You know that Oscar Wilde saying, “There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”?
This came to mind with respect to three once-famous people: Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and a rabbi.
Act 1 (2021-2022): I receive emails from some sort of, ummm, I don’t want to call it a “scam” exactly . . . let’s call it a “networking event,” featuring luminaries such as “Gray Davis – Of Counsel, Loeb & Loeb. Fmr. Governor, California. [Los Angeles],” “Grover Norquist – President, Americans for Tax Reform. [Washington, D.C.],” and “David Wolpe – Rabbi, Sinai Temple. [Los Angeles].”
It seemed to be a great opportunity–just look at the email:
Hello Andrew,
We’ve heard a lot of great things about you, which is why you’ve been selected for membership. Dialog members–ranging from scientists to elected politicians, CEOs, artists, economists, media figures, and political dissidents–regularly convene to intellectually challenge each other in off-the-record conversations exploring pressing issues. We think you’d add an exciting perspective!
On the other hand, they were charging $16,846, which, as you may have heard, would cover the cost of a lot of Jamaican beef patties.
If they’d really heard a lot of great things about me, and they thought I’d add an exciting perspective, you wouldn’t think they’d charge me for the privilege, right?
I asked the organizers, who replied:
I absolutely get it; the majority of those who are invited to Dialog typically only attend conversations or gatherings as the keynote speaker, and if money is involved, it’s typically because they’re being paid to attend.
To keep Dialog fully independent and off the record, it is 100% participant funded–everyone who attends pays to do so.
Wow! So Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and the rabbi were paying thousands of dollars to mingle with each other? It kinda makes you wonder. One of the other listed members was as the “Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, Former Minister of Intelligence, Saudi Arabia”–no, I’m not kidding there! I wonder if they let him take the bone saw on the plane? I bet he had a great conversation with “Zeke Emanuel – Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, Professor & Chair, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, University of Pennsylvania.” And what about “Lawrence Summers – President Emeritus & Professor, Harvard University. Fmr. Secretary of the Treasury, United States”: did he really pay? It’s hard for me to imagine Larry paying for anything out of his own pocket. Maybe he got some friendly Harvard donor to fork over the money?
As I discussed in the above-linked blog post, I could see reasons why Gray Davis or Grover Norquist might want to talk with me, and I could see reasons why I might want to talk with Gray Davis or Grover Norquist, but I can’t figure out why each of us needs to spend $16,846 to do it. We could just talk on the phone for free!
Act 2 (2026): This arrives in the inbox:
I am reaching out on behalf of the WIRED team. We are working on a story about Dialog, the private, invite-only organization co-founded by Peter Thiel.
WIRED has obtained internal Dialog records, exposed by its website, including a membership directory and the registration list for the group’s 2026 retreat. Your name appears in them.
We wanted to give you the opportunity to comment before we publish. We’d welcome any response, including whether you’d confirm your affiliation with Dialog and anything you’d like to say about the group or your involvement.
Our deadline is 1pm EST, but if you’d need more time to prepare a response, please let me know as soon as possible.
As many of you know, I never check my email before 4pm. It’s actually daylight time here in New York, not standard time, but either way it’s before 4.
In any case, another email arrived soon after:
My sincerest apologies for this mixup! Please ignore our previous email. Your name was mixed up with a list of Dialog attendees we are trying to reach. We’re actually reaching out because we saw your 2022 blog post about being invited to the event, wanted to mention it in our story, and thought you should have the opportunity to comment on it, if you wanted to.
That evening I saw the message and replied:
Hi, sure, feel free to quote me. I stand by what I wrote before. I’ve never actually attended the Dialog event, as I have better uses for my $16,000.
The news article appeared soon after, under the title, “Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ Society,” with subtitle, “More than 200 of the world’s elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking.”
Wow–I had no idea! I have to say, the idea of seeing Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and a rabbi talking about cult-building and sex . . . ok, still not worth $16,846, but maybe there’s some entertainment value there.
Act 3 (2026): The story was picked up by other news organizations. I know this because a few of them contacted me directly and asked if I had anything more. I forwarded them three of the emails I’d received back in 2021 and 2022. There was also a story in the Hollywood Reporter (Palko pointed me to it) mentioning anti-free-press warrior Peter Thiel and a bunch of movie stars and executives, the most notable of whom was Benj Pasek, one of the composers of the music for La La Land.
It’s hard for me to picture Benj Pasek forking over $16,846 for the opportunity to mingle with Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, a rabbi, and the head of Saudi intelligence. But maybe his agent paid for it? I dunno.
Act 4 (2026): Here’s what I’m wondering. What do Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and the rabbi think about all this? Each of them is a bigshot in his own field (failed politician, political lobbyist, religious leader), but none of them is important enough to be mentioned in any of these news articles.
How humiliating!
There was a time when the name Gray Davis meant something, a time when Grover Norquist had armies at his command, a time when a rabbi could call down thunderbolts. And now they’re just anonymous names in a list. What a comedown. Here’s my advice to these three guys: Fire your publicist.
I hope at least that they enjoyed the conferences. $16,846 is real money!
The only thing I don’t get is why the news organizations are making such a big deal about all of this. It’s an annual conference where rich guys spend thousands of dollars to be in each others’ company. No joke, it doesn’t sound much different from a country club.
And there’s this whole bit about the membership list being a secret. I don’t get why this is supposed to be a big thing either. Country clubs keep their membership lists secret too–it’s part of the whole exclusivity cachet. They’re not the public library, y’know!
Summary
Gray Davis, Grover Norquist, and a rabbi got the worst of all worlds. They had to go to a boring conference, they paid $16,846, they got no press coverage out of the deal, and they didn’t get any Jamaican beef patties.
I have no idea what food they serve at the Dialog conferences. I’m guessing it’s standard crappy upscale catering food, nothing nearly as good as you could get for $2.85 at Golden Krust here on 125 St.
Cross listing the Dialog attendees and the Epstein files might be an interesting exploration. Both seem to exhibit mutual attractions among the rich and famous. I guess there is value to being in either club – at least for those with the cash or low scruples to participate.
“The only thing I don’t get is why the news organizations are making such a big deal about all of this. It’s an annual conference where rich guys spend thousands of dollars to be in each others’ company. ”
I think it is because of the mixing of the rich, powerful, and famous, on the one hand, and the academics on the other. It just feels kind of Epstein-Island-y. Like maybe part of what your $16,846 buys you is an introduction to a comely looking young person of your preferred gender–or a pint of their delicious and rejuvenating blood, if that’s your thing. Hell, maybe they have off-the-record workshops on the benefits of blood drinking!
Maybe one of the lessons of recent decades is that bad things happen when academics become celebrities. Put an academic in contact with neo-guilded-age-wealth and you can end up with all sorts of bad consequences …
Or, what Dale said.
Dmitri:
I dunno, the academics on this list looked pretty dull (sample entry: “Henning Beck – Neuroscientist & Author”). Nothing so exciting as a bone-saw-wielding Saudi intelligence operative. Even Gray Davis, ok, he has possibly the world’s most boring-sounding name, also his only accomplishment in life was to lose a recall election . . . still, he probably has some good stories that he could share at the bar.
At least in a country club you get to golf, which is allegedly fun.
Who alleged that? I can testify to the contrary (yesterday as an example – I would have paid a number of Jamaican beef patties to have avoided my round).
I’ve never played macro-golf myself so can’t comment. I do remember that, many years ago, when my parents decided to move to a retirement community, they were considering various options in various places, and one thing that came up was the concept of a “golf community,” i.e., a housing development that included access to a golf course. Neither of my parents played golf, nor were they interested in doing so, but the appeal of the “golf community,” as pitched by the real-estate developers, was that a house in a golf community would have higher resale values. I told my parents that they could live in a golf community if they wanted, but that resale value was the absolute last thing to think about when considering where to live in retirement.
It’s only fun if 1) you’re doing very well (with zero measure), or 2) you’re with someone who’s doing very poorly so you can needle them about it.
Yes, the Epstein affair has definitely sexed-up (bad pun!) these sort of stories.
Don’t big-shot academics get travel funding from grants or similar to go to conferences, so they don’t pay for it out of their own pockets?
And political figures have some sort of campaign funds to pay for these?
I presume at that level, it’s more a matter of their time and if it’s worth the opportunity-cost to attend, than the fees.
It’s networking. There’s one of these things in Aspen that I believe gets the occasional story.