The Anointed meet at Davos
And Christopher Wray is among them.
He said he’s “deeply concerned” about China’s AI program, which is “not constrained by the rule of law.” That’s the take-away from his appearance for much of the MSM.
But he said some other things too, Wray did. Among them:
The sophistication of the private sector is improving, and particularly important, the level of collaboration between the private sector and the government. Especially the FBI has I think made significant strides. We are focused on looking at cyber attacks,” Wray said.
Of course, that’s not all that “collaboration” has been doing, is it?
More from Wray:
The competitive advantage the good guys have,” said Wray, is that “When we’re all working together, then they’re no match. Because the bad guys’ relationships with each other are purely transactional. And they’ll turn on each other in a heartbeat if it suits them. But because they’re not constrained by the rule, because they’re not constrained by international norms, we have to be mindful of the advance that gives them and work together in partnership.”
He thinks he’s the good guy.
In one of yesterday’s threads, commenter “physicsguy” asks:
Random question after seeing some of the news from the Davos WEF conference:
What sort of mental illness causes 80+ year olds to cling to power, and set about destroying everything?? I’m thinking here of John Kerry (80), Dr. Evil himself Klaus Schwab (84), Soros, McConnell, Pelosi, etc etc. I’m 70, and know I’m on my way out a lot sooner than when I was 50. I want to spend my final years being happy, being with my family, generally enjoying life. What causes such monsters in their final years to act they way they do?? I’ve never had any real insight into human behavior…probably why I did physics and not psych.
The question was about 80-year-olds, but I think the answer is the same for the 56-year-old Wray. It’s the one Thomas Sowell kept giving, which is that most of them think they’re the good guys, the ones he called “the Anointed.” Many also think that if only they were completely in charge, unconstrained by the rule of law, the world would be a much better place.
Some are probably merely drunk on power and some are probably malign in intent. However, I truly think that most of them are simply under the sway of enormous hubris and self-congratulatory pride (another of Sowell’s phrases as the subtitle of his 1996 book: The Vision of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy).
Some are probably merely drunk on power and some are probably malign in intent. However, I truly think that most of them are simply under the sway of enormous hubris and self-congratulatory pride
I suspect that’s a fair assesment of the pathology of such people. No doubt a significant percentage of them can be boiled down to simple high functioning narcissists. But in a majority others I imagine it’s a web of self delusion, old fashioned hubris, and general ignorance.
At their core they might not be terrible people (knaves). They don’t necessarily outright desire to inflict misery on humanity. And they’re not total idiots either relative to the larger population. But they are certainly nowhere near as intelligent, competent, and virtuous as they imagine themselves to be either. And since they’ve risen to positions of great power and influence, it’s not hard to see how they would imagine themselves to also be intellectually and morally superior to most everyone else. They think along the lines of “Surely anyone as successful as I have been must be far above the normal lumpenprole.”
In short it’s a dangerous combination of great power, great arrogance, and great ignorance.
As a humorous aside, I heard that there’s always massive influx of sex worker activity throughout the duration of the Davos conference.
Physicsguy asks an incredibly important question; any satisfactory answer is necessarily complex and difficult to elucidate. Sowell does a decent job in several of his books. VDH also has many lucid articles addressing the phenomenon specifically in academia.
I think both Sowell and VDH are largely correct. What I will add: for many of them: public presence, power, influence and respect/adoration among their peers in the elite is their primary raison d’etre. I’m generalizing, of course, but these individuals are far less likely to adhere to traditional Judeo-Christian belief and practices; they are far less likely to have children and grandchildren (or if they do, they are less likely to have a close relationship with their kids), are far less likely to maintain a strong bond with any local community or nation (hence the ‘globalist’ outlook), etc. Their identity centers on: being in the public sphere, being seen as powerful, important, intelligent and influential.
I try to keep the above in mind when I get frustrated by the absurd and destructive nature of this class. Some are truly evil; many are not. On some level, they’re rather pitiful souls.
John Kerry said he was, part of “select group of Human beings.” So yes, they believe themselves to be the chosen ones.
Joe Manchin is in Davos as well, no doubt lining up his next job.
No-one who is celebrated at Davos (including the Zelenskys) ought to be accepted by any rational person, but these malign members of the “The Anointed” are far too rich and far too powerful to be simply dismissed. As Tucker has shown, mockery of these self-important “saviors” is all well and good, but the immense and maleficent control which they possess over the prevailing narrative (and, thus, over the lives of innumerable citizens, not only of our own failing republic) is worrisome indeed.
If this is true, it’s horrifying the implications:
Apple Has Begun Scanning Your Local Image Files Without Consent
Jeffrey Paul. 15 January 2023
https://sneak.berlin/20230115/macos-scans-your-local-files-now/
IF you really want to vomit, listen to John Kerry’s little speech at Davos.
He exhibits two of the worst human attributes (aside from pure evil / murderous intent) possible; hubris and stupidity all rolled into one.
Rest assured, that if the average citizen was compelled to be net carbon zero, John Kerry would still be driving around in massive gas powered SUVs, private planes, and all his various homes would all have 8-burner, double oven, gas fired stoves.
It’s too bad there is no way to remove from Kerry’s homes, cars, planes, boats, those items that were produced from or with the aid of oil and gas; this would include, by the way, clothing and food.
He would be forced to live as folks lived in 1800. Of course, he would have not one regret if everybody else came to this end, but he would have no part of that.
It sure is easy to promote an agenda where one is immune and exempt from the consequences of the agenda being advanced.
He is one arrogant and dangerous POS.
Most may tell themselves that they’re the good guys but in their heart of hearts they know otherwise. Good people do not seek to coerce others against their will. In their eager willingness to do so, they put the lie to their pretense of concern for the greater good. In indulging in the very things they decry, they destroy their credibility and reveal a malicious hypocrisy.
PhysicsGuy-
I expect you studied physics because it comforms to “laws”-of Nature and Nature’s God, to recap an old phrase. It is why I majored in chemistry, to understand fundamentals, though p. chem was tough.
Psych is largely BS, eminently mutable, and unfortunately it is one of the most popular majors in US schools. Part of the reason the US is spiraling downward.
Cicero, to reiterate a past comment on this topic:
It took me a while to overcome the hubris of my engineering education, and to realize that the “hard” sciences of physics, chemistry, and ultimately biology, were really “easier” to find credible results as the variables were easier to control in the laboratory.
In contrast, the “soft” sciences of pysch, sociology, anthropology, (and too often) medicine, etc., involved the panoply of human variability. So while data was sometimes easier to obtain in those fields, the validity of that data, and the interpretations deduced from it, were less reliable. They were in fact very hard to validate with high confidence. Real results probably would cost a lot more to employ more subjects/participants, from more diverse groupings, using double blind methods, to resolve sketchy statistical analyses.
And now we are finding that even reputable journals are failing to provide decent “peer review” and too many of their reported results cannot be duplicated by other researchers. This applies more to the “people studies” area, but even STEM foci are not immune to this problem.
Tucker Carlson re gas stoves, shower heads, etc:
(For the left), banning things that other people like and enjoy is the purest expression of power. When you can snatch someone’s pleasure away, you feel like God.
The “anointed personality” type is not rare. I’ve seen them on HOA boards and other organizations where they will work to get into positions of power. Once in power, they will try to ram through HOA rules and regs that they believe will make the community better. They often are not aware of what they are doing. They just believe their ideas for a community are best and everyone should accept their standards. They’re often nice, well-meaning people who are just blind to the idea that their ideas and concepts may not be agreeable to others. In an HOA, you can often fight them and win, but it’s never easy. And sometimes the easy thing is to move.
I don’t know exactly what to call this personality type, but you find them everywhere in society. Of course, if they have powerful positions or a lot of money, their actions affect many more people. The anointed at Davos certainly fit that mold.
Having one of these people as a neighbor where there’s no HOA can be irritating. They will constantly be complaining about something you haven’t done the way they like it. If you fly a flag, they may complain about that. If you put a political sign in your yard, they may complain about that. Etc.
There’s a desire for control, and controlling other peoples’ behavior seems to give them satisfaction. Or they have a compulsion to get others to do what they want because they know best. They’re busy bodies with a high opinion of their tastes and lifestyles.
Does anyone know what this personality type is called?
Ultimately, theyvare assholes.
@ JJ > “There’s a desire for control, and controlling other peoples’ behavior seems to give them satisfaction. Or they have a compulsion to get others to do what they want because they know best. They’re busy bodies with a high opinion of their tastes and lifestyles.
Does anyone know what this personality type is called?”
Colloquially, that’s been long settled: nazi.
(Capital N-azi is the actual German political party.)
Grammar-nazi.
Fashion-nazi.
Enviro-nazi.
Climate-nazi.
If you’re “one of the good guys” at Davos, you are more likely to call the people you hate “fascists” instead, to deflect people from realizing that’s what YOU are.
Not the Bee has their number.
https://notthebee.com/article/this-is-what-passes-for-entertainment-at-the-world-economic-forum
Watch the excruciating video if you can stand it.
I couldn’t.
“These people actually think they are fit to rule the planet!”
Great comments. I think these “nazi-narcissists” are deeply insecure and they want to control everything because (1) a long life of access to power has habituated them to it and (2) deep down they know they can’t control everything or even anything and (3) as they age they see their fantasy of control wearing thin, they’re stalked by disease and infirmity, and they (quietly?) panic. They may be ultra-rich and powerful and surrounded by others like themselves but inwardly they are impoverished and weak. (And alone. What is more lonely than a failing narcissist?). They hear “Time’s wingéd chariot hurrying near” and push harder and more openly for that last crowning achievement, to which they believe they’re really entitled, that will somehow gain them immortality.
That’s my guess at a beginning of an answer to physicsguy’s excellent question.
They’re assholes.
they aren’t merely that, they are world controllers in aldous huxley’s turn of phrase,
ironically the grand guignol kingsman spy thriller, captured the davos ethos, but
they made schwab, black in the form of samuel jackson,
Re: JJ @ 12:24
The controlling personality type, in general, can be classified as an asshole, as
OM @ 1:01 said.
No coincidence that these assholes are always leftists and socialists; e.g. Nazis and communists.
Recall that Nazi = national socialist; Nazi’s hated capitalism too.
IMHO what really pisses off leftist elites is individual liberty; a necessary prerequisite to capitalism; thus their contempt of capitalism .
When a free people make individual choices this will invariably incur the wrath of others – especially of arrogant elites – because they may (and oft times do) view the choices made as wrong / incompetent / ridiculous / disgusting / dangerous / harmful, etc. Therefore, for the power hungry elites, they feel compelled to do something about it.
The Davos elite types , by virtue of their wealth and influence, do not and will not sacrifice one iota of their exalted and lavish lifestyles, while at the same time agitating to diminish the lifestyles of the “unwashed masses,” by prohibiting the common – and reliable – means of energy production (oil, gas, coal) and transportation options (e.g., outlawing gasoline powered cars). All under the guise of “saving the planet.”
The arrogance of this statement is beyond astonishing.
In the days of “Olde,” the elites made no bones about why they could enjoy lavish lifestyles and be allowed to rule; it was THEIR God given right !!
And more recently, control freak ruling elites justified their actions as necessary to establish a workers paradise or to obtain much needed lebensraum and to improve the genetic stock of humanity.
Today’s Davos types resort to their “save the earth,” moral grand standing, virtue signaling bullshit as to why they are entitled to control the unwashed masses.
We know they do not believe the crap the utter from their anal pie holes because if they did, they would radically alter (diminish) their life styles.
You will note that this has not – and will not – ever, ever occur.
Eric Hoffer had some interesting thoughts on power seeking individuals:
“Freedom means freedom from forces and circumstances which would turn man into a thing, which would impose on man the passivity and predictability of matter. By this test, absolute power is the manifestation most inimical to human uniqueness. Absolute power wants to turn people into malleable clay.”
and:
“The Savior who wants to turn men into angels is as much a hater of human nature as the totalitarian despot who wants to turn them into puppets.
There are similarities between absolute power and absolute faith: a demand for absolute obedience; a readiness to attempt the impossible; a bias for simple solutions — to cut the knot rather than unravel it; the viewing of compromise as surrender; the tendency to manipulate people and “experiment with blood.”
Both absolute power and absolute faith are instruments of dehumanization. Hence absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power.
Eric Hoffer
Narcissism and love of absolute power (and adherence to absolute faith) are at least kissing cousins, if not the same underlying pathology. Simplistic solutions, uncompromising control, rigid personalities.
One word for this: pride. No wonder it was held to be the worst of sins.
See also: hubris.
There was the older idea that privileges had to be paid for with service. It might have seemed like a noble ideal, but it was easily put into effect as privilege entitles one to power. The idea of service and noblesse oblige was tied to the idea that it was better for the gentle-born and superior to rule over the great unwashed than for the unwashed to select their own leaders. With the decline of the old elite, this idea spread. In a way it became “democratized,” albeit in opposition to democracy: now anyone who gets into Harvard feels entitled to rule over the rest of us.
Kerry always had a strong sense of entitlement, and an inability to understand how he looked to other people. His grandmother was a Winthrop, and the Winthrops were truly America’s first family, going back to the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay colony, so of course Kerry felt himself one of the anointed and entitled to rule. I never liked the guy. I’ve had more than enough of him over the last 50 years. I did feel a little sympathy when I heard that he had been bullied in prep school, but I also understood that if he was anything like he is now, the temptation to bully him would have been impossible to resist.
On the anointed, particularly of the New England clans:
A Boston Toast
by John Collins Bossidy
[Written by Dr. Bossidy for an alumni dinner of Holy Cross College.]
And THIS IS good old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots,
And the Cabots talk only to God.
https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/boston-toast
AesopFan:
There is a southern New England riposte to that Boston jingle:
Here’s to the town of New Haven,
The home of the truth and the light,
Where God speaks to Jones in the very same tones
That He uses with Hadley and Dwight.
It’s only superficially egalitarian, of course: “truth” and “light” refer to Yale’s Latin motto (Lux et Veritas), and the Hadleys and Dwights sat at the top of local society, producing several generations of Congregationalist clergy and three presidents of Yale.
Kerry, of course, is a Yalie (’66), though his grades were only slightly above “C” level. As for his Boston connection, his 2004 campaign appearance in Fenway Pahhhk is a classic. Note the Yale blue shirt inside the shrine of Red Sox Nation, the penny loafers, and the wimpy pitch delivered from the base of the mound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mniJAyhRl8&ab_channel=MLB