Sure, he was drawn to progressive ideas such as UBI or participatory democracy – through which local communities draw up, say, a budget by sitting in a room, thrashing it out and reaching a consensus – but these ideas relied on a very different, benign view of human nature, and “I didn’t really buy this view”. Of culture, sport, art and life imitating it. Dutch historian Rutger Bregman railed against the world’s wealthiest business people skating taxes during a panel at The Davos World Economic Forum Jan. 25. But yes, he concedes, maybe the fact that he has few ties – no children yet – played a part. Damit hat er in Davos die Reichen geschockt und Furore gemacht. Ein Gespräch über eine revolutionäre Idee, die helfen könnte, die … Among those close to the top of the pile will, surely, be his. News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. Rutger Bregman schreibt in seinem neuen Buch die Geschichte der Menschheit neu. Seine Rede … A book whose subtitle is “A Hopeful History” should be welcome at a time when people are gagging for cheering news. He said he was bewildered how they arrived in "1,500 private jets" to hear speeches on the environment and poverty, but one subject was off-limits. Article bookmarked. ‘People often say that I followed in the footsteps of my father, a priest – that I’m just a secular version’ … Rutger Bregman. One section of the book is titled “After Auschwitz”. Most of what Bregman had read pointed in the other direction. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. A HISTORIAN has been snubbed by the Davos economic summit after he savaged billionaires over tax at last year's event. Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia But after days of listening to billionaire speakers promoting philanthropy schemes as a solution for world inequality, he couldn’t take it anymore. Outspoken Davos star Rutger Bregman accuses Fox News host of being 'bought by billionaire class' Tom Embury-Dennis @tomemburyd. The quote is an excerpt from Dutch journalist and historian Rutger Bregman’s conference given at the 2019 World Economic Forum in Davos, where he talks about wealth inequality, philanthropy and taxes. or most authors, now is the very worst time to bring out a book. Teen activist Greta Thunberg - there to speak on climate change - fired another death stare at the US President as he urged world leaders to "reject the prophets of doom". Bregman writes about economic policy, and he … Admittedly, that’s my summary of the book, but there’s even a section called The Other Cheek. It couldn’t have come at a better time, Last modified on Sun 10 May 2020 15.24 BST. Jetzt träumt er von einer Bewegung. (Bret Hartman/Courtesy of TED via Flickr) This article is more than 2 … It’s sort of like ‘pretty decent deep down’ or ‘good after all’.” Later he refers to human destructiveness in these terms: “We’re not born to do this, but we’re capable of it.”, We talk about his age, and whether it takes the confidence of youth to write a book so bold and broad in its assertions, and to be willing to take on his elders: it includes repeated swipes at giants in the genre such as Harari, Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Pinker. Delivery charges may apply. A HISTORIAN has been snubbed by the Davos economic summit after he savaged billionaires over tax at last year's event. He needed to persuade doubters that human beings were not fundamentally selfish, lazy or worse. Rutger Bregman made a name for himself by dressing down Tucker Carlson and calling out the ultrarich at Davos. First they invite you to talk about your book, and pretend to be really interested in your ideas. Rutger Bregman, Author and Historian, during the Session "The Cost of Inequality" at the Annual Meeting 2019 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 25, 2019. That might account for the German gunmen, but what about their collaborators in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Ukraine, people who’d had far less such exposure? Rutger Bregman (* 26. Thursday 21 February 2019 11:49. comments. Taxes, taxes, taxes. “In that book, I collected a lot of evidence that this [UBI] idea could actually work,” he tells me in a Zoom call from the home he shares with his photographer wife in Holland. April 1988 in Renesse) ist ein niederländischer Autor, Aktivist und Historiker Leben Ausbildung und Tätigkeit. The shops are closed; the festival circuit has migrated to Zoom; there’s a plague to compete with. 3. The historian offers a hopeful view of human nature in his latest book, Humankind. Those men had established “psychological distance” from their victims, Bregman says, after exposure to years of Nazi propaganda. 2. This is where he has most fun, methodically dismantling some of the best-known nuggets of sociological and psychological conventional wisdom. What’s more, as some are talking of a radical fresh start once we emerge from this crisis, a 1945-style new settlement, Humankind offers a roadmap for how we might organise ourselves very differently. It argued “that you could actually give people free money and they wouldn’t waste it on drugs or alcohol; you know, they would actually come up with wonderful ideas and maybe start a new business or move to a different job”. Bregman is best known for upsetting the 0.1 percenters’ cordiality at last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. (Reuters) "That’s it. Rutger Bregman, 30, pressed the issue of tax avoidance at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland on Friday and the clip has already hit six million views on Twitter. For most authors, now is the very worst time to bring out a book. (World Economic Forum ) Bio Books Contact. “I would emphasise that I’m not actually saying that people are good. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, we roamed peacefully in the Garden of Eden; then we enclosed a square of land, called it our own, invented property and settled down to defend it, wars began and our innocence was lost. To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Rutger Bregman is the author of Utopia for Realists (2017) and Humankind (2020) Back to Top. In January, Rutger Bregman, a Dutch historian, spoke on a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “Back then there were all these books being published by famous atheist writers like [Richard] Dawkins and [Sam] Harris, with subtitles like ‘How Religion Poisons Everything’. This is clearly wrong.” As for his father, the priest: “People often say that I followed in his footsteps, that I’m just a secular version.”. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. It fits the mood too, appearing just as neighbours are helping neighbours, people are clapping for carers, and humans the world over are cooperating to save each other’s lives. He had already made waves with his book Utopia for Realists, a call for a universal basic income or UBI: an idea once dismissed as absurd, but which seems positively mainstream now that the UK government is paying 80% of the wages of all those furloughed by the virus crisis. Rutger Bregman gives a TED talk, April 25, 2017. Was it something I said?". “Rutger Bregman on Taxes” is personal project made in collaboration with Cypher. "It feels like I’m at a firefighter’s conference and no one is allowed to speak about water.". Dutch historian Rutger Bregman railed against the world’s wealthiest business people skating taxes during a panel at The Davos World Economic Forum Jan. 25. This year's forum was attended by 3,000 business and political leaders including Donald Trump and EU Commission President Ursula von Der Leyen. The shops are closed; the festival circuit has migrated to Zoom; there’s a plague to compete with. For other inquiries, Contact Us. He can cite the experiments that show even lab rats behave worse when their handlers assume they’ll behave badly. The trouble was, those doubters included him. But, Bregman says, the scientific evidence suggests those assumptions are badly flawed, that as a species we’ve been getting ourselves wrong for far too long. — Rutger Bregman (@rcbregman) March 22, 2019. Somehow, we have to find our way back to the Garden. Gloomy assessments of humankind … the 1963 film adaptation of William Golding’s The Lord of the Flies. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. All the rest is bullshit in my opinion.” It was with this outburst, delivered at the annual billionaires’ get-together in Davos, Switzerland, in January, that Rutger Bregman went from moderately well-known Dutch historian to an overnight viral sensation and possible savior of the world.