*Originally published in 2023 and preserved as part of our archive project.Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber to support our work.

All faiths have their sacred shrines, dedicated rituals, and obligatory pilgrimages. So does globalisation. Its adherents congregate annually at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos. This is easily accessible to its high priests by private jet into Zurich and a helicopter transfer. Lesser mortals use mundane terrestrial locomotion, as I have done a few times representing whichever organisation employed me at that moment. But I found that speed-dating celebrities is not a particularly satisfying experience and extracting something meaningful from their platitudes is mentally draining.

The 53rd gathering of the WEF faithful has just concluded amidst the usual critiques that are even more trenchant this year. Much of these derive from the elite nature of a club of multi-billion-dollar enterprises with a sophisticated caste system of membership paying between US$120,000 to US$600,000 for different levels of engagement. That buys fast-track access to world leaders, global institutional heads – and myriad thinkers, movers, shakers, and influencers.

I recall from earlier times how rubbing shoulders with the great and good used to feel awesome. That was the age of uncritical reverence for our democratic rulers and implicit belief in their mantra of market-driven globalisation. When doubts arose that democracies were faltering through majoritarian capture and corruption, and exploitation and unfairness are to be tolerated on the road to riches, it was to Davos you returned to renew your faith.

As times changed, ‘Davos man’ did not. Nowadays, he is pilloried as part of an unaccountable cabal-think perpetuating the world disorder that brings him extraordinary wealth at the cost of unimaginable destitution for........

© E-International