News & Analysis
Smart City or Dumb Idea?
GLASGOW WINS £24 million FUTURE CITIES competition ... Glasgow City Council has welcomed news that it has won a £24 million future cities competition to showcase how UK cities can grow their local economy and improve the lives of their citizens by making the most of new technologies and by integrating and connecting city systems. The Future Cities Demonstrator competition, managed and funded by the government's innovation agency, the Technology Strategy Board, saw Glasgow secure the major funding in an open competition against 30 other UK cities. Making the announcement today in Glasgow's City Chambers, David Willetts, the Minister for Universities and Science, said:"With more people than ever before living in our cities, they need to be able to provide people with a better quality of life and a thriving economy. This £24 million investment will make Glasgow a city of tomorrow, demonstrating how cities can work more efficiently with a reduced environmental impact. – GlasgowGov UK
Dominant Social Theme: Wow, we won best "smart city"! Aren't we grand?
Free-Market Analysis: Glasgow, come on down! Congratulations ... not.
Sure, this rundown union municipality in Scotland is now going to receive 24 million pounds to help it convert to a smart city of the future. But this is actually a marriage of union socialism and technocratic fascism. Let us explain.
There are "smart meters." Just search for that term and "Daily Bell" and you can read what Smart Meters are REALLY intended to do and why cities are trying to install them. Hint: It has nothing to do with make residents' lives easier or less expensive.
And "smart city" is a similar euphemism. In fact, it's just a way to install advanced spy methodologies that will make middle class living even more miserable. It's like yet another miserable euphemism: Sustainability.
The top elites that are trying to create world government use such euphemisms to conceal their intentions. In the latter case, they are whittling away at the middle class through the mechanism of what they call "sustainability."
Really, there is no definition for sustainability when you look for one. Gradually you realize that by keeping the definition amorphous the concept becomes a weapon that can be used against the middle classes that wish to adopt it and support it.
By branding most middle class lifestyles unsustainable, the top power elites can weaken society until it is more malleable and controllable. This makes global governance easier to accomplish.
Smart Cities are a further elaboration on this theme. Cars can be restricted, homes monitored for power, video cameras installed throughout public and private facilities. Monitoring of people can be accomplished in a variety of ways.
The entire municipality can be further controlled and scrutinized under the justification that is being made "smarter." Here's some more from the article:
"We are in a global race and Glasgow can keep the UK at the forefront of innovative technology ideas. From transport systems to energy use and health, this demonstrator will play a key part in the Government's industrial strategy and give real insight into how our cities can be shaped in the future."
Led by Glasgow City Council in partnership with key public, private and academic organisation including the University of Strathclyde, the demonstrator project will be run over an 18 month period.
Councillor Gordon Matheson, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "This is a huge boost to Glasgow's ambitions to build a better future for our city and its people. This investment and the work we will be doing will put us at the forefront of innovative and smart cities not just in the UK but in Europe and beyond.
"Glasgow is a city which is constantly evolving and regenerating and we are always looking to the future.
"Winning this money will put us years ahead of other UK cities in terms of integrating our technological systems to make them work for and talk to each other ...
Councillor Matheson added: "By using technology intelligently we can bring together all the different aspects of our city's life. We will be able to make Glasgow smarter, healthier, safer - helping it to continue to thrive and attract new businesses and residents.
"By linking everything from foot and vehicle traffic to council tax collection and hospital waiting lists we can ensure we are being as innovative and smart to meet the continued challenges of a modern and future city life. One practical result will be a Glasgow smartphone app which will allow members of the public to also interact with the new technology."
Note the last paragraph. The modern Western paradigm is that government is a helpful adjunct to civil society. But this legacy is hardly a viable one. Modern cities – modern society generally – has been reshaped to aggressively establish the global governance long sought by the powers-that-be.
Within this context, the middle and lower classes of large municipalities are seen, unfortunately, as a hindrance. They are to be cultivated, managed and – unfortunately, if the literature is accurate – eventually winnowed. Smart City technology helps further these goals.
Does anyone who is experiencing the aggressive governmental violence of 21st century Western bureaucracy really believe that "by linking everything from foot and vehicle traffic to council tax collection and hospital waiting lists" Glasgow's bureaucracy really has the best interests of its citizens at heart?
Ask the Greeks and Spanish youth how they feel about that.
It is unfortunate but true that these advanced systems will notably result in more monitoring, more taxation – and more civil harassment – of honest, law-abiding citizens. This is the trend of the 21st century as the power elite takes aim once again at the middle classes that stand in the way of its world-spanning dreams.
Conclusion: Have they forgotten there is "no such thing as a free lunch"?
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Posted by JudgeDredd on 01/30/13 06:02 PM
I live a stones throw from Glasgow and this makes me laugh.
Good luck installing all this technology in a city where they steal the sugar from your tea then come back for the cup!
The police go in packs for their own safety!! This is the city with its name in front of an act of violence (Glasgow kiss)(headbutt) I can't see them rolling out the welcome mat to be honest.
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks, this confirms what we've heard about Glasgow and how far Scotland has fallen since the days of the Scottish "Englightenment."
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Posted by taxesbyanyothername on 01/30/13 10:26 AM
@Lark in Texas
Excellent post!
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Posted by mava on 01/30/13 03:06 AM
Like Friend_of_John_Galt, I too, cringe. It feels so awful to hear all these "smart" plans! Have you ever visited a mentally retarded person? Have heard them laying out their life plans to you? How did you feel? I had always cringed. May-be I shouldn't have but that is how I felt. It's like talking about future with a child who has a final stage of leukemia. It is so obvious that the reality is nowhere near the plan, that it is painful to hear.
That is how it feels to hear politicians talking about smart. Politicians, while perfectly developed to "steal by mis-representation", are about the dumbest people of the whole variety otherwise. They are uniquely built for what they do, that's all. Like sharks being an ultimate predator in an open sea, but how would a shark do in a crochet competition or in a bicycle race?
"Integrating" "Connecting" "Interconnecting" "local" "citizens" "sustain"...
Don't make mava laughter!
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Posted by Lark In Texas on 01/30/13 02:14 AM
Can we please dispense with the 'power elite' label? I'm sick-and-tired of referring to sycophants, racketeers, criminals... and communitarians... as somehow 'my betters'.
How does one respond to [presumably] real-live human beings... with names like... We, Us, They, Them... the Citizenry, the Public... or the frig--n' 'community', for chrissakes?
Same for the 'power elite'. Anyone named That... I want arrested... like, on the spot! Some You may hang... with my blessings... and glad tidings!
The low-lifes you've referenced here are [brainwashed] Apers. Because Oners see through them... we are the banes... of their sorry existence.
Not to mention... an Aper - like Misery - just loves his [/her] Company...
... Since Apers... like Communitarians... are just thatta way! Others who risk... doing everyday busy-ness... with these Cretins... are Chumps!
Capitalism + Corporatism + British Mercantilism = Transnational Capitalism
Communism (Judeo-Christian) + Neo-Colonialism (Piracy) = Monopoly Capitalism
Capitalism + Communism = Communitarianism = Neo-Feudalism = World Socialism*
Socialism = Parasitism = Human/Sex/Organ/Drug Trafficking = Gangsterism
Is Staff aware that Cass Sunstein - co-author of "Nudge... " and a current Obama commissar - styles himself a [i]libertarian paternalist[/i]?
That Van Jones... like Obama's pappy [and [i]commie mommy[/i]]... is a communist? Or that academic gatekeeper, Noam Chomsky... is a [i]libertarian socialist[/i]?
DUMB-er than a box of rocks. Yet EVIL as all hell. Who will save Us... from Them?
Click to view link
[b]*A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing[/b]
SMART = specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. Sounds like [i][/b]systems thinking[i][/b]. But a tip of the hat there to ya... Staff!:)
... And a hat tip as well to systems analyst Ms. Vicky Davis of Channeling Reality. Click to view link Who alerted me to this here page.:)
---
Click to view link
[b]The ABC's of Communitarianism[/b]
Click to view link
[b]Obama's former "Green Czar" calls him a Communitarian[/b]
Click to view link
[b]Van Jones: Obama is An Umnabashed Communitarian[/b]
Click to view link
[b]Is Communitarianism or a Commune in Your Future?[/b]
Click to view link
[b]Future We Want - Outcome Document[/b]
Click to view link
[b]On American Sustainability - Anatomy of a Societal Collapse[/b]
Click to view link
[b]The Coup - Movement Politics[/b]
Click to view link
[b]'Individualism' is Antithetical to Human Nature[/b]
Click to view link
[b]World Spiritual Traditions: Theosophical Perspectives[/b]
Click to view link
[b][i]Modus vivendi[i][/b]
Click to view link
[b]John N. Gray[/b]
Click to view link
[b]Rawlsianism[/b]
Reply from The Daily Bell
Thanks, Lark. Your irritation at the nomenclature is noted. But these terms go back nearly a decade now within the parameters of our written commentary and are not just ours either but utilized elsewhere as well. We are probably stuck with "what brung us" - at least for now. Maybe there will be a change. We'll see.
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Posted by Danny B on 01/29/13 08:31 PM
I made 2 road trips from London to Scotland to see the Highland Seer, Swein Macdonald.
Click to view link
I Asked him when the next L.A. earthquake was going to happen. The old guys at the pub told me that his father was even better than Swein at predicting the future.
I really like the highlands. They're wild and open. When I got to Glasgow, it was truly depressing. It reminded me of Springstein's song,,, My Hometown.
Click to view link
The memorable thing about Glasgow was that it is the only place that I've seen cat fights on the street. Women duking it out in public.
Scotland is a beautiful country but, the truth is, you can't make any money.
With the mechanization of livestock production and farming, you have to go to the city and endure all the ills.
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Posted by Friend_of_John_Galt on 01/29/13 06:32 PM
Having lived nearly 30 years in California under edicts of "smart growth", I cringe whenever I hear anything involving government, "smart," and public accommodations.
The only "smart" thing is to either run the rascal politicians out on a rail or get yourself out before they come for you. (I have moved to another state that (fortunately) doesn't have as much taxpayer money to waste, so is less far down the road to "smart" perdition.
