The following quote on liberty has been attributed to Benjamin Franklin:
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Quite a few people today appear to have opted to give up a great deal of their liberty for what they perceive as safety, yet few of them are starving or especially threatened. What they seem to want is absolute safety or something close to it, as so many people’s reaction to COVID has demonstrated.
The COVID pandemic was a big test of an approach called The Great Reset, and the reaction to the rules promulgated in response to the disease has led The Great Reset’s leftist boosters to feel that they can go ahead without too much objection. The Great Reset is no shadowy conspiracy theory, either; its basic outline is right out there in the open. See this from the World Economic Forum (WEF), September 2020 [emphasis mine]:
THE CONTEXTThe Covid-19 crisis, and the political, economic and social disruptions it has caused, is fundamentally changing the traditional context for decision-making. The inconsistencies, inadequacies and contradictions of multiple systems –from health and financial to energy and education – are more exposed than ever amidst a global context of concern for lives, livelihoods and the planet. Leaders find themselves at a historic crossroads, managing short-term pressures against medium- and long-term uncertainties.
Note also the emphasis on needing to replace those messy multiple systems with some sort of global approach [emphasis mine]:
THE OPPORTUNITYAs we enter a unique window of opportunity to shape the recovery, this initiative will offer insights to help inform all those determining the future state of global relations, the direction of national economies, the priorities of societies, the nature of business models and the management of a global commons. Drawing from the vision and vast expertise of the leaders engaged across the Forum’s communities, the Great Reset initiative has a set of dimensions to build a new social contract that honours the dignity of every human being.
Beware the elites and their “vast expertise.” They never, never let a crisis go to waste:
COVID-19 lockdowns may be gradually easing, but anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun, and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s. But, while this outcome is likely, it is not unavoidable.
But the reaction to COVID from the world community has been a major cause of that downturn, and now even if COVID wanes (or as a vaccine is distributed), the left is poised to take advantage of the economic downturn (or fear of a downturn) that they helped create.
This next part is an important summary of the goal:
To achieve a better outcome, the world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism.
If you had any lingering doubts about the leftist background to this, please leave those doubts behind.
More [emphasis mine]:
…[O]ne silver lining of the pandemic is that it has shown how quickly we can make radical changes to our lifestyles. Almost instantly, the crisis forced businesses and individuals to abandon practices long claimed to be essential, from frequent air travel to working in an office.Likewise, populations have overwhelmingly shown a willingness to make sacrifices…And many companies have stepped up…Clearly, the will to build a better society does exist. We must use it to secure the Great Reset that we so badly need. That will require stronger and more effective governments, though this does not imply an ideological push for bigger ones. And it will demand private-sector engagement every step of the way.
We have already seen the corporations march in lockstep. Make no mistake about it. This is a top-down “reset,” and those on top will get the spoils.
Watch:
Trump must have been such a tremendous 4-year thorn in their sides. No wonder they hate him so much and would do virtually anything to be rid of him.
“The Great Reset” became a popular Google search after Justin Trudeau recently started talking about it and other leaders started using some of its terms, as well. There have been warnings in the past, but they didn’t get much traction. For example, see this from Justin Haskins writing at Fox Business last July:
A radical movement called the Great Reset embraced by some Democrats poses a grave threat to liberty and free markets in the United States and around the world. While former Vice President Joe Biden hasn’t endorsed the movement, his ties to it are growing as he changes his long-held policy views to appease the far-left.While it hasn’t gained widespread attention, the Great Reset is perhaps the biggest danger to capitalism and individual rights since the collapse of the Soviet Union.What is the Great Reset? Simply put, it’s a growing movement backed by many of the world’s most powerful business leaders, government officials and left-wing activists that aims to “push the reset button” on the global economy. It would destroy the current capitalist system and replace it with progressive and modern socialist systems, with a special emphasis placed on eco-socialist policies like those contained in the Green New Deal.
The left is nothing if not coordinated, ruthless, and relentless. The right is full of rank amateurs by comparison.
And whether Joe himself is fully onboard, or whether it’s just his handlers, it really doesn’t matter. The effect will be the same.
[Neo is a writer with degrees in law and family therapy, who blogs at the new neo.]
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