A Little Something For the Delusional Anarchists of Steemit
I have been on Steemit for a few weeks and I can’t help but notice that many members act very much like a cult and not as individuals. Although these members often adhere to ideas of liberty and anarchy, they are very much delusional. It seems that some people got rid of the 101 fables of God and the State only to follow blindly the same concepts—but under a different brand name. They haven’t really moved on into critical thinking.
Just to be clear; I adhere to ideals of capitalism, anarchy and free-market economics myself. I have been an early bitcoin adopter and I consider decentralisation one of the pivoting paths humanity owes to take. I founded and manage the largest freethinking tank in my country for over 6 years now. I know very well what kind of minds I am dealing with in my following critique and I point out whenever I see “sheep” mentality because this is the root of the “Statist” problem we all complain about.
What I am observing right now in Steemit through “vigilantes”, “anarcho-(add edgy pop name here) and other childish personas is beyond unreasonable for people who want to be called critical thinkers, freedom advocates or tech-revolutionaries. If the Blockchain scene is to move onto the next level, we need a serious ideological upgrade that has to deal with reality (rather than a circle jerk or reassurance).
( By the way. If you feel the need to "flag" as you read— and you are against censorship— then someone needs to award you a Golden Hypocrisy Award. You are miles afar from anarchy ).
Let’s take the classic mantra most of these "celebrities" use in order to lure their cattle (and the reason most outsiders consider us idiots). Feel free to skip sections if you have moved passed this childish anarcho-x face.
1.The "Bad" Government
It sucks. We all know it. Even people who work in Government know the Government sucks. Congrats for your brilliant discovery. You are so edgy and revolutionary.
More than half of the people on this planet don’t even vote. 99% of people complain about the “establishment” but somehow nobody does anything. Have you ever wondered why?
What makes you think that if tomorrow the governments around the world ceased to exist something will change? Let’s say the dollar crashes, economies fail and all of your end-of-the world wet dreams come true. Let’s even add to the mix that Bitcoin takes over. What do you think it will happen with the whales owning Bitcoin? Do you think the wealth proportion will change? Do you somehow think there will be some magical “equal distribution” of wealth while we all live happily through grasslands riding unicorns over the rainbow?
You managed to buy a few bitcoin back in the day and tattooed it for safety on a special place. Everyone is out to get you right? (FML).
Do you honestly think the governments and big corporations haven’t acquired a massive amount of Bitcoin? What makes you think Bitcoin is not a government plan for moving onto the “next phase”? Do you think that they have stayed out of Ethereum, Bitcoin or any other Blockchain technology while you were the revolutionary in your mom’s basement? They have vast amount of resources and wealth. They know how to diversify better than you do. They might be stupid but they are not THAT stupid.
2. The "Bad" Corporations
Do you think Big Corporations will cease to exist with a Blockchain revolution? The 1% distribution of wealth happens always in any economic system. Why? Well, for the same reason people clump together like flies on shit. Envy.
People fail to see that political leaders, “vigilantes” or “heroes” or anything else, most occur out of luck. Somehow people think that if they follow their example they will also become successful. Everything happens out of consequential distribution. In a lottery game, some people can play for year without hitting one number. Most will hit some numbers and only a few will hit all the numbers.
Same goes about rich people, poor people, inventors or even down to your very own genes. You got cancer genes or you got olympic record genes or both. If Einstein hadn't discovered special relativity someone else would around that time. If Microsoft wouldn’t happen some other company would take over. No one sprouts out of nowhere for no reason. Sure it takes some effort but most things happen out of luck. Deal with it. They are not special.
Sheep give the illusion that these people emerging high above are “special”. Somehow we owe them some kind of special attention when is only the cumulative chaotic effect that made them who they are. If you are an avid gamer you would know how it feels when a bunch of people working together in order to bring down a boss—only for some rookie to come and shoot the last blow, taking all the credit and points. This is exactly what happens in the real world with leaders, politicians, vigilantes sprouting left and right. You are the sucker, delusional follower. Whether you are in favour of X ideology leader is irrelevant. What? Do you think any leader wants misery, pain and destruction? Even the worst dictators wanted a better world. They just didn’t realise their fuck-ups.
The sheep mentality cannot change because most people are weak and lazy. This is how things are. Watch around you. A handful of people have created almost everything we see around us. Most people just play and never understand what others have created. Most people don’t even bother to investigate how things they spend most of their lives with, actually work.
Steemit will have whales, Ethereum will have whales. All new paradigms will have whales. It is not about corporations or whales. Is about a few individuals that make shit happen and bunch of others watching shit happen. Big corporations might brought wars, misery and all that you like to parrot about but they also brought innovation, fought poverty, raised life expectancy by a three fold and improve daily our lives. If you doubt any of this then watch this .
I bet you never hear about this in the anarcho-pits you lurk to get your precious “insider” info. It seems that only negativity sells. Most anarchists afteral crave a revolution. We need something awful to happen in order for our dream to come alive. Get real.
If you are a true anarchist you don’t depend on current paradigms to live by your code nor you need some kind of “world revolution”. Those who want to change the world my friends have a secret desire to rule it. Never forget this.
3. The "Good" Crypto
Bitcoin so far had more scandals than a spanish soap opera. If you seriously think Bitcoin is “cleaner” than the Fed or the Banks then you are delusional. If we take the total market cap of all cryptos together, most of it has been stolen and/or became subject of fraud. 90% of all coins are scams. Bitcoin is owned by 3 companies in China while you have special cold wallets ingrained on your ass.
Why-o-why a commoner would ever adopt crypto? What kind of arguments can you possibly bring to convince them? That the world sucks? That the bankers are fraudulent and politicians are thieves but the Bitcoin economy is sprinkled with angel dust?
At least with your money in the bank you know you are being scammed daily. You know is debt. You know it's a fairy tale that goes round and round. With cryptos, same thing happens plus you need to have the know-how not to get hacked.
Decentralisation offers great benefits but so far the Blockchain has not offered any new social paradigm to the scene. Whales are still whales whether they are FIAT or Crypto. Sure don’t give your money to Zuckerberg. Give it to a vigilante. It will make you sleep better at night…
What actually happens but most fail to see
Fossil fuels are controlled from a handful of people around the globe. When the sustainable energy revolution happened most of these companies jumped in. Why? Because they are Big. That’s why. As the fossil fuels go dry, green technologies go up. There is a stable transition from one phase to the other. They are not idiots. Fossil fuel companies today own all the sustainable energy ones. When one pit dries the other will fill up. It takes an I.Q of room temperature to realise this but most people are still hitting their head on their conspiracy wall.
There are obvious problems with the financial sector. All bankers know it. They know better economics than your special internet site that speaks “the truth”. They have already invested in Blockchain technologies. Titans like Microsoft, Samsung and IBM are already in bed with Ethereum. The Mitsubishi Bank, largest bank is japan, is already creating its own token.
There won’t be any revolutions or end-of-world scenarios. Even if an economic collapse happens (I know, most anarchists wet dream picked up from American tv series—ironically owned from corporations they accuse) the transition will be smooth. There are no big wars any more. The tension is broken with small conflicts all around us.
Nothing really changes no matter what kind of revolution you have. Take for example the French revolution. The kings fell only to give rise to Syndicates. France today still suffers from Unions. Whales before, whales after. Even if you consider why the Blacks and Women were given rights you will see that it all happened because most males died in WW2 and more people were needed to have obligations. Along obligations, rights were given. 200 years of “revolutions”, we live in 2016 and people complain about the same things. Do you think discrimination ended? You have zits? Didn’t go to the right school? You are fat? Ugly? Different in any way? Again. You are discriminated by default. This is how life is. Deal with it. All the “rights” are created for fable minds. (I will write another post for this one).
The problem is not the government, not the banks and not the corporations. The problems you see around you are created from people being sheep. The same mentality that makes you follow scam artists and sensationalist speakers in order to make them...whales because YOU cannot be an individual. Whales that you will be complaining about in the future.
Full circle of idiocy. Blockchain will not change this. Mark my words. At one point in the future everybody will be their own coin. Their own currency. There will be a MarkB coin, AnarcyJohn coin and everybody will hold value based on the transactions they do, reputation, fame everything you have today with the FIAT "capitalistic" currency. And again, people will still complain about ParisHilton coin being overvalued because of her "silly" followers. People will still complain about Microsoft Coin or Wells Fargo coin “ruling the world as a corporation”. Same. Shit.
If people used a pinch of critical thinking they would realise that the problems are not the facades of “religion”, “government”, “banks”, “science” or any other general term we come about. It’s like me saying: The “Blockchain is evil because Bitfinex allowed 35% of people’s money to be stolen”. Not a fair or objective thing to say right?. What makes you think saying "Goverments are responsible for x" is any better of an argument?
The problem relies in us. In the mirror. It masquerades as “religion” “government” “corporations” because most of us fail to be honest with ourselves. So here is my piece of advice if you want to “change” the world.
Start with yourself.
MR to these trolls
i was actually thinking to post this as a front cover @felixxx but I didn't want to use any memes
I do it all the time:
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@felixxx/an-introduction-to-philosophy
"I adhere to ideals of capitalism, anarchy and free-market economics myself" you have no idea what anarchism is yourself, lol
I am not an anarchist or anything, but very bad read
Thank you for the critique @somedude . This was actually a rant. I was actually quite skeptical in publishing it. Seeing it now myself I know I could have compose it much better.
you started ok, but because you got too much in the rant ... you took it too far
while I do get your point of view; a lot of anarchists just don't think any further than; the government is bad and I don't support it, so I'm good
and then what? nothing, that's it, they get to feel good about themselves and they just don't take it any further than that ... so sure, be critical about that.
but to say there are no differences between bitcoin and fiat ... that's just not true, although there are indeed similarities and problems; fiat is backed by violence, bitcoin is not and that's a very essential difference
you're right that merely a crash isn't going to solve it, as the government will simply use their violence to take whatever they want, despite the fact that they caused the crash ... and napoleon came into power after a crash, so did the communists, hitler and so many other violent depots, so I'm not hoping for a worldwide crash
but ... let's assume for the sake of argument that in another 2-3 years steemit has grown so big, it's part of the top 5 biggest platforms ... no more censorship, independent journalists actually getting paid etc etc ... it will be an improvement, a big improvement
again, although I understand where you're coming from, as a lot of anarchists are indeed rather naive, I do believe that over time, mostly thanks to digital solutions like bitcoin and steemit, we will end up with societies that are in fact anarchistic, as long that means; still rules and even whales as well, but no longer 1 single group holding a monopoly on violence, but rather several different groups working together ... completely open and decentralized
will it be utopia with no problems, no conflicts and no crimes? no of course not, but the economy will be booming and since people already are social creatures; they will take care for each other ... it will not be perfect, yet so much better than waiting around for the next government made disaster to hit us
wow; really great post.
A must read and enjoyable to see some critical thought put to this world of crypto-whatever.
I am an outsider of sorts here being new to cryptocurrency and not an anarchist. However with further mass adoption, or perhaps a silent majority already exists, that are more unlike the group you are addressing and will change the conversation once they find their voice.
As for me, I have enjoyed sharing my fiction with the world in a way that provides the possibilities of actually earning something in return.
Thanks!
That's one way tackling reality. feel free to share a link if you don't mind @strangerarray
Thanks @kyriacos!
My latest piece of fiction: Rebirth: An Original Short Story - Part 2 of 3 (featuring exclusive art by @mars-eve).
Enjoy!
Also available in Audio Format
great. thank you. i will checking it out
Thank you so much for this brilliant post. But in the end, it won't change the way these rovoluzzers think. :(
yeah. they will stil be chasing dollar vigilantes and similar bleached out "edgy" clowns
I think you miss the point with Bitcoin.
Receiving a bank wire in Greece, from another Greek bank, charges me 3 euros. Receiving a paypal payment charges me 0.35$ plus X% of the amount. VISA charges interest, charges annual fees, charges payment processing etc.
Money transmitters, payment companies, banks make billions.
Enter Bitcoin. Bitcoin operates at cost. There's no profit involved. Who cares how much the banks own. It doesn't change the end result: The fees that I have to pay to the banks / paypals etc, don't exist with BTC. I can make a payment far cheaper. And if BTC is crowded, I can use an altcoin and do the same for even less fees. The percentage of holdings of rich people in crypto is irrelevant because it is busting their business model.
For any system that has X profits and a new player comes along and charges almost nothing, that system has a problem.
Example: The old telcos saw VOIP coming on the horizon. They could invest in Internet etc etc, but they would never get the same amount of money as they did when they had the long-distance-call market. Their market was busted because VOIP (and voip-like apps) were system-busting techs.
The blockchain is similar because it eliminates the need for a middleman. It doesn't matter how much they invest in it. If the usury element is removed due to the elimination of the middleman, then they can't generate the same profit. Their system is busted.
Ok. Lets consider the bank charges @alexgr. Have you ever thought than those charges reflect some form of safety and liability? Sure bitcoin is "free" but is your coins get lost there is no reimbersement. zero. nada. From Mt.Gox to Bitfinex. same story.
Cost for a service is not a "problem". Cost exists because a market can reflect to that cost. How the heck did you come to deduct to "there is a problem"?
There is always a middleman. Coinbase is a middle man. Bitfinex is a middle man. Steemit is a middle man.
it depends how you see your middle man.
Cypriots lost their fiat. Greeks have their fiat locked up in the bank (actually the money doesn't even exist because the ECB doesn't cover those deposits - they are virtual digits on a screen). In the meanwhile, the EU has passed the bail-in laws where the depositor is a bank investor and first in line for bail-in... What safety?
The "there is a problem" is intended for the companies that will see their profits busted due to a system-busting model. Whether it's telcos/longdistance due to voip, or banks/payment companies due to crypto.
If I can make 100 payments with near-zero fees, and 100 payments with 3E charge, that's 300E lost for the bank. "That's a problem" for them.
I am a Cypriot @alexgr . I didn't loose my FIAT because I know that a bank insures up to 100.000 euros in the bank. Those that lost is because they treated their money like casino chips. They gained interests up to 7% and having millions in savings while bankers invested their wishes (loans for expensive cars, education in England, villas, etc) in toxic investements. In a effect customers defined the will of the Banks. this is how economy works.
Greeks have been milking the entire European Union for half a century while being comfy in goverment jobs. Greece has been a disgrace to the human race. 50 years of the same PASOK / ND politics that only aimed to live off money of others. pathetic.
Value is plasmatic. always. whether FIAT or crypto. same thing. I value one ass to be sexier than another. again. the value i thereby give is plasmatic.
Banks already implement blockchain transasctions. they won't loose because much of those FIAT fees will be allocated for safety protocols in crypto—and i must say—it might be even more expensive
So it's ok for someone with 99.999 euro to lose nothing and it's ok for someone with 100.001 to get a haircut?
Those that lost are not "casino players". They are depositors. I could have sold my 200k house and had the money on the bank. Why should I lose my money?
As for Greece, I doubt you understand the reasons for the problem yet you seem to have a pretty aggressive opinion. Greece wasn't living off the money of others. They were living off their own debt up to 2001. 80% of greek debt was in GRD (Greek Drachmas). Greece was printing its own money and spending it - as most countries do with their national currencies. And then it was magically converted to Euros. A currency that the country wasn't issuing and as thus it would be impossible to repay 100% of its GDP in such a currency.
The Maastricht treaty was very specific that countries that exceed 60% debt-to-gdp ratio should not enter the euro. Greece had 100%. The europeans wanted Greece in, in order to convert the GRD-denominated debt to EUR-denominated debt and as such take over the country. They did this by blatantly violating the Maastricht treaty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht_Treaty
"The treaty led to the creation of the euro. One of the obligations of the treaty for the members was to keep "sound fiscal policies, with debt limited to 60% of GDP and annual deficits no greater than 3% of GDP".[4]"
Anyway, as for the blockchain: Again your estimations regarding blockchain-use by banks and how they are not going to lose much, are quite removed from reality.
In a scenario where cryptocurrency took over the world tomorrow morning, the banks would be out of business. This is due to the fact that their job cannot be sustained without their charges, which cryptocurrency can do without. It's that simple.
How can you be so long into cryptocurrency and not understand something as simple as the profit-business getting destroyed? It boggles my mind.
I have spotted something strange, it seems that a lot of people believe in that.
Im not a new person in the cryptocurrency area, i've been posting a lot on bitcointalk.org , trading altcoins ( bitcoin too ) and i also earned salary in bitcoins.
But still, im laughing my ass hard as fuck when i see that people really believe in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies that much, that they think it can cause an end of banks and governments.
Seriously, how you can be so naive? Banks were invented in middle-ages, and they have been doing this since hundreds of years.
But now, some people claims that some digital thing can break banks? Or governments? It is just being over-excited, they are over estimating the power of cryptos.
I totally agree, that steem is a game-changer, something completely new, which can change very much.
But banks are not new. Steemit is.
Banks are rich, they have incredible power. Steemit is powerful too, but it is not a company, it is more like a community.
I've always thought crypto currencies were the elites way too implement a cashless society, I use cryptos to pump and dump then profit and turn that into gold and silver. which i think is the safest way to go.
Thank you for this highly interesting read!
Is there any evidence or at least hints that you could refer to that support your assertion, that governments have indeed acquired significant amounts of bitcoins already some time ago? If this could be proven - wow, what a scoop that would be.
Breaking news +++ Angela Merkel had ordered Wolfgang Schäuble to acquire bitcoins worth xx million euros already back in 20xx +++
;-)
There is no evidence but even now...what's stopping them from getting in? Why they wouldn't?
Because they would need to inform the public that they are going to spend tax payers money to buy bitcoins. Think of the discourse in public and media this would trigger. How would they explain this to their conservative voters? How would central banks react on such a move? You will probably say that they just did it in secret (even the central banks themselves), but then again, this would be 100% dynamite if this could be reveiled. (I´m having european governments in mind while writing these lines).
That kind of thing wouldn't be shocking, I know China holds foreign cash Bitcoin would be a similar idea.
You have many excellent and valid points here. As an anarchist myself, I feel that most anarchists are trying too hard to follow "anarchist rules" rather than live an actual anarchist life. I've only written a few posts so far on Steem, but 2 of the 3 relate directly to your all-encompassing point: We HAVE to change ourselves, and the way we look at things.
Admittedly, I have much more of a "Terence McKenna" viewpoint towards the transformation of society. We need to take back our minds. We need to look far beyond the pony show of politics and begin asking ourselves "What direction are we heading and why?" I'm talking about a radically massive change in perspective. Instead of obsessing over congress's position on healthcare or gay marriage, we need to be worrying about truly taking the next step as a species. We need to be looking at and deconstructing the conundrum of how we got here today, and how we can move toward living as a species whom utilize our wonderful minds to create rather than destroy.
Thanks for this post, a lot of people need to hear this.
you're part of the next step; platforms like steemit and many more to come will allow people to connect which each other in a way never seen before; it will allow society to forma spirit of it's own ... digitally!
think about it; what billions of people will be doing online, which is very real, will become our spirit, our soul ... our gods ... it will give humanity something to believe in, that's actually real