David McNair’s Post

What does #Davos reveal about the state of our society? There are 3️⃣ sides to this story All partly true and partly false at the same time. 1️⃣The first story goes like this. Davos is an an elite winter party. 🚠 Super Rich💰 Private Jets🛩️ Champagne🥂 Fat cats laughing about how much money they have made from the ordinary (wo)man. But my experience is much more mundane. Thousands of middle aged (mostly) men in dark suits and snow boots trucking between panel discussions about the latest trend. 🕴️ This year it’s AI, of course. 2️⃣The second story is one of bringing together people that have resources and can solve big problems. The @wef started hosting the annual meeting in 1971 - introducing European business leaders to American management practices. In 1973 with the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate, the European Management Forum, as it was called, pivoted to economic and social issues. 👉🏿Greece and Turkey turned back from the brink of war at the meeting in 1988 👉🏿Nelson Mandela and F.W.Deklerk had their first meeting outside South Africa in 1992. 👉🏿In 2000, it launched @Gavi: a public private partnership that has vaccinated a billion children and saved 17m lives. 👉🏿In 2022, the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria kicked off an effort to get drugs to developing countries - saving 59 million lives. This year - the idea of a resolution to Russia’s war with Ukraine is on the table. Averting wars and the spread of deadly epidemics is actually a good track record by any standard. The idea that big business wants to solve societal problems doesn’t fit neatly with the ‘fat cat’ story. But in my experience - companies often want to make life better and make money while they’re doing it. 3️⃣Which brings us to the third story. In Foreign Affairs Magazine Mark Malloch Brown eloquently lays out a history of philanthropy. He makes a sharp distinction between ➡️paternalistic do-gooders who took their wealth and used it to soften the symptoms of societal breakdown, and ➡️those that took on the power structures to actually change things. We are at a moment of interregnum (to quote Gramsci). The things that worked in the post war period aren’t working. Either for working families - or for geo-political relations. But neither have we found alternative new ways of doing things that can replace the old order. And the vacuum is creating some very dangerous dynamics. And here is where Davos goers could hit a blind spot. While Davos man is opining on the risks of AI for democracy, he fails to notice the real and present danger to democracy. Electing autocrats! And so, my appeal to Davos-goers: Think big: 👉🏿Make the deals that shape markets and train the powerful force of capitalism towards decarbonisation, prosperity, food security, health. 👉🏿But don’t be blind to the ways that politics and economics are driving a wedge through society’s cohesion.

What does #Davos reveal about the state of our society? There are 3️⃣ sides to this story All partly true and partly false at the same time. 1️⃣The first story goes like this. Davos is an an elite winter party. 🚠 Super Rich💰 Private Jets🛩️ Champagne🥂 Fat cats laughing about how much money they have made from the ordinary (wo)man. But my experience is much more mundane. Thousands of middle aged (mostly) men in dark suits and snow boots trucking between panel discussions about the latest trend. 🕴️ This year it’s AI, of course. 2️⃣The second story is one of bringing together people that have resources and can solve big problems. The @wef started hosting the annual meeting in 1971 - introducing European business leaders to American management practices. In 1973 with the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate, the European Management Forum, as it was called, pivoted to economic and social issues. 👉🏿Greece and Turkey turned back from the brink of war at the meeting in 1988 👉🏿Nelson Mandela and F.W.Deklerk had their first meeting outside South Africa in 1992. 👉🏿In 2000, it launched @Gavi: a public private partnership that has vaccinated a billion children and saved 17m lives. 👉🏿In 2022, the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria kicked off an effort to get drugs to developing countries - saving 59 million lives. This year - the idea of a resolution to Russia’s war with Ukraine is on the table. Averting wars and the spread of deadly epidemics is actually a good track record by any standard. The idea that big business wants to solve societal problems doesn’t fit neatly with the ‘fat cat’ story. But in my experience - companies often want to make life better and make money while they’re doing it. 3️⃣Which brings us to the third story. In Foreign Affairs Magazine Mark Malloch Brown eloquently lays out a history of philanthropy. He makes a sharp distinction between ➡️paternalistic do-gooders who took their wealth and used it to soften the symptoms of societal breakdown, and ➡️those that took on the power structures to actually change things. We are at a moment of interregnum (to quote Gramsci). The things that worked in the post war period aren’t working. Either for working families - or for geo-political relations. But neither have we found alternative new ways of doing things that can replace the old order. And the vacuum is creating some very dangerous dynamics. And here is where Davos goers could hit a blind spot. While Davos man is opining on the risks of AI for democracy, he fails to notice the real and present danger to democracy. Electing autocrats! And so, my appeal to Davos-goers: Think big: 👉🏿Make the deals that shape markets and train the powerful force of capitalism towards decarbonisation, prosperity, food security, health. 👉🏿But don’t be blind to the ways that politics and economics are driving a wedge through society’s cohesion.