Ebenezer Monger went to bed on Christmas Eve content of all the good things he has done this year: fighting eco-religious zealots, confusing naturopaths, exposing dark foundation funding and green special interest groups. During his slumber, deep in his happy dreams of deregulation, simplification and a White Paper on Risk Management, he was suddenly visited by a ghost.

The Ghost of Policy Past

Who are you? Ebenezer called out, his voice trembling.

The Ghost of Policy Past simply waved his hand and took Ebenezer Monger’s arm as they walked together into the fog. Mr Monger looked at the images reflecting before him and remembered when he was young and so full of hope. The European Union was maturing: the free movement of goods and services, a single currency, open borders – there was nothing we couldn’t do. Problems were solved with scientific agencies like the European Food Safety Authority and the European Medicines Agency.

We were global leaders in policy reform as well, with the White Paper on Governance launching a bold agenda of public trust-building. This white paper defined the roles in policymaking of concepts like stakeholder dialogue, public consultations, engagement and consensus-building. Governments interacted with academics, NGOs, industry groups and the public in an evolving and productive policy arena. Regulations were passed with widespread stakeholder buy-in helping to earn better public trust.

“Yes”, Ebenezer sighed. “I remember. What happened to those wonderful days?”

The Ghost of Policy Past pointed at a group of activists in the fog, huddled together at a conference apart from the other stakeholders. These far-left factions within the civil society movement no longer wanted to be an affirmative force in policymaking, no longer seeing any value in dialoguing with other stakeholders. They saw better opportunities in breaking up the process by attacking industry, science, innovation and capitalism. Fear was their business; progress was their enemy.

The activists laid “trust traps” in the process, claiming industry science was not credible, their funding being too obstructive and their profit motives going against the public interest. In demanding transparency (only from industry), they implied that these innovative companies were not trustworthy. Regulators panicked when the NGOs walked out of the room, especially in leaving their European Technology Platforms, so they agreed to their demands: isolate industry, restrict their data in the policy process and pay the NGOs a secure source of taxpayer funding to continue to participate in the dialogue process (on the condition that industry was excluded).

Industry did nothing but foolishly agree to these new rules to stakeholder dialogue (sadly thinking they would then be considered as trustworthy actors).

The Ghost of Policy Present

Ebenezer Monger lulled back into his slumber again, only to be disturbed by a visit from the Ghost of Policy Present. In the fog, his arm was once again taken into a more recent policy world, one still fresh in his mind.

Mr Monger saw how media and NGO groups were controlling the narrative, running elaborate campaigns flush with foundation funding. He saw these foundations creating NGOs, working at the transnational level (eg, UN organisations) and funding media groups to impose policy from above. There was no transparency, no respect for research integrity and no evidence-based approach. Activists, with unlimited funding from billionaire philanthropists, were doing whatever they could to win (regardless of the consequences).

Ebenezer stared into the fog wondering what the activists actually wanted. Did they want to make the world a better place? Many of their platforms and policies did not improve the environment or human health (like their low-carbon alternatives, support for failed agroecology practices and degrowth strategies that would halt progress in developing countries). Policy change was also not enough. It seems the activists had purely political objectives: wanting to destroy industry to reach some post-capitalist Nirvana. NGOs, foundations and activist scientists were so eager to destroy the capitalist system that they willingly got in bed with the slimiest scum in the litigation industry cesspool to help accelerate the demise of industry. Their goal was destruction so no activists or philanthropists questioned how the tort extortionists would rape industry of any funds that could have been invested into research and innovation.

The Ghost of Policy Present pointed at the remaining mainstream media in the fog who were taking payments from foundations to report the stories provided to them by the NGOs, scientists and tort law firms (groups that were also funded by these same foundations). The “professionalised” foundations, fronted by billionaire philanthropists but managed by a network of well-connected political activists and consultants, strengthened their position and influence by funding programmes in UN agencies and the World Economic Forum.

“Shouldn’t regulators be made aware of the corruption of the process?” Ebenezer Monger cried out. The ghost simply put his head down – the process was broken and policymaking was now left to the emotional campaigns of dogmatic ideologues.

Industry and innovative researchers no longer had a voice in the policies affecting their products and technologies. Consumers were seeing products taken off of the shelves without any clear alternatives. Farmers were leaving the land. Many governments, like the US Trump administration, gave MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) extremists positions of power to attack these leaders of research and technology (and gave their litigation industry confreres the opportunity to profit from their contrived chaos and uncertainty).

Seeing industry pretend there was no crisis made Ebenezer Monger put his head under his pillow, but he could not shake off this nightmare.

The Ghost of Policy Yet to Come

Ebenezer Monger was shaken and upset as he was pulled, once again, into the fog by the Ghost of Policy Yet to Come. The future for innovative technologies, products, medicines, services and food and agricultural products was bleak. Decisions were put in the balance by the new activist policy influencers, forcing governments and brands to bow to their demands. Science communicators and researchers gave up and just walked away as populist appeal was legitimised in place of scientific facts and risk management. The activist/foundation/media axis pushed further in their power grab, seeking to control the regulators and their policies. Industry was being pushed to the fringe, spending its energy, rather, on trying to survive bankruptcy from endless litigation extortion rackets.

The Ghost of Policy Yet to Come showed Mr Monger how regulators, particularly in the US, were empowering Moms groups to “emotionalise” the policy process (relying on a mother’s intuition rather than evidence and data). The rich and affluent elites felt entitled to dictate their naturopathy and lifestyle dogma onto the poor and middle classes without any expertise or common sense.

Regulations were passed not on the best evidence or rational analysis, but on the emotional ideologies of the campaign activists. Precaution was applied against any innovative products and processes deemed synthetic or commercial. But bad policies that denied the public desired goods and services left populations having to revolt against the irrational laws.

Like the 1920s under the US Prohibition chaos, the greater public no longer had any respect for regulations or product restrictions led by out-of-touch dogmatic fundamentalists. Black markets and counterfeit products proliferated (creating even greater problems for public health and the environment). At the same time, companies were facing regulatory pressure more from the litigation industry and were fighting for their survival. Many companies will not survive this coming policy storm, particularly in the EU, as a manufacturing underworld started controlling large swaths of the economy.

Case Study: The laws banning tobacco harm reduction products like vaping and nicotine pouches were a bellwether case in how the public chose to reject stupid policies dictated by foundation-funded activist zealots. A detached billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, has spent more than $1.6 billion funding NGOs, lobbyists, the WHO and activist scientists to run a global anti-tobacco campaign that focused on banning vaping. Regulators are seen to be powerless in controlling products and preventing illicit substances as populations, with no respect for these biased and out-of-touch policymakers, chose to ignore the bad regulations restricting non-combustible, low-harm nicotine products. In some countries, like Australia, gangs filled the void left by regulatory incompetence, leaving violence and unsafe contraband as the only viable alternative to the well-funded zealot influencers.

Ebenezer Monger woke up with a jolt. From his dusty basement, he looked out of his window and shouted to the people in the streets that Christmas morn: “We must act now to stop this madness!” People looked at him and scoffed: “Shill! You’re paid off by that evil industry. We are far more ethically superior than you and we shall shut you down!”.

“No!” Mr Monger insisted. “You are being tricked by billionaires running foundations funding campaigns and media groups built to deceive you!” The people laughed at the old man as they continued to consume the dogma fed to them.

Ebenezer Monger was awake now, scared about where his world was going. He may be old, he may carry baggage from the past, but he can see clearly now the way forward. It is Christmas and this old man can still hope for a better tomorrow.

Merry Christmas!!!

—

Enjoyed this read (free with no ads)? Support The Risk-Monger via Patreon. Become a Gold-Monger patron for 5 € / $ per month and get David’s newsletter.