The truth is, if Smart Cities were a terrible idea we wouldn't have to warn people about them

This morning I published a piece about how state militias could fix America:

Immediately I was asked by one of my keen followers if I was serious or if this was satire, because it seems like I’m advocating for a government-run “Smart City” solution.

He also asked whether I envisioned this to be a permanent transformation of American society, or a temporary fix to a crisis. These are excellent questions.

I realize now that I’ve been discussing the subject of Smart Cities with a certain assumption I thought everybody else recognized: Smart Cities are a great idea. That’s why they’re so damn dangerous.

---

Solutions are the problem

My favorite political commentators are experts at breaking down what’s wrong with the world, but they don’t try to create solutions. Likewise, I also don’t try to create solutions, and as a Bible-believing Christian that lines up with my religious views, because Jesus didn’t command us to transform governments and create paradise on earth, but to serve a kingdom not of this world and wait for his return. So whenever I hear people talk about political, economic, or military solutions, I tend to cringe. I don’t blame anyone for cringing at my thought experiment for that same reason! It’s kind of silly to talk about solutions, because “solutions” — especially big ones — are where evil people take power and innocent people get screwed in new and exciting ways. I’m too cynical to believe in a real way out of the problem.

Early photo of Fort Bragg (now called “Fort Liberty”), home to 100,000 military personnel during World War II

There are a thousand ways to envision a “Smart City”, and yes, my theoretical solution of a state militia training district would fit within that category. Guilty as charged. If Smart Cities were a terrible idea I wouldn’t worry about them at all. If they were impractical, impossible, or doomed to fall apart then it would be just another failed experiment we could point and laugh at, like the Metaverse. The problem is that Smart Cities are one of the most powerful and viable solutions ever, as long as they aren’t totally dependent on something like computer technology, which is what Big Tech seems to want. A self-sustaining military fortress is perhaps the oldest Smart City concept. It’s exactly this viability that causes me to warn people about the upcoming Communitarian revolution in my book Fire In The Rabbit Hole, and why I see the Green World Order as the actual next phase of oppression: they might actually pull it off.

Buzz of the town

Kanye West said he wanted black people to have their own Smart Cities and even compared them to the Israeli “Kibbutz” compounds.¹ Those were Communitarian camps where nobody had private property. Ironically, Kanye West says that he wants to maintain family bonds and keep people together, while the Kibbutz did the opposite; children were taken from their parents and lived as communal children not belonging to anyone. It was an experimental lifestyle where all labor contributed to the group and the greater good was all that mattered, in theory. It went through dramatic changes over time, and basically failed. A version of it still exists today. If my research is accurate, they ultimately needed to integrate into the larger marketplace, allow for more personal reward, and bring back family custody. Donald Trump has promised “Freedom Cities” with flying cars. You can read about my thoughts on that here:

Around where I live you can find Hutterite villages, which are similar to Mennonites and Amish but entirely focused on vertical integration of everything they need, to creating a highly efficient workforce of free labor, generating a surplus of food to sell on the markeplace.

Hutterites are one of the oldest and most successful models in America in terms of pure practicality. Families live together and work together, the compound owns everything, and they only venture into regular society to get what they need and shun outsiders. They are an enclosed society with a strong religion, identity, and goal. Now with that said, I’ve personally met and become friends with ex-Hutterite people who hated living there, because they wanted to start their own private businesses and have more freedom. Anyone who wants independence from the Hutterite system gets banished and cut off from their family. There are plenty of problems within these small communities. But the idea is viable, and it has proven itself even without high-level organization and support.

State militias are already a functioning part of American society. They have the resources, personnel, and authority to create their own Smart City solutions, and if they don’t it would be easy to get. In my vision of it, they would be the opposite of a cult, a prison, or a lifelong commitment, because nobody would be trapped, they would be enlisted for terms and then free to go back into society if they want. Many countries have a mandatory military service, like South Korea, Brazil, and Sweden, so that everyone has to serve for a certain period of time. These countries are doing fine, and I’m sure it has a positive impact on the nation’s unity, morale, and skills. Instead of mandatory drafting of young men into federal military, however, this would be an incentivized program on a state level, primarily aimed at building, developing, and reinforcing a citizenry that can take care of itself and its neighbors.

Where does it lead?

As for whether this option would be permanent, I think it would be. Remember, I didn’t say it would replace normal free society or destroy what exists. This isn’t like the WEF’s Smart City programs that creep into normal society through corporate solutions and government regulations teaming up to make a “New Normal”. Quite the opposite. This would be a distinctly separate ecosystem which offers a mostly enclosed system of living, working, and learning, with a clear purpose of releasing these people back into society with upgraded knowledge and ability.

The easiest way to think about it, perhaps, is like a free University where you spend a few years and walk out a better contributor to society. It wouldn’t make much difference if it was only available to one generation. The goal would be to turn this option into a core part of American culture, so that the next generation can trust that if they make the right choices and become a trained militia member, they will have a brighter future and more useful connections.

Would it be a dystopia in practice? Well, considering that it would directly harm the corrupt plans of today’s globalist congressmen, senators, governors, judges, media, universities, and Big Tech, of course it would be sabotaged and ruined one way or another. Legislation would be blocked, lawsuits would be filed, and all sorts of opposition would pop up. If anyone tried to institute it, there would be hollering and outrage from a million partisan hacks accusing it of this or that. The only way it would be completed is if there was a conspiracy behind it, to abuse it somehow. That’s just the sad story of anything these days.

Personally, I would love to have this kind of option available to me. When I personally visited a Hutterite colony years ago, I was impressed. In fact, I was a little bit envious of how they ran things, maybe because of the German blood in me that always wants things to be efficient. Of course I would never join it as an adult—I’ve become more than accustomed to having freedom and responsibility—but I always loved the farms of my cousins, where everybody pitched in and nobody was getting paid. They all turned out to be successful professionals at other things after they left the farm and made their own lives. The death of family farms can be replaced by the state creating this kind of program.

Dangers

Smart Cities are not inherently evil, it’s just a matter of who’s in charge and how they run things. That’s why I emphasize transparency, meritocracy, and voluntary enlistment. Secrecy, favoritism, and coercion are the real danger. That’s exactly what most Smart Cities, colonies, and Communitarian visions are about. They want to trap people, keep them in the dark, and enslave them. The benevolent “stakeholders” and technocrats plan your life for you, keep you dependent on them, and cripple your rights until you’re nothing but a prisoner.

Regular society needs to remain, and the free market needs to continue as best it can. But the important institutions have been captured, and the solution will never be from within those hierarchies. Nobody is going to revolutionize Congress from within Congress. Marxists and technocrats have infiltrated and captured the establishment, and only a new generation of confident, competent, and proficient public servants can hope to support each other and find a path to defy and replace them.

(But again, if you want my advice: get right with God and look forward to the Millennial Kingdom, not a political solution.)

1. Joe Rogan #1554 exact time clip: https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkx5-CrdjwfCCMf1JC2URRk0e56wi98gGNY