It Also Allows Room for Hope

Cut-up poem from the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report 2024

Hi Folks,

Every January, the corporate and political “Masters of the Universe” gather in Davos, Switzerland, to congratulate each other on their good intentions while the world situation grows more dire and wealth concentrates in fewer and fewer hands. They also issue their annual “Global Risks Report.” I thought about writing an essay on this year’s offering (mis- and disinformation top the list of concerns for the power elite), but it seemed more fun and strangely insightful to employ the Brion Gyson / William Burroughs cut-up method, randomly scissoring up the language of the 2024 Report to produce this abstract poem.

I hope you enjoy it.

It Also Allows Room for Hope

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Simmering geopolitical organized crime:

A multiplicity of different futures

Pressures on fiscal balances will rise,

This period of global fragmentation.

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Risks could turn under-the-radar chronic

As the impacts of climate change become

Non-consensual deepfake pornography.

Military power projection

Could fade further.

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Disinformation threatens the cohesion of societies

Deeply polarizing domestically

Reflects rapidly falling fertility rates,

Complicates existing questions around legal accountability.

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The loss and damage agenda,

As well as climate-related litigation,

Is likely to gain speed.

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Local tensions combined with technology will drive

Increasingly evident externalities.

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High-stakes hotspots,

New security risks,

Authoritarian digital norms

create a vicious cycle,

Twitter and YouTube agreed.