The Great Social Reset has Officially Begun
By: Michael Haupt
Tags: Systems Thinking, Social Change, Society, Future, 4ir

On Wednesday, 3 June 2020, while the rest of the world was preoccupied with a pandemic, a looming global depression and race riots throughout the US and other major cities around the world, the WEF quietly announced their Great Reset Initiative. The announcement came in the form of an online meeting streamed to 600 attendees at 14:30 Central European Summer Time. The meeting was hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales and Klaus Schwab, Founder & Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Other presenters included:

Kristalina Georgieva, Chairwoman and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund , who made $1-trillion available in lending capacity, with conditions including “a greener, smarter, fairer world” ($24b has already been allocated to developing nations in Africa and Western Europe);

, who made $1-trillion available in lending capacity, with conditions including “a greener, smarter, fairer world” ($24b has already been allocated to developing nations in Africa and Western Europe); António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations ;

; Caroline Anstey, President and Chief Executive Officer of Pact and past Managing Director of the World Bank;

and past Managing Director of the World Bank; “Ajay” Singh Banga, the President and Chief Executive Officer of MasterCard , who said during the meeting that “The idea of looking ahead really requires us to put cynicism away and start thinking about constructive participation. You’re welcome to have a point of view and you’re welcome to have a discourse, but being an armchair critic is really not acceptable.”;

, who said during the meeting that “The idea of looking ahead really requires us to put cynicism away and start thinking about constructive participation. You’re welcome to have a point of view and you’re welcome to have a discourse, but being an armchair critic is really not acceptable.”; Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation and a former President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions;

and a former President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions; Victoria Alonsoperez, UN Young Leader and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ChipSafer , a patented platform to electronically track cows remotely and autonomously;

, a patented platform to electronically track cows remotely and autonomously; Ma Jun, Chairman of China’s Green Finance Committee and co-chair of the G20 Green Finance Study Group, an initiative of the People’s Bank of China , the Bank of England and the UN Environment Programme;

and co-chair of the G20 Green Finance Study Group, an initiative of the , the and the UN Environment Programme; Juliana Rotich, venture partner with Atlantica Ventures and Founder of Ushahidi , a crowdsourced data gathering platform, who said during the meeting that, “There’s an opportunity to centre the reset on those who are most vulnerable, those on the edge where it only takes something like a pandemic to slide into poverty.”;

, a crowdsourced data gathering platform, who said during the meeting that, “There’s an opportunity to centre the reset on those who are most vulnerable, those on the edge where it only takes something like a pandemic to slide into poverty.”; Bernard Looney, Chief Executive Officer of BP ;

; Bradford Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft ;

; Lord Nicholas Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics ;

; Feike Sijbesma, Honorary Chairman of Royal DSM , a Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living company, and a member of Unilever’s Corporate Responsibility Committee;

, a Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living company, and a member of Corporate Responsibility Committee; Adrian Monck, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum;

Additional Links

Press release

WEF Great Reset portal

The WEF, joined by Prince Charles, will hold a series of Great Reset dialogues for the remainder of the year.

Source WEF Great Reset

Brief Analysis

Given the duration of the call (just over 1 hour) and the carefully worded statements made by the presenters, there were very few details provided. Here is a brief summary of the key takeaways:

A massive post-COVID economic stimulus is required and the IMF has pledged $1T. Early recipients are all developing nations. As is usually the case with the IMF, there will be crippling requirements and conditions for the debt relief and emergency financing (not disclosed on the call);

The Great Reset focusses on new social contracts (not defined on the call or in the transition map);

There is a focus on “the digital divide” with an intent to bring underserved communities online.

Considering the timing, high corporate representation, lack of government representation and the relative lack of media coverage, the event raises all kinds of questions. During the call, participants raised frequently the need for trust and Prince Charles said, “the imagination and will of humanity will need to be captured.”

However, a cursory look at the comments below the YouTube version of the livestream show that the WEF has a long way to go to build that trust:

Just some of the over 250 YouTube comments in response to the WEF Great Reset.

The WEF announcement confirms one of 4 postulates I’ve been developing since the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

A postulate is a statement used as a basis for reasoning, discussion and making sense of the unprecedented changes and events unfolding. Constructive disagreement — where we raise concerns, dialog around them and resolve them — is how we progress with making sense of current events.

With that as context, I’d love to hear your responses to these postulates.

Postulate 1 : Civilization — as it has progressed since the Agricultural Revolution — has overshot the carrying capacity of the planet. As a result of — and because of the globalized nature of the human species — we are in late stage civilizational collapse. If our species is to survive, a systemic reset of our human systems is required.

: Civilization — as it has progressed since the Agricultural Revolution — has overshot the carrying capacity of the planet. As a result of — and because of the globalized nature of the human species — we are in late stage civilizational collapse. If our species is to survive, a systemic reset of our human systems is required. Postulate 2 : Considering how fragile our human systems are, it is natural that the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic triggered a series of system resets (colloquially referred to as “the new normal” in mainstream media).

: Considering how fragile our human systems are, it is natural that the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic triggered a series of system resets (colloquially referred to as “the new normal” in mainstream media). Postulate 3 : There is a tension between two significant factions to birth their widely differing versions of a systemic reset. One is the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) — espoused by WEF, technologists and multi-national corporates — and the other is the Global Peoples Revolution (GPR) — championed by numerous activist and grassroots movements.

: There is a tension between two significant factions to birth their widely differing versions of a systemic reset. One is the Fourth Industrial Revolution — espoused by WEF, technologists and multi-national corporates — and the other is the Global Peoples Revolution — championed by numerous activist and grassroots movements. Postulate 4: The 4IR systemic reset is further ahead and far more organised than a GPR systemic reset. If successful, a 4IR reset will replicate many of the design flaws of our current human system.

A Question to Ponder

Is there a third, middle way between 4IR and GPR that incorporates the best of both for the betterment of humanity?

I don’t have any answers (yet), but the question is worth pondering.

How Will The Great Reset Affect Me?

That’s a complex question, because it will affect your family, your business and your world in ways that we cannot even imagine. The answer is not immediately apparent after spending many hours navigating the WEFs Great Reset transition map (requires registration):