individualism in the face of so many thought-provoking arguments. We don’t need to point fingers all the damn time.

Moran continues, dispelling the argument for the WEF even further:

It is often cited that Klaus Schwab said, “You will own nothing and be happy,” and that this is something the World Economic Forum promotos. But Kalus never said that. I’ve read The Great Reset, poured through his interviews. He’s never said that.

The phrase comes from one Facebook video from 2016, in which there was a list of predictions made about the world in 2030. It included 3D printing organs, people eating less meat. The last one is that people will own nothing and be happy because everything will be delivered by drone to your doorstep. That’s all.

So what do you think? Are They, the Elite real or a big nothing burger… or something in between. You can write to me here.

Or you can watch my full discussion with Ryan Daniel Moran by clicking here.