Well, those playing Global Polycrisis at "Beginner Level" certainly think so. Meanwhile, Cyclone Gabrielle and the increasing seasonal floods on the South Island would both like a word...

(The megarich also think, post-"The Event," that they can control people via shock collars... As recently spotlighted by Douglas Rushkoff, the megarich are actually fuckwits, and as brutal and inhumane as they are profoundly unwise -- clever, yes, I met so many clever people when I worked in Silicon Valley, good at embracing the zeitgeist, good at making money... but clever is so very different from wise... And the rest of this century is one huge monkey trap...)