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Utopia: A return to nature. Rawpixel
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THE BOTTOM LINE ·

The right solution for all our problems, no matter how complex they might be, is very costly and unpopular

JUAN FRANCISCO FERRÉ

Friday, 27 January 2023, 13:06

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Optimism is no longer in fashion among the elites. They don't need it. To find out the latest trends I sent my most informed avatar to infiltrate the guests at the World Economic Forum in Davos. They are the owners of global business and seem to know what they're playing at. We live in a fragmented and polarised world which is suffering multiple crises, they say, but they have the right solution for all our problems, no matter how complex they might be. This perfect recipe is, however, very costly and unpopular. If you are very rich and well-connected in high places, you don't need to worry. If you belong to the new class of the poor, the former middle class, you will have to resign yourself to misfortune and accept the package of cutbacks which will seriously affect your life and make it unsustainable.

The superheroes of Davos are serious people and they have been saving the world, like the ones at Marvel, for more than half a century. The digital revolution which is under way is not designed to benefit everyone equally. Let's not fool ourselves. The process is irreversible.

The conclusion from the summit, in the opinion of my avatar, is tremendous. For those supermen only two classes of human beings exist. There are those who have escaped history and are safe, rocketing to the future. And the others, still trapped in the miseries of history, no longer counting on the world stage. It makes no difference that the supermen of Davos make efforts to adorn their deceitful discourse with social democratic values, believing that is the way to dampen the resentment of those who are excluded.

The future is worse than we imagined. The word dystopia sounds pompous. Utopia has been transformed into ideological pragmatismin; the service of the ruling minority. It is not easy to face this situation. The populist rhetoric of the new Fascism and the new Communism do not represent a real alternative. The supermen of Davos, in their infinite cynicism, have already cushioned themselves against the danger.

My avatar comes back from Switzerland disheartened. To cheer him up and distract him I take him to the cinema to see Avatar 2 for the umpteenth time. The three-dimensional images of this naive ecological fable about an idyllic world act like a soothing balm of happiness. As we come out I ask him if that is the key, if the return to nature is our only salvation, a re-encounter with the roots of life, the escape from the traps of technology. My avatar is a logical creature; he doesn't want to lie to me and he remains silent, but an enormous tear starts to well up in his left eye.

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