Saudi Arabia's Utopia Withers, Like All Despotic Fantasies

The Financial Times details how Saudi Arabia's Neom project, particularly 'The Line' linear city, is seeing its ambitious population targets slashed from 1.5 million to just 300,000 by 2030. What the mainstream press often sidesteps is that such fantastical projects are built on the back of forced displacement and zero accountability. Recall how the Houweitat tribe resisted these utopian visions,

their lands seized, their lives disrupted, often met with brutal crackdowns and death sentences for dissenters. This isn't just a construction project; it's an exercise in unchecked power. We are told this is a 'futuristic' city, but the foundation is medieval. A monarchy pursuing vanity projects while crushing human rights and, for instance, contributing to mass starvation in Yemen through years

of bombing, isn't charting a new course for humanity. It's just a bigger, shinier version of the same old authoritarian playbook—until the money runs out or the reality checks arrive. How many more billions will be poured into this mirage before anyone asks about the human cost?

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