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Today’s ‘Monarchs’ Risk Sparking Their Own Revolutions

The period of history from the mid-18th century to the late 19th century is sometimes referred to as the Age of Revolution. According to a Wikipedia entry (citing the work of historian Eric Hobsbawm), this era began with the American Revolution of 1776, followed by the French Revolution of 1789. The push for representative governments, individual liberties, property rights and the rule of law then spread throughout Europe into Spain, Germany, Italy, Poland and Hungary, as well as into the colonies and possessions of several European nations.

One would think that the lessons of that era were crystal clear: First, monarchies throughout history did an outstanding job at making small numbers of people fabulously wealthy, while keeping most people ignorant and in abject poverty. Second, contrary to what royalty, nobility and clergy believed at the time, ordinary people have proven to be fully capable of governing themselves. And third, political and economic freedom can produce prosperity at levels unprecedented in human history.

And yet here we are, facing a new class of oligarchs who are determined to rule the world and take away from the “little people” the power and right to run their own lives and their own countries. I am speaking, of course, of the plotters and planners at the World Economic Forum meeting this week in Davos, Switzerland.

Started by German economist Klaus Schwab, the WEF is an annual gathering of wealthy business, political and cultural elites, whose hypocrisy is the stuff of legend. They claim to worry about “carbon footprints” and “climate change,” demanding that the rest of us give up cars, air conditioning and eating meat; meanwhile they own multiple homes, eat like kings and travel around the globe on yachts and private jets.

Their egos and insufferable condescension pose an increasing threat to the rest of us. In Schwab’s address to the group this week, he announced that “the future is being built by us.” (That megalomaniacal pronouncement may come as a surprise to the millions of entrepreneurs around the globe, not to mention their employees who number in the hundreds of millions.) On Monday, WEF attendee Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s eSafety commissioner, called for a “recalibration of a whole range of human rights,” including freedom of speech, as part of the “future” that Schwab and his fellow travelers intend to build.

If they succeed, that future will be a bleak dystopia driven by the fever dreams of ecofascists and wealth redistributionists. As I wrote last week, Sri Lanka is Exhibit A. In 2019, Sri Lanka was considered by the World Bank to be an “upper-middle-income nation.” In April of last year, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa announced that the country would engage only in “organic farming” and banned all chemical fertilizers and herbicides. The elites applauded. But production of the country’s main food source (rice) and export commodity (tea) plummeted. In just one year, Sri Lanka now finds itself in the grips of a major shortage of food and fuel. Inflation is at 50% and rising. The government has been forced to import food, and as of this week has even imposed daily water and power cuts in the country’s capitol of Colombo.

WEF attendees have made clear in their speeches that the suffering of ordinary people is a price the elites are willing to pay. Closer to home, the policies of the Biden administration are right in line with those of the WEF, as is the callous indifference to the plight of Americans affected by President Joe Biden’s disastrous decisions: the price of gasoline has skyrocketed; inflation is at 40-year highs; there is now a shortage of baby formula. And what is Biden’s response? He tells the country that we’re going through an “incredible transition.” Here’s a credible translation: “We’re going to completely transform the American economy, and it’s going to destroy a lot of people’s lives, but that’s OK because a handful of elitists say so.”

This is but a taste of things to come. George Soros — another billionaire WEF devotee — has pledged $20 million to advance Biden’s “green” agenda, even as a recent Gallup poll shows that 83% of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction.

Is this destruction deliberate? It’s a reasonable question. When the same people whose decisions create war, inflation, skyrocketing prices, poverty and food shortages take their marching orders from “experts” who claim that the world can only support 2 billion people, it is logical to ask what their plans are for the other 6 billion.

But — as Sri Lanka (and Venezuela, and Cuba, and Cambodia, and the Soviet Union) shows — ignorance, error and unforeseen circumstances can do as much damage as malevolence. Despite how brilliant or benevolent today’s aspiring monarchs think they are, they’re not God. They don’t know everything and they don’t control everything. But the more they do control, the greater the harm caused when they’re wrong about something.

And they are always — always — wrong about something.

So it’s no coincidence that globalists abroad and at home (Disinformation Governance Board, anyone?) are determined to curtail freedom of speech. When their inevitable errors create economic disaster, no one must be permitted to discuss it. No other options can be available for unhappy citizens to point to as alternatives. Those who obstinately insist upon telling the truth or clamoring for change must be silenced, imprisoned or worse — for the greater good, the Glorious Revolution, the children or the future of the planet.

But censorship and repression only work for so long. Sri Lanka has been roiled by violent protests, demonstrations and calls for the prime minister’s resignation. It is a safe bet that citizens of countries similarly affected by decisions imposed from on high will react similarly.

The global central planners should think long and hard before attempting world domination. The “little people” — those whom the monarchs of history held in disdain, and whom today’s globalists loathe even more — fought wars and launched revolutions over less.

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Laura Hollis

Laura Hirschfeld Hollis is a native of Champaign, Illinois. She received her undergraduate degree in English and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame. Hollis' career as an attorney has spanned 28 years, the past 23 of which have been in higher education. She has taught law at the graduate and undergraduate levels, and has nearly 15 years' experience in the development and delivery of entrepreneurship courses, seminars and workshops for multiple audiences. Her scholarly interests include entrepreneurship and public policy, economic development, technology commercialization and general business law. In addition to her legal publications, Hollis has been a freelance political writer since 1993, writing for The Detroit News, HOUR Detroit magazine, Townhall.com and the Christian Post, on matters of politics and culture. She is a frequent public speaker. Hollis has received numerous awards for her teaching, research, community service and contributions to entrepreneurship education. She is married to Jess Hollis, a musician, voiceover artist and audio engineer, and they live in Indiana with their two children, Alistair and Celeste.

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