Judging by the information on the website, construction of this has been underway for a year already.
These cities are nothing short of enslavement. And yet the public at large still hasn’t figured out what the ruling classes are doing to them and Dobrograd is not the only one, according to a Substack article by Redko Da Metko.
Dobrograd is not the only one. On Sberbank’s website, you can find a detailed presentation of another “smart city,” and the title of the article hints at the same 15-minute city model from the World Economic Forum.
In August 2021, the 15-minute triangle project of the Moscow city plan came in the top 30 of the 15-minute city international ‘Urban Design Competition’. The size of the “15-minute area” is 3 by 3 kilometers.
The Moscow city plan is a triangular modulus city in the form of a polycentric urban planning system. The main transport networks are located underground, above ground there are only bicycle and pedestrian routes, and the buildings are raised on supports. Much attention is paid to energy efficiency: it is planned to use renewable energy sources (solar, water, wind). –The Daily Exposé
One such city called Sber City was developed by Herman Gref. Apparently, what you do after you create “a whole universe of services for human life”, like cattle-tag systems for schoolchildren and surveillance cameras that can face-recognize muzzled wage slaves and even stray dogs, is you figure out how to enslave humanity even more.
As a public service, your correspondent created a one-minute summary of Gref’s Door to the Future:
People living in these cities are going to have every convenience at the tips of their fingers, that is, if the ruling class allows them to use that convenience. What could possibly go wrong when a few have total control over the many?
]]>Obviously history tells us a far different story, and it boggles my mind when anyone tries to argue that things are different today compared to 100 years ago, 300 years ago, or 1000 years ago. There is nothing new under the sun. There will always be tyrants attempting to gain more and more power and those tyrants will always lie to the public, claiming they are good people with our best interests at heart.
When that doesn’t work and the citizenry remains skeptical, the tyrants go on the attack, accusing the public of “conspiracy theory.” This is meant to mock and shame free thinkers into silence – You don’t want to stand out, right? Why risk being ostracized from society? Why risk becoming a meme?
This tactic is rooted in the notion that the corporate media and government officials represent the mainstream, and therefore they represent the majority, and the majority represents reality. None of this is true or relevant, of course. Only facts matter. Sophistry is meaningless. Opinions are meaningless. The truth should be the goal, and if it’s not someone’s goal then they must be a purveyor of lies and should not be taken seriously. There are only two paths to take, there is no in-between.
I will admit there is some value to the “conspiracy theory” accusation because whenever the establishment uses it, it’s a sure sign that you are too close to the target and they are getting nervous. They could simply try to outline any evidence they might have to prove that your position is wrong, but they don’t really do that. Instead of debating your arguments and evidence, they try to undermine you as a valid critic and inoculate the public against your ideas before people ever get a chance to hear them. This is the behavior of villains, not benevolent and caring leaders.
I mention this dynamic because there is one agenda above all others that is aggressively defended by the establishment media, and anyone who remotely questions it is automatically persecuted as a “conspiracy nut” or “denier.” I am of course talking about the climate change agenda.
I have thoroughly debunked the idea of man-made climate change in previous articles and I won’t be spending time on that here. Instead, I want to examine the end goal of climate change policies – The ultimate solution, which is NOT to save the planet, but to dominate the populace.
The names used for the climate change “reset” vary, but it is often referred to by globalists and the UN as Agenda 2030 or Sustainable Development Goals. These programs wear a facade of environmentalism but they are ALL rooted in economics. That is to say, all climate change efforts exist to destroy industry and trade and establish a government/corporate partnership to dominate production. Climate change is a Trojan Horse to introduce authoritarianism.
I believe one of the most important aspects of Agenda 2030 for globalists is something called the “15 Minute City”; a project which involves hundreds of city mayors from across the US, Europe and Asia working closely with groups like the World Economic Forum. Any mention of this idea in a negative light and the media erupts with anger as well as mockery as if it’s not a real issue worthy of debate.
The establishment paints an interesting picture of 15 Minute Cities – A Utopian future in which everything you need is only a short walk away and private transportation is superfluous (or banned). You might even live in mega-complex, much like a giant mall where you also work. You could spend months within one square mile of space, never having to leave for anything.
It’s no mistake that this idea was pushed hard during the pandemic lockdowns. The public was awash in fear propaganda over a virus with a 99.8% survival rate and that fear made the unthinkable idea of staying at home all the time suddenly thinkable. Media pundits continue to call the connection between covid lockdowns and climate lockdowns a conspiracy theory, but the idea is openly admitted in UN and WEF white papers.
Some people argue that most cities are already “15 Minute Cities” with necessities all within walking distance of their homes. These folks don’t understand what a 15 Minute City really is. As numerous establishment descriptions of the project note, it’s not just about convenience or close access, it’s about changing every aspect of our current philosophy of living. It’s not about gaining amenities, it’s about making an array of sacrifices in order to appease the gods of carbon emissions.
The 15 Minute City is more like a recipe, containing every single ingredient of the climate change and covid lockdown agendas in a single comprehensive Orwellian vision. It includes removing motor vehicles, removing private transportation and roads, smart city and AI monitoring of each person’s electricity usage, monitoring of product consumption and “carbon footprint”, biometric surveillance within a compact and stacked urban landscape, the cashless society concept, equity and inclusion cultism, population control, etc.
It is the culmination, the end game; a massive prison with no bars. A place where you are conditioned to grow accustomed to artificial limitations on privacy, no civil liberties, no private property, and no work options or mobility. You are tied to the land and the land is owned by the state (or corporation). If you want a historic comparison, the closest I can find is the feudal system of Medieval Europe.
Within these cities you are a labor mechanism, nothing more. You will never be allowed to own your own property and thus own your own labor. Everything you have is given to you by the state and can be taken away by the state if you defy them. You might be able to leave the village or community you are tied to for a time, but this will change with increasing restrictions on the public’s movement according to the dictates of climate ideology.
As long as you are productive and submissive you will be give the things you need to survive, but never to thrive. In the case of a technocratic feudal system you would not have any guarantees that the state would need your services. At least in feudal Europe a peasant was seen as valuable resource because of limited population. In a world where many people are considered “population excess”, you could easily be replaced and booted out of the city to starve and die.
In 2016 the World Economic Forum published a document titled ‘Welcome To 2030. I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy, And Life Has Never Been Better.’ The article was meant to promote a concept called the “sharing economy” which was first publicly fielded to the press at Davos. The article describes a “hypothetical” future in which a communistic system has ended all private property in the name of saving the planet from climate change. The benefits? Well, like all communistic systems, the big lie is that you will get to work less and most things will be free. This is how collectivist ideals have been sold to the populace for generations and it NEVER works the way the establishment claims.
The WEF has been promoting the sharing economy for years, but when it went mainstream and was widely criticized as dystopian, the media once again flipped the “conspiracy theory” switch and attacked anyone exposing the implications.
Multiple platforms published the article in 2016 but many have since taken it down (Forbes appears to have erased their published copy, for example). They are pretending as if the agenda never existed, probably because the article contains some revealing admissions, including a hint at the 15 Minute City concept. From the article:
“My biggest concern is all the people who do not live in our city. Those we lost on the way. Those who decided that it became too much, all this technology. Those who felt obsolete and useless when robots and AI took over big parts of our jobs. Those who got upset with the political system and turned against it. They live different kind of lives outside of the city. Some have formed little self-supplying communities. Others just stayed in the empty and abandoned houses in small 19th century villages.
Once in awhile I get annoyed about the fact that I have no real privacy. Nowhere I can go and not be registered. I know that, somewhere, everything I do, think and dream of is recorded. I just hope that nobody will use it against me”
In other words, the globalists imagine a future were the malcontent free thinkers and people replaced by AI are outcasts, scratching and scraping out a meaningless existence in the wastelands of the old world. To stay in the bosom of the new world you will be required to give up all freedom, even freedom of thought. Keep in mind, this article is supposed to be a “positive” promotion of the shared economy and 15 Minute-related cities. Yet, this excerpt sounds more like a threat.
It’s important to understand that these compact cities will not be designed for your comfort. They will not be designed so that you can have all the amenities you have today closer to your fingertips while also providing “sustainability.” That’s how the globalists try to sell it, but that’s not what it will be. Rather, these cities will be designed to better CONTROL you, so that you can be forced to make the sacrifices they say are necessary for sustainability to be possible.
They are erroneously billed as “decentralized communities,” but they are the exact opposite – They are utterly centralized, like a hamster cage where you are the pet. The core philosophy behind them is dependency. If you live in a place which is specifically constructed to eliminate your ability to provide for yourself, then you are a slave. Though, to be sure, even slavery can be made to look noble if people are convinced that their chains are necessary for the good of the planet.
]]>In the near future, there will be three types of places where people live in western society, particularly in the United States. Most will live in variations of the current major cities, packed into small geographic locations as these metropolises are converted into multiple districts that are self-contained. It won’t be very dissimilar from how it is today except that people in each district will be confined to their district. It will be their dystopian version of a “Smart City.”
A variation of the urban “Smart Cities” will be the mini-versions located near farms, mines, and other necessary societal components that cannot exist in metro areas. The rules for these “offsite” areas won’t be very different for the workers who live there. There will still be guards to make sure nobody leaves the plantation. It’ll be like a prison work program where certain people get to leave the city for a time to pick apples or mine lithium.
Those who are rich AND properly politically aligned with globalists will be allowed to live in new “Smart Cities.” We’re seeing a version of this being planned right now in Northern California as the super rich near the San Francisco Bay Area are trying to escape the hellhole they created by relocating to their new utopia. Many high-end suburban areas or small towns will be converted into smart cities for the elites as well. For many, it will be a step down in lifestyle but they’ll need to make “sacrifices” for the globalists’ greater good.
The third group of people will be the smallest. The remnant. Those who were able to avoid the oppression and circumvent the diktats will live in rural areas. This group will be truly self-sufficient. They will not require government for anything related to their survival. They will also be equipped to defend themselves against those who would try to take what they have.
It’s impossible for many to imagine such a scenario. But for the sake of suspending disbelief, let’s stipulate two likelihoods so we can understand the path to this dystopian future. First, the depopulation agenda is already playing out. Whether through war, a truly dangerous Plandemic, “vaccine” adverse reactions, false flag domestic terrorism, or a combination of things, the population of America and possible much of western society could be greatly diminished in the near future. This will make us much more manageable.
Second, the climate change cult is very likely to get their way. In many ways they already are as blue states are setting deadlines for the end of gas-powered cars, gas stoves, and anything driven by fossil fuels. I will continue to fight their agenda with everything I have and I know many of you will as well, but I fear they have too much money, political clout, and narrative control for us to defeat them. I pray that I’m wrong but I fear that I’m right.
This cult will drive most of the left to willfully submit to this new normal of “Smart Cities.” But what about those on the right? What about the freedom-loving patriots who will not submit to sacrifices for the sake of a theory in which we do not abide? To understand this, we should reread the evil words of Henry Kissinger, the godfather of modern globalism.
“Who controls the food supply controls the people. Who controls the energy can control whole continents. Who controls money can control the world.”
There’s a good chance nearly all of our readers are very aware of what’s currently happening with the food supply. The powers-that-be are changing it fundamentally, creeping their control mechanisms into place through regulations and sabotage. Those who try to avoid regulations will be quashed as an Amish farmer in Virginia is learning. Food processing plants are being “mysteriously” destroyed on a weekly basis. The push for lab-grown meat to replace real meat is hitting stride.
Before 2030, governments and powerful people like Bill Gates will be operating a public-private partnership that will have complete control of the food supply for the sake of climate change.
This is why our sponsor, Prepper All Naturals, is such an important partner for us. Their bags of beef cubes are shelf stable for two decades or longer. (The Liberty Daily benefits from purchases at our sponsors like Prepper All Naturals; use promo code “TLD15” for 15% off at checkout.)
“Smart Cities” will be able to control the people by only distributing to those who are properly compliant. That could mean having vaccine credentials. It could mean having a high enough social credit score to determine whether they get lab-grown “beef” this week or if they have to suffer through cricketburgers again. Kissinger was right about controlling the people through food, as it has been done by tyrannical governments for millennia. Even the most freedom-loving patriot will bow to tyranny before letting his or her family starve to death.
As for energy, this is obviously at the core of the climate change agenda. It’s why I expect an attack on the power grids in the very near future. The powers-that-be are having a harder time than they expected in getting people to drive electric vehicles. Meanwhile, wind and solar are failing miserably on multiple fronts. To achieve their 2030 goals, they’re going to have to get creative.
There are two types of people who will be able to avoid being controlled by government through energy. Those who are completely off-grid will obviously be fine. But for those of us who cannot go buy a self-sufficient homestead in Idaho, it’s time to start practicing our grid-free skills. That will require a future article that I will likely post at my Late Prepper Substack, but the short version is we need to change our lifestyles so we can survive using old school techniques. If the power, water, gas, and (GASP!) internet go out for an extended period of time, would you need government to bail you out? If so, then in the near future they will be able to control you.
Last but not least, they are going to drive as many people as possible to “Smart Cities” through money. This is the biggest concern about Central Bank Digital Currencies that far too few people are discussing. Most of the fuss has been about privacy and the government’s ability to confiscate funds, but the technology allows two very important powers. First, it can be given an expiry date. Second and more importantly, CBDCs can be directed for localization so that YOUR “money” can only be spent at designated stores within your “Smart City.”
This is why I’m a huge proponent of establishing localized networks for barter and other alternative commerce systems. I’ve talked to a few prominent patriots about it and there are efforts being made to create these types of networks. Pray they are successful. I’m not banking on it coming to fruition in time, which is why we’re trying to stockpile as much of the essentials as possible. As a “late prepper,” I’m finding it challenging to get everything we need while we still can. Then, there’s the issue of space. Strategies for preparing for CBDCs will require a longer article in the near future.
It’s no secret that I’m a huge proponent of precious metals. I believe in using the Christian company, Genesis Gold Group, for protecting retirement. But for those who want to have gold and silver bullion on hand in case of… whatever… I recommend Advisor Metals. Owner Ira Bershatsky discreetly sends metals to your home with a $2,500 minimum. Both companies are America First and do business the right way, which is unfortunately rare in the precious metals industry.
For the majority of us who aren’t stockpiling precious metals, we should stock up on things we’ll use. I know the first thing that comes to mind is toilet paper for some reason by I’m not a fan. Toilet paper is a convenience, not a necessity. I would rather stockpile things for use or barter that are essential.
It’s time to get ready. They’re coming for us. We fight the good fight today to try to stop the evil from winning but we get ready for things to come just in case they win. But through it all, we must never forget that God wins in the end. We’ll just have to suffer along the way.
“Satellite city” just refers to a smaller city next to a larger one. Think Fort Worth and Dallas. It’s possible that Auntie got her words mixed up and meant to say “Smart City” instead of satellite city. Or, she could have meant that Lahaina was supposed to be a satellite city for something bigger that was slated to be built.
Smart Cities are a different matter entirely. (People often use “smart city” and “digital city” interchangeably.) TWI, a multinational engineering and consulting firm, defines a smart city as one that “uses information and communication technology (ICT) to improve operational efficiency, share information with the public and provide a better quality of government service and citizen welfare”
Engineering firms like this believe that increased data collection through the use of cameras and sensors in cities can improve citizens’ quality of life by streamlining traffic and relieving congestion. There are projects already in place to turn places like Tokyo, Singapore, New York City, and Reykjavic into smart cities.
Smart cities aren’t a “conspiracy theory.” They’re engineering projects that have been underway for quite some time already.
Maui was actually home to an early smart city project, called JUMPSmart Maui. American and Japanese researchers installed electric vehicle charging stations throughout the island and worked with Nissan Leaf owners to collect data about how well the charging stations actually worked. This project explains why Maui residents have smart cities on their radar.
It’s important to note that we’re told not all smart city concepts consist of individualized data collection. While some smart cities, like those in China, certainly can use facial recognition tech to track individuals, companies trying to sell their services in Western countries insist that data collection can be done anonymously and only be used for traffic relief.
But we must remember that this can change depending on political winds. Our cell phone data was supposed to be anonymous, too, and yet the CDC bought the data from phone companies to evaluate compliance during lockdowns. I see no reason to assume data about movement within cities would remain permanently anonymous and inviolate, either.
Look at the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) in London. Mayor Sadiq Khan installed thousands of cameras across London to determine whether or not vehicles in the city comply with emissions standards, which most older vehicles do not. Many small business owners cannot afford to simply buy new vans, but noncompliant vehicles are fined £12.50 per day. In response, gangs of Londoners have vandalized huge numbers of traffic cameras.
Despite the promises of politicians and city planners, these cameras are not popular.
A “15 minute city” refers to a city in which a person’s home and everything they need can be reached within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.
This, also, is getting a trial run in the U.K. Oxford has divided the city into six zones, and private cars will need permits to go into different zones, or they could face fines. While Oxford legitimately has traffic problems, residents are concerned that it will kill business in the city center because it will be so much more difficult for people to reach, and also simply push the traffic issues to surrounding areas as people are forced to change their driving routes.
British city planners claim the goal is to get more people to use public transportation. That can work, theoretically, if you live in an area where public transportation has not become dangerous, but that is increasingly rare.
I’ve lived in cities where you didn’t need to own a car. Depending on your phase of life, it can work out quite nicely. But I can’t imagine it working as a parent of 2+ teenagers with disparate interests. Being stuck in a 15-minute radius would severely curtail my children’s opportunities to learn, socialize, and develop as human beings. And it’s a killer for small businesses.
Yet the 15-minute city concept has been heavily promoted by the C40 Climate Leadership Group, a global network of nearly 100 mayors of major cities.
Again, this is not a conspiracy theory. C40 is a real group of mayors of real cities. Do you live in Houston or Miami? You live in a city run by a mayor who has made a commitment to work toward a 15-minute city.
There is a push to retrofit existing cities to a 15-minute model. But there are entirely new communities being planned, too.
We’ve written before about the Dutch farmer protests. The Dutch government has been forcibly purchasing farms to meet the EU’s nitrogen reduction standards, but the Dutch know that this has less to do with the environment and more to do with Tristate City.
The proposed Tristate City will be able to house 45 million people. Supporters include property developers, pension funds, and Utrecht’s economic board. They believe that Dutch cities are currently too small to compete with Asian megalopolises, and they believe this will be the wave of the future.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., a group called Flannery Associates has spent about $800 million purchasing approximately 52,000 acres northeast of San Francisco, right next to Travis Air Force Base. For years, this organization had been shrouded in mystery. Yet, within the past two weeks, this group has come forward with a website launch for their proposed utopia.
California Forever, the parent group behind Flannery Associates, promises a vibrant town powered by solar energy, full of walkable neighborhoods, and high-paying jobs.
But Flannery did not endear itself to the community with its years of secrecy and then its aggressive buying tactics. Their assumption that they can build a brand new city, taking as much as water as they want, has not gone over well. Local landowners, as well as Congressmen Mike Thompson and John Garamandi, have been intensely frustrated with the project owners and do not want the utopian city to go through.
And yet the members of California Forever are powerful billionaires. The group includes Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison, venture capitalist Michael Moritz, Marc Andreessen and his venture capital fund, LinkedIn founder (and Epstein associate) Reid Hoffman, venture capitalists Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, and the philanthropist/widow of Steve Jobs, Laurene Jobs. The project is spearheaded by former Goldman Sachs investor Jan Sramek.
Sramek may be a 36 year old investing prodigy, but he has been incredibly vague on details regarding blueprints and environmental permitting, as well as financing for the people who may actually want to live there.
In a perfect world, jumping through the legal hurdles needed for a project like this would be impossible. The area is zoned for agriculture, and the existing communities of Solano County don’t want to change it.
And Solano County is prone to wildfires. The LNU Lightning Complex fires, California’s 6th most destructive wildfires, torched part of Solano County in 2020. Locals say that the fire protection in Solano County is already underfunded. Putting a new city, planned to include massive solar farms (which are a fire risk on their own) will be putting additional stress on an infrastructure that’s already not up to code.
And you know, it’s kind of funny how people seem to keep putting up Smart Cities in fire-prone areas. You’d think that if you were going to dump tons of money into an area to improve the technology, they’d prioritize fire safety.
Just look at Kelowna, up in British Columbia. It was devastated by wildfires in 2003. Experts made recommendations, at the time, to avoid such destructive wildfires in the future but longtime local residents complain that no real changes were ever made. It’s like no one cared that much about whether or not Kelowna burned.
It’s not like Kelowna is some poverty-stricken area, either. In fact, it has the distinction of being Canada’s first “real-world 5G smart city.” The government was willing to dump money into fancy new cameras and a 5G network. You’d think they want to keep the area from burning down.
It matters because there is a method to the madness. Smart Cities, cities where constant surveillance is the norm, are coming. The move into them is not organic. It’s being driven.
Climate change is being used as an excuse for us to pack into heavily surveilled cities to reduce our carbon footprint, and the mainstream media has been pointing to this year’s wildfires as an example of climate catastrophe. The head of the UN announced this summer that we had entered an era of “global boiling.”
Global boiling has supposedly led to both the Maui fires as well as the Canadian fires. This is supposed to scare us so much that we’re ready to make drastic lifestyle changes.
Except there are a few problems with this scenario.
First of all, 2023 has had heat records broken in some areas, but other parts of the world have had unusually cool summers. There has been a great deal of hullaballoo about the “hottest summer on record,” but averages have only barely made it past those of the 1930s. (source)
Second, these fires have been anything but natural. Recent evidence has come forth that Hawaii Electric turned the power off 6 hours before the string of deadly fires that destroyed Lahaina. Whether it was a Directed Energy Weapon or good old-fashioned gasoline we won’t know for some time, and personally, I’m not sure how much it matters. I hope as the lawsuit between Maui County and Hawaii Electric proceeds, solid facts will emerge. For now, all we know is that there was nothing “natural” about this supposed wildfire.
Up in Canada, you can find all kinds of videos and accusations being made online about who’s responsible for the fires. Some of them might be overblown but we know for a fact people have been arrested for arson. Arson and climate change are not the same thing!
If you think the talk about smart cities is hyperbolic, look at the talk about climate change. Reading the UN’s website, they treat an impending man-made climate cataclysm as a fact despite public debate from climate scientists worldwide.
Or listen to King Charles talk about how this is humanity’s “last chance” to save the planet despite the fact that the climate change predictions made in the 90s and early 2000s about what the 2020s are being proven seriously wrong.
The climate doom rhetoric is utterly ridiculous, yet we’re supposed to take everything King Charles says as gospel and dismiss Auntie? No, sorry, not buying it.
I don’t know whether or not King Charles believes his own rhetoric. I kind of suspect he doesn’t, considering how much beachfront property he owns. But it is clear: the powerful groups he is part of have a vision for the future that includes more surveillance for the rest of us.
This website is about preparedness. An awareness of the political class’s goals will help us to see what’s coming and think about what we personally can do to keep our families happy and healthy.
What are your thoughts about Smart Cities? Are they real or just another conspiracy theory? Do you think there will be a push to move us all into them or will they just be available for those who choose to live there? What do you see as the pros and cons? Do you believe plans for Smart Cities are behind some of the horrific disasters that have been occurring? What about the massive land purchases?
Let’s discuss at our Late Prepper Substack.
A lover of novels and cultivator of superb apple pie recipes, Marie spends her free time writing about the world around her. Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.
]]>Independent journalist Lara Logan could write about it. She could be interviewed about it. She could probably talk about 15-Minute Cities for hours without repeating herself. But this weekend she broke it down in 10-words, then threw in a few more for added effect. But the first 10 were all she really needed.
A “15-minute city” is a self-sustaining concentration camp.
And the guards are Artificial Intelligence.
“Snd you’ll never be happier”.
Wake up.
The World Economic Forum are Nazis without the uniform.
Just listen to Klaus Schwab speak. What sounds more like a Nazi leader than that?
A “15-minute city” is a self-sustaining concentration camp.
And the guards are Artificial Intelligence.
“and you’ll never be happier”.
Wake up.
The World Economic Forum are Nazis without the uniform.
Just listen to Klaus Schwab speak. What sounds more like a Nazi…
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) August 5, 2023
Yep, that sums it up perfectly. Leave your thoughts about 15-Minute Cities or Lara Logan on my Substack.
]]>Panem consisted of 12 districts in varying states of poverty ruled by the Capitol, which was located west of the Rocky Mountains. The Capitol’s residents, the ruling elite of Panem, remained very wealthy and technologically advanced by exploiting the people and natural resources of the surrounding districts.
Rivaling the European feudal lords of the Middle Ages, Panem’s rulers used their armies of “peacekeepers” to maintain tight control over district residents. Severe restrictions, mass surveillance, public executions and whippings were a common way of life. Communication between districts was forbidden, and no one was allowed to leave the boundaries of his or her district unless granted permission.
Just as some of the elites of ancient Rome gorged themselves at their gluttonous parties and had vessels in which to vomit so that they could devour more food, Capitol residents would ingest a liquid similar to ipecac to empty their stomachs so that they could eat more.
Like the rich man in Jesus’ account who ignored the plight of poor Lazarus outside his gate (Luke 16:19-31), the Capitol residents were oblivious to the fact that while they went through large quantities of food with much to spare, district residents often starved.
As ancient kings imposed the payment of tribute on vassal kingdoms to exercise power over them, the rulers of the Capitol, in addition to enslaving the people and taking virtually everything away from them, would levy a form of tribute on the districts where residents were selected and forced to fight in brutal and bloody gladiatorial combat for their entertainment.
To the Capitol residents, district residents existed only to make their lives comfortable and amuse them. When they ceased to fulfill this role, they were then to be eliminated and replaced.
Over the past several years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has been promoting the implementation of an urban planning concept called the “15-minute city” (sometimes abbreviated as FMC). This is described as arranging an urban area in such a way that most daily necessities such as going to work, buying food and clothing, going to school, visiting the doctor, and engaging in leisure and entertainment can all be done within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride from any point of the city.
According to its proponents, this would be a convenient way to reduce car dependency, promote healthy and sustainable living, improve the well-being and quality of life of city residents, and greatly reduce carbon emissions in the ongoing fight against climate change.
Under the guise of climate-change prevention, car ownership and use would be eliminated over time by making it too expensive and limiting the infrastructure to sustain it. Roadblocks and gates would be erected over time throughout the city. Along with restrictions on the freedom of movement, constant surveillance would characterize life, turning the FMC into an open-air prison similar to the districts in “The Hunger Games.”
Efforts are underway in Paris, Melbourne, Milan, Oxford and other cities around the world to implement this supposedly “convenient” form of urban planning that some critics call “WEF ghettos.” Residents of these cities, understanding the implications to their freedom and that globalist entities such as the WEF are promoting them, are pushing back through protests and lobbying efforts directed at their local officials. Some have even taken to surreptitiously removing zoning barriers at night and disabling surveillance cameras.
By faith, as Abraham wandered as an alien in the land God promised to him and his posterity, he looked for a city not of this world with the surest of foundations, built by the Architect and Builder of all things (Hebrews 11:8-10). About 20 centuries later, Jesus affirmed that Abraham looked forward to His day with gladness, for he knew Him to be that Architect and Builder (John 8:56-58; Colossians 1:15-20).
Jesus later told His disciples and all who would believe in Him:
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)
The kind of cities the WEF and its partners are trying to establish around the world eventually lead to trapping people in cages, where they are forced to live in increasing levels of austerity and poverty as global elites travel freely and live in luxury at their expense.
In contrast, the new city in the new heavenly country that Abraham saw from a distance – and which is much closer to us today – has 12 foundation stones named after the 12 apostles, and 12 gates named after the 12 tribes of Israel. It is a place where the light of the Son shines continually, and the gates are always open, allowing its residents plenty of room to move about freely in gladness, joy, and abundant provision (Revelation 21:10-27, 22:1-5).
The attempts by global elitists to create “15-minute cities” where they value their progressively confined residents for what they can get from controlling and destroying them will fail, because it will be utterly overcome by the eternal city built by God, who valued lost humanity so much that He sent His own Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and rise again so that all who trust in Him will live liberated from sin, death and confinement forever.
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
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]]>“Fringe forces of the far left,” he noted, “are plotting to take away our freedom to be stuck in traffic jams, to crawl along clogged ring roads and trawl the streets in search of a parking spot.”
The name of this “chilling global movement?” he asked, sarcastically and somewhat contemptuously: The “15-minute city.”
Wainwright believes that these cities are simply part of a “mundane planning theory.” He’s wrong.
A few days after Wainwright’s piece was published, three academics called 15-minute cities (FMCs) “the hottest conspiracy theory of 2023.” In a truly elitist manner, they poked fun at those who dared to question the motive behind FMCs.
One needn’t be a card-carrying QAnon member to have fears over these Trojan-like creations. Before going any further, it’s important to get our definitions in order. As the political scientist Kelly M. Greenhill has noted, not all conspiracy theories are wacky, and not all conspiracy theories are wrong. Take the Watergate conspiracy theory, for instance, or the fact that Edith Wilson made most of the executive decisions after her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, suffered a stroke.
Quite often conspiracy theories turn out to be accurate.
Also known as smart cities, FMCs are places where everything imaginable, from your place of work to your favorite pizzeria, is accessible either by foot or bike (not by car, though; they’ll be verboten) in 15 minutes or less. What’s so bad about this?
On first inspection, very little. We are, after all, creatures of comfort. We live in a world where the mantra “too long, didn’t read (TL;DR)” now reigns supreme. We crave convenience; we crave expediency. However, expediency isn’t always a good thing; sometimes it’s downright dangerous. This is especially true when people, either consciously or otherwise, trade their freedom for ease of access to certain services.
While FMCs may make it easier for citizens to get from A to B, these creations will also make it easier for those in power to spy on us, harvest our data, and enable Big Brother to become Bigger Brother.
As I write this, FMCs are being actively championed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the group behind the “Great Reset” and the idea of owning nothing, having absolutely no privacy, and being very happy. This fact alone should concern all readers.
Want to discuss the WEF?
To many, I’m sure FMCs sound incredibly cool. But don’t be fooled by the name. FMCs are actually “smart cities.” As I’ve noted elsewhere, the word “smart” is really just a synonym for surveillance. These ultra-modern, tech-saturated monstrosities use hundreds of thousands of sensors to vacuum up copious amounts of personal data. FMC policies are currently being rolled out in cities such as Barcelona, Spain; Bogotá, Colombia; Melbourne, Australia; Paris; and the dystopian wasteland known as Portland, Oregon. What do these cities have in common? Surveillance technology.
Between now and 2040, cities all across the United States (and beyond) are predicted to spend trillions of dollars on the installation of additional cameras and biometric sensors. Sure, surveillance is bad now. But, as Randy Bachman famously hollered, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in closely surveilled urban centers, like glorified rats in cramped cages. Contrary to popular belief, we no longer live in a panoptic society. When Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher and social theorist, put forward the idea of this prison system, there was no internet. In truth, there weren’t even cars. We now live in a post-panoptic world—a digital panopticon, if you will—with huge social media platforms collecting personal user data before selling it to the highest bidder.
The companies running these platforms often work closely with government officials, identifying supposed sinners and punishing them in the swiftest of manners. As the writer Kylie Lynch has noted, these companies know absolutely everything about you; they have instant access to your browser history, your activity online, and now, rather worryingly, even your biometrics. Not surprisingly, these Big Tech companies will have a big impact on the FMCs of the future by providing the underlying digital infrastructure needed to monitor us and ensure mass compliance.
FMCs are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Don’t believe the countless stories telling you otherwise. It has become common for elitist, mainstream media outlets to poke fun at those who dare to question the “we have your best interests at heart” narratives. We’ve been burned too many times before.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
]]>The idea is for bureaucrats to restrict—and eventually prohibit—car use because everything is within walking or biking distance. Phasing out hydrocarbons, in general, and cars with internal combustion engines, in particular, is a primary goal of the carbon hysterics.
Critics also argue that 15-minute cities will eventually allow for total surveillance and control of people’s lives, as governments will inevitably pair them with an ESG social credit system and central bank digital currencies.
What is your take on the 15-minute city concept?
Doug Casey: It’s social engineering taken to a new level—trying to reform the way humans act and live. In fact, it’s social engineering that’s expressed in the form of civil engineering, putting people in the kind of houses, environments, and locales that the elites—strike that, I mean parasites—prefer.
It’s as if the whole human race is taking a role in the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show. But that’s way too benign. The way they’re trying to reform the cities and force people to stay in place in certain areas, it’s more like the panopticon, which was a type of prison where all people could be observed easily by the guards at all times.
Of course, keeping everybody within a 15-minute radius of their home sounds convenient, homey, and small town-like. But it just makes things much more convenient for artificial intelligence to monitor where everybody is. Not just in their vehicles, either, because the next step along this path will be to make it desirable for everybody to have a chip implanted so individual bodies can be monitored. The 15-minute city concept is just a step on the way to something much more dystopian.
International Man: 15-minute cities received a big boost from the Covid hysteria as many city councils and mayors sought to redesign city spaces amid the lockdowns.
The concept has spread to many areas in North America and Europe, with plans to transform parts of the biggest cities into numerous 15-minute city zones. We have already seen this happen in Ottawa, Oxford, and other large cities.
What is really going on here?
Doug Casey: It’s all about control, but it won’t be sold as a military “you must do this” type of control. It will be a soft, “do it for your own good” type of control. And, of course, it’s part of the general climate insanity for the supposed good of Mother Earth. The idea is to get people to stay out of their cars and, for that matter, stay off of planes and even public transportation.
It’ll be sold as a great way to get to know your neighbors, walk, and maybe bicycle. They’re trying to return the world to medieval times where nobody went more than 15 minutes from their house. Because not only weren’t they supposed to but there might be dragons over the next hill.
International Man: The global elite don’t want the plebs to be as mobile as they used to be.
In recent years, we’ve seen more and more travel restrictions. The Covid hysteria set a precedent for using lockdowns as official policy and introduced many confusing travel restrictions. The carbon hysteria also serves as a pretext for all sorts of proposals to limit and restrict travel. The trend now in motion is gaining momentum.
How do you see 15-minute cities within the context of this trend?
Doug Casey: People are far easier to control if you know where they are at all times. And the elite—again, they’re parasites that don’t produce anything or serve a useful purpose—want the plebs to stay in place, not just physically, but psychologically, economically, and politically.
They’d prefer to live in a world where places like St. Mark’s Square in Venice, Machu Picchu, and the Grand Canyon aren’t overwhelmed with the hoi polloi because they’re back observing their 15-minute travel zones and adhering to requirements that allow them to expend only so many pounds of carbon.
It’ll be much more convenient for the parasites from a personal living point of view, in addition to affording them vastly more control.
International Man: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has promoted 15-minute cities.
Why are they interested in this topic?
Doug Casey: In the past, the United Nations provided the premier forum for governments to get together and palaver about how to restructure the world. But the UN—fortunately—is fading into obscurity. It’s now really no more than an expensive club for mid-level government officials to vacation in New York while playing big shot and connecting with other ambitious bureaucrats.
The World Economic Forum is for the real power people.
The WEF, however, needs a reason for existing. These people are into power and money. They naturally like to socialize with each other, scratching each other’s backs and seeing themselves as masters of the universe. Now that they’ve gotten to know each other at the WEF and have clearly taken the reigns over at least the Western world, they’re no longer there just to socialize. They have lots of big plans for the plebs.
The concept of the 15-minute city is one of the many prongs of attack that they’ve launched to essentially take over the world, as outrageous as that sounds.
International Man: Given everything we have discussed, what can the average person do to safeguard his sovereignty in general and his freedom to travel in particular?
Doug Casey: First of all, try to relocate to a rural area where you’re much more in control of your own life, and you’re not surrounded by thousands of people who might rat you out as a non-conformist and could easily turn hysterical.
The second thing is to get as rich as you can because having assets helps insulate you from both the parasitic elites and the capite censi.
And third thing you can do is to resist any way you can. Speaking out and letting other people know that they aren’t alone in thinking what’s going on is actually evil. But recognize the risks of doing so.
We can’t change the trends of history. The atmosphere in today’s world is like that of the early days of the US Civil War or the early days of World War I or World War II. The boobs become stupidly hysterical, enthusiastic to ” join up” to fight some real or imagined foe, and marching together in lockstep. A giant mind virus is well on its way to capturing most people.
We live in really dangerous times.
Editor’s Note: The months and years ahead will be politically, economically, and socially volatile. What you do to prepare could mean the difference between suffering crippling losses and coming out ahead.
That’s precisely why, legendary investor and NY Times best-selling author Doug Casey just released this urgent report on how to survive and thrive.
Article cross-posted from International Man.
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