Davos - the Call of Ctulhu for Zombienomics

I don't know why, but for some reason perfectly sane people go to Davos and then write a curious type of article - not quite sure how to describe it but words like smug, supine, surface level and subservient all come to mind. Its like biting the hand that feeds, but without teeth, and giving the fingers a grateful little lick at the same time. These two articles are typical of the genre - I had them on the spike for shafting, as it were - as to my mind they show this particular issue off quite well.

First, Alan Rusbridger on "Google is another country":

Google is not unlike many other countries (Britain, say) which turn up at Davos with half the cabinet. Schimdt was flanked by his senior team – including David Drummond, Nikesh Arora, Marissa Mayer, and Chad Hurley. All presidents or vice-presidents, and worth a few billion between them. They are sitting on mountains of cash and no debt. So, not very much like most countries.

It goes on to outline a basic fireside chat Google had with the star-struck, with no real information. It must be the Davos effect, but surely the obvious points to be made in such an article were:

(i) If Google were a country, the interviewers would not be soft soap firesiders, but hard hitting types like the BBC Today and Newsnight hounds. (Its in times like these that you see the difference between independent and dependent media)

(ii) If Google were a country, its government would not be seen as a "free, democratic, do no evil" type but something just a shade off Feudal that spied on its citizens like no other state except East Germany. Hell, China would probably look more democratic in comparison.

And then there was Jeff Jarvis, on "The disrupted of Davos"

Last year when I arrived at Davos, I wondered whether we were among the problem or the solution. This year, I wondered whether we were among the future or the past. Well, actually, I don’t wonder.

We were among the disrupted. The only distinction among them is that some know it, some don’t. At Davos, I fear, most don’t.

........

At the end of the week, I sat in on a session trying to brainstorm under WEF’s theme of the three re’s. They said the point of the exercise was to get soundbites (as they used to be known; tweets as they are now known) and that’s what they got: PowerPoint (actually, Tumblr) platitudes. There were good points: We need to change what we measure, said one table, for now we get what we measure (true from media to economies). But there was also insipidness: “We are what we allow to happen.” And: “Ecology means caring. Equity means sharing.” Put that on your T-shirt and wash it.

Then a 17-year-old from Iraq scolded the entire room, telling them that these were just sayings. Where’s the action, he asked? Where are the specifics? That moment gave me hope: another disrupter, this one from the future.

I mean, FTW? Soundbites production is the main industry of Davos, we know that, but blogging allows one un petit snark, an opportunity to call it out there and then. And there is always the regulatory Angry Youth that the Old Farts can smile benignly on and say "ah, we were like that once" (though they never were, they know people on the barricades get shot - often by their own side) and believe they are handing on the baton. Jeff's article goes on to detail his herculaean labours at Davos, and ends with:

I see the value in Davos: smart people with the power to get things done (well, once upon a time) able to mix and meet and sometimes learn and even act. I see similar benefit for the people are indeed are rethinking, redesigning, and rebuilding by replacing.

I'd love to know who is actually rethinking et al, Jeff. I saw far more evidence of retrench, retain and refute. It would be interesting to look at the Davii over the last 10 years and ask what actually got done there of any value. One chap on BBC radio 4 opined that Davos was basically the collection of all the people who have f*cked up our world (I paraphrase). And as another wag pointed out, most people were there checking out what it would be like to live in Switzerland as its the only rich country that looks like leaving them untaxed.

In short, what - what, guys - changed? What evidence did you see that there is any understanding that the world is in an unsustainable place? Those that ruined it are still in power, ordinary people are still paying an extraordinary price for those at Davos. And what did you Tigers of the MediaSphere do to highlight this while over there? Where were the bloggers taking up the lance and tilting at the (massively subsidised) Windmills - I heard more useful critique from the BBC than from a roomful of blogmonkeys.

Do you guys remember the Halcyon days? When Social Media, the Internet, the Web was supposed to be a force for change, a force for Equality? When we could believe that Google tried hard to Do No Evil. When bloggers would tell The Truth, unlike the Olde (spit) Media? When YOU had the power, and soon the glory. Our kingdom was about to come, here, for everybody. The long tail was soon to crack the whip. What happened?

This year was more piquant than those to date, given the sh*t we are in - I couldn't help feel that this was the Animal Farm year for Big Blog Media.

Or as Umair Haque may say (I may be putting words in his mouth here), Davos is the Call of Ctulhu for Zombienomics

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