Bullruns and bullfears

"Psssst. Hey. Over here. Yeah... here in the green. Don't tell anyone - I'm hiding."
The Bullrun

I kind of get the feeling sometimes like this is all a cruel joke but like someone said today, if you are pessimistic on Steem's future, WTF are you doing here? I think I might be misquoting that, but you get the idea. Why would anyone spend their time (the most valuable thing we have to invest) on a place that they believe that investment is wasted? While some people may think the Steem believers are idiots, those who are here as Steem non-believers are utterly ridiculous.

I don't mind these people too much as often, the more people believe there is no value in something, the more upside potential there likely is because average doesn't invest into game-changing ideas, it is just too far out of their emotional reach. I think I have mentioned before about the brother who has predicted that the internet, digital cameras and electric cars would never become mainstream. I asked him about crypto once, it is all a scam.

Watch me push all my chips into the crypto pile.

Risk is something that we are hardwired to predict and the fear we feel is what keeps us safe, however the wiring is only designed to face a narrow scope of circumstances, mainly physical threats and opportunities. The problem is that the wiring gets tasked to also deal with threats to our ego, and other engineered concepts like money.

Because we have built a culture where our worth is valued by how much material wealth we have accumulated or failed to accumulate, we extend our self into these things and identify them as part of us. That means when they come under risk, we protect them as if we ourselves are being attacked as we are attached to them as if they are our own limbs.

At least in my opinion, I believe that trading is an emotional business and because we feel the risk of it, we will more often than no pass up opportunities that while potentially lucrative, threaten what we have, our financial arms and legs. This is a big part of why the common mantra is, do not invest what you aren't willing to lose completely. Most people think that losing their money will leave them in a wheelchair.

I was talking with a colleague the other day about social services and safety nets and in Finland there is a pretty decent social provision which means that there is the opportunity for many Finns to be a little more risk taking without having to risk everything as there is a safety net that provides a basic living for everyone. Are Finns risk taking? Hardly. If anything, this safety net seems to have the net opposite of giving people the courage to try to jump higher and instead becomes a base that people rely on and therefore protect.

As another colleague said the other day, he sees all of life these days as a massive test and one that he thinks most are going to fail. He doesn't fear that though because, he isn't one of the "most". It is an interesting way to look at it and one that I think is pretty sad but likely right on the money as I believe that those who are in a debt cycle or are currently relying on others for provision (like government social services) are going to start to struggle heavily for opportunity to do much else in their lives.

While people might think crypto is crazy as it is based on nothing solid, it is because of this that I think it is an investment opportunity with massive upside because it doesn't rely on another economic system for its sustainability and could quite easily replace any currency now - as long as enough people decided it was going to happen.

This means that enough people with goods and services worth something. You know, people like us who for years have been both the product and customer of social networks that have built trillion dollar industries from the ground up on the money they extract from us. It is time that that industry they have built gets commandeered by the people who enable it, us. There is very little stopping this from happening other than we the people not being able to organize ourselves and the fears we hold due to the very people we have given the power to.

It is a funny thing when we fear governments, laws and corporations that we have given power to, that we can actually take power from quite easily as soon as we seriously demand different and, that doesn't mean marching on the streets begging for change like the homeless.

Everything in this world we have created is based on supply and demand models and as soon as we start demanding differently, the suppliers will adjust to maximize their value and market potential. As soon as we stop demanding fiat with or crypto and build economies around crypto only, the entire model shifts on its axis and the pendulum swings into our favor. The problem is that in order for this to happen, we have to get over our emotional attachment to what we have so we can replace it with what we own. Just because you have something doesn't make it yours.

You might think you own your house until the government wants a new highway where it stands.

You don't really own something that you are attached to because you will never be able to walk away from it, and while that might be suitable for loved ones, that is what we apply to our money also. This means it can be used against us to leverage our behaviors, to control us - all that needs to happen is for us to feel the sense of threat. This is the violence of patriotism at play - die for one's country. Imaginary lines on a map. A concept. You do not own your country and those that act like they do own your country can do with it and with you as they choose.

But, for most people in this world, the brainwashing is much too thorough to forget and as a result, people will protect what they have been programmed to protect without thought. We are taught to protect our wealth - but how many realize that in so doing we are actually protecting their wealth, the centralized controller of the currency?

When we give up the value of what we hold in centralized currency, what they hold has become worthless, because for a currency to hold value, it has to be demanded and accepted as a form of payment. And while the centralized authorities wage trade wars and bail out banks, we could just change the way the game operates. Scary isn't it?

Well, I don't see this happening anytime soon but I am quite sure that it won't be the people with a mindset that has led them to be reliant on others for provision that will break the chains and build something new, something completely different because, that is the average person these days. What is needed are the exceptional, the talented and those who are willing to take the risk.

It isn't an investment position for the weak of hand - or heart.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]