It's well-known that Ronald Reagan said that the nine most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." It's less remembered that he said so in the context of announcing a drought assistance plan for farmers. But the idea that government plans can do more harm than good isn't an extremist one.
But beyond a certain point that applies to plans in general. There's a technocratic impulse in both the government and the private sector. It's the idea that as we get more and better data we can make better decisions, and if that "we" means only a small elite, it's incumbent on all the other schmoes to get with the program.
This article on the pitfalls of "smart cities" shows where that kind of haughtiness can lead. The great cities of the Northwest―Seattle and Portland―have turned unfriendly to their residents exactly by means of the scientific measures that were supposed to help them.
Portland didn’t fail because it lacked intelligence. So far, it’s failed because it forgot to ask what the intelligence was for. The dream of a “New Atlantis” — a city run by science and data — turns dystopian not because of its technology, but because of its values. If citizens are assumed to be liabilities rather than moral agents, then urban design becomes an exercise in containment, not liberation.
Not to beat a dead horse, but the COVID reaction was the final boss of treating citizens as liabilities. For weeks turning to months turning to a couple of years, all unprotected and unmediated social interactions were held to be irresponsible. All because of experts who had convinced themselves they had the best information.
This also means that it's past time smart people admitted that data isn't everything.
2 comments:
It appears Reagan's speech proved true by doing nothing for the farmers in the long run or the short run either. After all these years Congress continues to discuss a Farm Bill without any results that would help small farms. As you know it's difficult to find ready information about how effective government proposals and orders were in years past, but I did note in this article from 1988 that ConAgra made huge profits during that drought that saw 650,000 farmers lose their land.
https://unityarchiveproject.org/article/drought-reagan-hit-farmers-hard/
I read the Unherd article yesterday and although it was easy to see the point the writer was making it was even easier to see the mistakes. Portland and Seattle were both fine cities until Trump's election in 2016 made leftists go totally crazy. Then came the covid lockdowns, defund the police movements, blm, george floyd riots, okay to shoplift, capital hill occupied protest (chop), lgbtqetc demonstrations, fentanyl.. and all the rest. You can't have a 'New Atlantis' when your population is apprehensive about what might happen next - as the t-shirt says: 'The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves'.
One thing I enjoy doing is looking at articles and images of cities that do work for people in the larger world. There are so many ways to enjoy city life, none of them based on data and technology. Here's just one of Chris Arnade's travel posts about a small town in the Rhone valley.
https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/europe-is-healthier-than-us
Data and tech in general is really only a small part of what we need as people. And as Arnade says in the essay, people have a way of making spaces serve their needs (if left alone to do so).
Sad to say, the system was not made for ordinary farmers, who often wind up losing their shirts. An enterprise like ConAgra can always capitalize more so that they're not as affected by the fluctuations, natural and otherwise. Never mind what happens when the biggest owner of farmland is Bill Gates. Lord save us all!
One problem with having states and cities where only one party can win--which is the situation for most of the country now--is that it tends to further narrow things down to a certain kind of person holding certain kinds of ideas. Do most people in Seattle/Portland/San Francisco/etc. support privilege walks for preschoolers and not prosecuting shoplifters? It's doubtful, but it would take a lot of momentum to get rid of the politicians who put these ideas in place, and most people lack confidence and/or are easily distracted.
Europe has its share of problems, as we see in the headlines. But one thing they have that's good is that much of their infrastructure and built environment predates the invention of the automobile. I'm guessing that's a big part of why their lives are oriented around being with others in the here and now rather than getting on the road to somewhere else. And I'm glad Arnade sees the value in that.
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