January, 2010
Stay Smart, Not Subservient
Bob Minchin
I am not an old man, but I can remember when the word smart was used primarily to describe an assessment of the intellectual competence of a human being. Oh sure, my generation has always been familiar with the concept of artificial intelligence, and terms such as smart chip and smart bomb are well entrenched in modern vocabulary.
But as of late, we have witnessed a shift in how this word is used. The media, the advertising industry, and our current pop-culture political figures have transformed the word smart into the latest in a long series of politically propagandized buzzwords.
We have IBM bombarding us with an obnoxious television advertisement campaign preaching about what we need in order to become a smarter planet. These ideas, which usually smack of European-style globalization, largely revolve around the notion that a smarter infrastructure will solve all the world's problems. Their primary example is the smart toll system used by the city of Stockholm, Sweden, which is basically a more efficient way for the government to take money from the citizens.
We have smart cars that achieve impressive gas mileage at the expense of legroom, passenger capacity, luggage capacity, performance, and safety. What makes them smart, exactly? Nothing but the notion that they emit less carbon dioxide, which politicians have decided is causing manmade global warming. So they save the environment. That's smart.
We have President Obama describing smart meters which will be installed in our homes. These devices will enable the energy companies (and, ostensibly, the government) to monitor and control our energy usage, especially in regard to thermostat settings. This information will be fed into the smart grid, which will eliminate all vestiges of privacy that consumers have ever had regarding their energy consumption, schedule, and daily routine.
I could go on about smart phones, smart cards, smart energy, etc. But there is no point in going any further. The more I hear this word used in this way, the more I realize that smart has been redefined. Its new meaning is as follows: Having the characteristic of a process, product, or idea that coincides with liberal politicians' notions of how they believe your life should be lived.
In short, the public needs their surroundings, infrastructure, and consumer devices to be smart, because they are not smart enough to live their lives on their own. Liberals in the government want to tell you what car you can drive, how much energy you can use (and when you can use it), and how your money is to be spent.
I am not against technological innovations that improve efficiency, save money, or decrease pollution, provided that the advancements are made due to the demand created by free-market capitalism and not mandated or subsidized by politicians. We need to evaluate what the government wants us to think is smart and consider how wise their continued and increased intervention really is. It would be the smart thing to do.