Apparently when tech or finance plutocrats aren’t busy stroking their egos through puerile social media posts or imposing their will through financial blackmail, they are busy planning their own utopian societies or ensuring their post-collapse survival.
Yes, the tech and finance bros know how the world should work and are pretty disappointed that no one has put them in charge. They can only attend or give so many TED talks before frustration sets in. Doesn’t humanity realize that they are the job creators and the big thinkers? What’s a billionaire to do?
And oh, by the way, they would like us to know that the world as we know it is going to collapse in a decade or two, if not sooner. Climate change, mass extinction of plant and animal life, mass immigration, political chaos and war, economic crises – take your pick (multiple correct answers possible!) – will doom human civilization.
According to many of the modern, self-appointed illuminati, democracy is inefficient and outmoded, traditional government is worthless, liberalism and globalism are DOA, and society is on the verge of disintegrating.
But fear not, the tech wizards are coming up with a plan. They are already directing their super intellects toward solutions for the planet. Well, not for the whole planet, just for a small cadre of their brethren.
”Say, rather than use our vast undeserved resources to actually do some good, let’s buy land in some country that is desperate for cash and start building ourselves a utopian society and survival bunker so that our incredible genes can be the blueprint for the next version of humanity.”
It will be a new buzzword-based society – networked, crypto-funded, AI-guided, autonomous in every sense of the word! And with all those success stories and big egos together, what could possibly go wrong? Oh, thank you so much, tech wonders, for ensuring the survival of humankind, even if the vast majority of us will not be asked to participate!
But before we all get too excited, we might want to remind ourselves of the long history of utopian societies, most of which were started by similarly self-impressed and entitled aristocrats, autocrats, plutocrats and other such crats. Hint: they all failed miserably.
Human beings are messy, society is messy, civilization is a slow plodding affair. Bright people can help, but they don’t have all the answers. There are no simple answers. And starting over is only an option if you do not really care about people and only care about yourself. And that, I am afraid, is a characteristic all too common in today’s plutocrats.
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