Illustration: Liu Xidan/Global Times

The rhetoric on display at the Swiss ski resort of Davos in January, for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), seemed suspiciously like proverbial whistling past the graveyard - in this case, of Western global hegemony.

There was something incongruous, for example, in seeing Brian Stelter - whose blatant propagandistic partisanship turned out to be too much even for CNN - hosting a panel about the dangers of "disinformation." Especially after recent revelations of the extent to which the US government has secretly censored social media, and did so based on actual disinformation - such as the Russiagate conspiracy theory.

Then there was presentation by US "Climate Czar" John Kerry, who spoke about a "select" group of "touched" people getting together to "save the planet" in an "almost extraterrestrial" way. 

While Kerry demanded deindustrialization under the guise of a "zero carbon" economy, other Western leaders urged the expansion of military industries, in order to arm the government in Ukraine. That sort of industrialization, which can't possibly be "green" by any definition, somehow doesn't seem to upset Greta Thunberg or her acolytes. Funny how that works.

In perhaps the best illustration of how removed from reality the WEF really is, Henry Kissinger tuned in via video link to propose a "peace plan" for Ukraine. The 99-year-old diplomat's idea can be summed up as Russian surrender in exchange for "generously" being allowed to serve the West in the coming conflict against China. 

That's hardly surprising, considering that driving a wedge between Moscow and Beijing in the 1970s was the pinnacle of Kissinger's diplomatic career. What is truly amazing, though, is that he seems to be basing his proposal entirely on wishful thinking, without understanding of the actual dynamics on the ground, or the desires of either Russia or Ukraine.

Moscow has no desire to "participate in European processes" and understands that the current conflict is between the West - with Ukraine as a proxy - "against Russia itself," if nothing else, because both the Ukrainian government as well as countless Western leaders have said so outright. 

At this point, Kiev is Kabul 2.0, with a military equipped and financed entirely by the US and its allies, "shedding blood" for NATO's mission, as its defense minister Oleksii Reznikov put it in a recent TV interview. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's official position demands regime change in Moscow, reparations, war crimes trials and a return to borders Kiev claimed in 1991 - an unconditional Russian surrender, in other words. He will accept no less. 

One would think whoever pays the piper gets to call the tune, but the West has turned Zelensky into a combination of a Marvel hero and greatest victim in the world (in a culture where victimhood is the highest virtue), so now he feels entitled to make demands and insist his cause is paramount.

Yet no one at Davos has thought to challenge Kissinger's blind spot - because they share it. What was on display was the sheer hubris spelled out in 2004, by a senior White House official still drunk with power after the invasion of Iraq.

In October 2004, The New York Times published an article about the presidency of George W. Bush, in which he included a quote from someone described only as a "senior adviser to Bush."

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality, the unnamed official told New York Times. And while you're studying that reality - judiciously, as you will - we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Tellingly, the official identified the target of his contempt as the "reality-based community." While originally considered a perspective of neoconservatives who ran the George W. Bush administration, this worldview has since spread to most of Washington, including the media that once used to criticize the government. The hubris they generate and mutually reinforce has left the West in a fantasy bubble of its own making, entirely unable to recognize that others in the world have agency too, and also act to create reality, without much regard for what the West says or does anymore. And that reality has spikes.

The author is a Serbian-American journalist. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn