Vogt’s high-class mobility is on full display on A Small World, the self-consciously exclusive social network that he has invested in and now chairs. ASW has tried for years to become the go to site for young global professionals who are, or are in the process of becoming, very rich. It works under the assumption that rather than confining itself to one country or geographic region, a certain class of internationals—referred to interchangeably as “global nomads,” “citizens of the world,” or, more frequently, the “global elite”—shares certain migratory patterns, like an exotic flock of birds whose tastes and consumption habits matter much more than the shape of their nests or the color of their feathers. There’s the New York-Dubai-Zurich banking circuit; the Paris-Milan-Tokyo fashion circuit; the perhaps less visible but equally lucrative Basel-Boston pharma belt; and the Geneva-Vienna-New York-Nairobi diplomatic circuit. Spend enough time in this world and you’ll notice there are no countries—only cities.
Vogt’s vision extends beyond the success of his startup. He’s trying to create a real-life “small world,” and he’s populating it by invitation, reflecting back the image jet-setters have of themselves, and their sense of who belongs. A hierarchy emerges in Vogt’s targets for inclusion: there are the heirs and heiresses and socialites; the bankers, lawyers, and up-and-coming entrepreneurs; the models and actors; and miscellaneous hangers-on who may or may not have attended Swiss private schools. (...)
ASW’s target user exemplifies this person, whose ethos implies class and money without the requisite worldliness, understanding, or empathy. And this person doesn’t even necessarily see the world as it really is. If you went on an ASW tour of the planet, chances are you’d find the same things everywhere: rooftop bars, expensive bottles of vodka, a sterile hotel room.
There’s a stark, almost comical contrast between this world and, say, Marx’s conception of a global society. Instead of a movement for people around the world to recognize each other as equals though a common oppression or sense of duty to create a better world, we have a site where elite citizens of different nations unite to rise above economic austerity, political conflict, and lame nightlife.
The existence of ASW highlights the almost limitless personal advantages to traveling, seeing the world, and not pledging allegiance to an artificial idea of a country. Ideally, these are things that all people, not just a small, rarefied group, could enjoy, but at present the most visible challenges to state sovereignty are initiated by the rich. Globalization, driven by the private sector, turns Mitt Romney’s quip that corporations are people, too, on its head: people with means will eventually start acting like LLCs—nimble, mobile, and acquisitive.
by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, Dissent | Read more:
Image: liljc716, 2009, Flickr creative commons
