Escobar: The Real “Rupture” In Davos

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Whatever the barbarians may be potting, the fact that matters is that China is already deep into the next phase, where it is expected to replace the United States as the world’s primary consumer market.

The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.

Antonio Gramsci

Davos 2026 was a demented kaleidoscope. The only possible way to wallow through the mire was to put on the headphones and resort to the Band of Gypsys smashing sonic barriers, and drowning a frankly terrifying series of events, including a Palantir-BlackRock connection, Big Tech meets Big Finance; the “Master Plan” for Gaza; and the acute discombobulation in neo-Caligula’s rant, here in the 3-minute version.

Then there was what the fragmented West’s mainstream media erected as a visionary speech: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s mini-opus magnum, complete with a – what else – Thucydides quote (“The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must”) to illustrate the “rupture” of the “rules-based international order”, which was already a Dead Man Not Walking at least for a year now.

And how not to laugh at the extremely rich notion of a letter by 400 “patriotic” millionaires and billionaires directed to heads of state in Davos claiming for more “social justice”. Translation: they are terrified – in Paranoia Paradise mode – by the “rupture”, actually the advanced collapse of the neoliberalism ethos that enriched them in the first place.

Carney’s speech was a wily, headline-grabbing device to – in thesis – bury the “rules-based international order”, actually the euphemism du jour, since the end of WWII, for total domination by the Anglo-American financial oligarchy. Carney now only recognizes a mere “rupture” – supposed to be sewn up by “middle powers”, mostly Canada and a few Europeans (no Global South).

And there’s the dead give away: the presumed antidote to “rupture” has absolutely nothing to do with sovereignty. It’s actually a controlled hedging, a sort of managed ersatz multipolarity – nothing to do with the BRICS drive – based on a fuzzy “values-based realism”, “coalition building” and “variable geometry” mish mash, destined to keep in place the same old monetarist scam.

Welcome to Lampedusa’s The Leopard, remixed: “Everything must change for everything to remain the same.”

And all that coming from a playbook liberal, a former Governor of the Bank of England. Such tigers never change their spots.

The true levers of power – exercised by the City of London and Wall Street – are totally immune to the “rupture” antidote.

The evolving, multi-layered Russia-China strategic partnership already invalidates Carney’s very sophisticated fraud, which fooled a lot of informed people. Same as BRICS – as it advances in the long and winding road of real multi-nodality.

Which brings us to the real message generated by Carney’s trademark limited hangout:

Canada and the European “middle powers” now find themselves not on the table, but on the menu, as neo-Caligula, the ruler of the world, can do to them what NATO has de facto been doing to the Global South over the past 30 years.

“Everything must change for everything to remain the same”

Many of those who now enshrine Carney as The New Messiah – and such a defender of international law – totally ignored or covered for the Zionist genocide of Gaza; demonized Russia to Kingdom Come and keep instigating a Forever War; and now beg on their knees for neo-Caligula to engage in a “dialogue” to solve his self-proclaimed Greenland land grab.

Elon Musk, incidentally, also showed up at Davos on short notice. He is a huge supporter of the Greenland land grab. Musk and other techno-feudalist stars cannot but be seduced by the project of turning that “piece of ice” (neo-Caligula terminology) into the prime hub for digital states, the successors of nation-states, supposed to be ruled by Techno-CEOs posing as Philosopher Kings.

Combine it with the Big Tech-Big Finance connection – at the Palantir-BlackRock table – and we have the Kings of AI leading the way, with financiers following.

The “piece of ice” of course was melting non-stop all across the Davos spectrum. When neo-Caligula announced that he would not do to Greenland what he did to Venezuela, the collective European relief really exploded the Champagne-O-Meter.

It was up to certified NATO poodle Tutti Frutti al Rutti, with that perpetual smile of a withered Dutch tulip, to convince “Daddy” to be lenient, proving once again that the EU is a Banana Republic, actually Union, without the bananas.

Neo-Caligula and withered tulip cobbled together a “framework” for the US to get some Greenland real estate for military base purposes and limited development of rare earth mining, plus the requisite ban on Russian and Chinese projects. Denmark and Greenland were not even in the room when this “deal” was reached.

Still, that may all change in a flash, or in a social media post. Because that’s not what neo-Caligula wants. He wants Greenland splashed in red-white-and blue on a US map.

Still, the most terrifying land grab plot highlighted in Davos had to be Gaza. Cue to that insufferable Zionist dimwit – the brains in the family actually belong to wife Ivanka – presenting the master plan for “the new Gaza”.

Or How to Market The Horror…The Horror (my excuses to Joseph Conrad).

Here we have a mass slaughtering/extermination campaign coupled with grabbing of what’s been reduced to rubble, leading to a high-security containment zone for token, “approved” Palestinians and prime beachfront real estate for real estate scammers and Israeli settlers.

All that managed by a private company, chaired by neo-Caligula for life, now in charge of the annexation, occupation and exploitation of Gaza: a monstruous land grab burying in one go a genocide and what remains of international law – everything fully approved by the EU and a bunch of political “leaders”, some too terrified, others basically hedging to bypass neo-Caligula’s wrath.

The Chinese “rupture”

Some clown by the name of Nadio Calvino, president of the European Investment Bank, actually argued at Davos that the EU “is a superpower”.

Well, History is loath to register as a superpower a set up that is totally dependent on the US and NATO for defense; exhibits zero power projection; harbors no major tech companies (those that still exist are collapsing); is 90% dependent on foreign supplies of energy; and is drowning in debt ($17 trillion in total, equivalent to over 80% of the EU’s GDP).

So in the end, amidst so much – silly – sound and fury, what was the real game-changer at Davos? It was not the “rupture” or even the land grab plots. It was the speech by China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng.

Incidentally, Carney’s “rupture” speech was heavily influenced by his recent trip to China – where he met with He Lifeng, a serious candidate to succeed Xi Jinping in the future.

At Davos, He Lifeng made it very clear that China is determined to become “the world’s market”; and that boosting domestic demand was now “on top of [China’s] economic agenda,” as reflected in the 15th Five-Year plan which will be approved this coming March in Beijing.

So whatever the barbarians may be plotting, the fact that matters is that China is already deep into the next phase, where it is expected to replace the United States as the world’s primary consumer market.

Now that’s what’s called a rupture.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.