Davos Newbies Home

Before memories of Davos become too stale, I thought it would be helpful to recall some of the best moments of the Annual Meeting 2000.

On the opening night, Italian historian and philosopher Umberto Eco provided his vision of the future, on a plenary panel moderated by Paul Saffo. You can read the full text exclusively on Newbies, but here’s one of the fruitier passages: “Now it so happens that television tends more and more to put forward as models normal people, so that it takes no effort to become like them. We want to become like them because they received the grace of appearing on screen… Thus Monica Lewinsky will be a stronger (and easier) model than Florence Nightingale or Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

“So ethical success (the pursuit of Good) will soon have no link with the pursuit of virtue, only with the struggle to be seen.”

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