Ban Steem And All Cryptocurrencies - Why We Need Censorship
Wherever, and whenever possible, Bitcoin, Steem, and all other cryptocurrencies, need to be banned and in some cases criminalised.
Wha-?
Wait...
@cryptogee, have you gone out of your tiny little mind?!?!
OK, hold on a sec, before you go racing down to the comment section, mouth foaming, neck vein throbbing, hear what I've got to say.
Because obviously, I am still very much, and plan to remain, a massive fan of cryptocurrencies, and the philosophies behind digital money in general.
However, there is an interesting psychological effect, that bitcoin has already exploited, and if Steem is lucky enough, it too will reap the rewards of a draconian ban.
We'll get to that in a second, first let's look at clues left for us, around 500 years ago, by the indomitable; William Shakespeare.
Lessons In Crypto From Romeo & Juliet
Romeo, we can now express our love on the blockchain!
There are not many people who do not at least know of the story of Romeo & Juliet, it is a tale of young love, angst, and bitter rivalry.
Romeo of the Montagues and Juliet of the Capulets, fall in love, despite the long-running vendetta between their two families. Theirs is a forbidden love, which cannot be allowed to blossom in public, yet try as they might, they are discovered, and the course of their love, runs fast along a tragic path.
But what can Romeo & Juliet teach us about censorship?
Well, after they are discovered and forbidden from seeing each other, their love intensifies, so much so, that they literally cannot live without each other, and so decide to die together..
..and therein lies the lesson.
Even though Romeo & Juliet is but a mere play, Shakespeare obviously knew about the power of censorship, he understood, that if you take something away from someone, then that person just wants that thing even more. An object that may have held only a momentary interest, is now a burning object of desire.
The two lovers from Verona were censured in the ultimate way, by their families, in a time and place whereby it was unthinkable to go against the wishes of your elders. They were told that under no circumstances were they to see each other; and of course, their love intensified.
"Yeah, yeah, OK @cryptogee, that's all very well and good, but how pray tell, does that have anything to do with cryptocurrencies?"
I'm getting to that...
first though, let's look at some very interesting real-world examples, whereby censorship had exactly the opposite effect that the censors would have wanted.
Fear And Loving On Campus
So it turns out that it isn't only in fictional romance that forbidden love is twice as sweet as the one which is sanctioned. In 1972, a study was done with 140 couples from Colorado in the United States, the study wanted to find out if parental interference affected feelings of love in either positive or negative ways.
Over the course of the study, Richard Driscoll and his cohorts, discovered that when parents disapproved, or even tried to forbid their children from seeing their respective lovers. Feelings for that partner intensified, in the same way, if parents started to cool on the matter, feelings tended to drift away from passion, and in some cases, dissipated altogether.
Ban It, We Want It.
Then there is the case of the banned speech on coed dorms on the University of North Carolina campus; students heard that the talk had been censored. Lo and behold, attitudes towards coed dorms were extremely unfavourable in the aftermath of the ban, without the students ever hearing the speech!
Then there is the strange case of the Dade County phosphate ban. This was when Dade County, Florida, decided to ban the use, and possession of all cleaning products, containing phosphates.
What followed was quite something to behold, families started stocking up like mad on phosphate-laden cleaning products. Not only that, when asked why they were doing such a thing; they reported that cleaners containing phosphates, made things cleaner, softer, and overall better, than their non-phosphate counterparts.
In nearby Tampa, where the ban wasn't in effect, they asked residence what they thought of phosphate cleaning products. To nobody's surprise, they didn't rate them any better or worse than ones that didn't contain the chemicals.
The results from the studies done in these areas are rigidly consistent:
If a governing body bans something; the people will want it more!
Are you starting to see now how a ban could help our cause?
No?
Well as promised, next we have a direct comparison for you.
From Russia With Love
Did I mention how manly I am?
Earlier this year, the Russian government made an announcement regarding bitcoin, it said that it would be accepting the digital currency as legal tender. This move opened up the avenues of taxation of bitcoin, Eth, and dashcoin.
This can only be described as; a shocking turnaround, because in 2014, the same Russian government, declared cryptocurrency illegal, and threatened that any citizen caught with any digital currency, would be thrown in jail.
Of course they were not aware of social psychologists like Driscoll and Brehms, who have proved time and time again, that scarcity through censorship, will drive up the popularity of the very thing you are trying to ban.
There are no official figures for Bitcoin and other digital currency usage in Russia before, 2014 however, the mere fact that their government have realised that, the law they imposed, will now be impossible to uphold, suggests that usage has skyrocketed.
Of course Russian officials realised way too late, that the ban did exactly the opposite thing to what they intended. What we as crypto heads need to hope for, are more bans and restrictions, as this will get people who previously would have ignored crypto, to take it up with gusto.
Dang it! Ban Steemit, and watch our popularity soar like an eagle!!!
Long live the ban!
Vive La Revolution!
Vive La Crypto!!
WHAT DO YOU RECKON, AM I MAD FOR WANTING A BAN? OR DO YOU SEE MERIT IN TRYING TO RESTRICT THE USE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY? IS THERE A WAY TO AFFECT A BAN OURSELVES? OR DO WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE IF GOVERNMENTS ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO TRY AND ENFORCE THEM? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Colorado Couples Study - The Romeo & Juliet Effect - 1972 Driscoll et al.
Hello @cryptogee... I must say, when I started to read your article I was perplexed... I didn't get the direction in which this post was heading. But by the end of your article it was apparently perceivable to me.
Your genius analogy of Romeo and Juliet was truly masterful. The instance of banning phosphate in the cleaning products and the public reaction to it makes is absolutely justifiable to say that banning anything will not solve the problem. Neither will it make it disappear from the memories of the people.
I would like to add on to the list of analogies with the below, and it's my take on the matter. Ease feel free to reply with yours ☺️
A spring when left alone stays in its dormant/stationary position. But if any external force is applied to it, it just gets all tensed up (pun intended😬) absorbs and stores as much energy as possible and ultimately bounces back with all its might. Same would be the case with crypto currencies. 😀😊
P.S. Please visit my account @vinyprop and follow if you thinks it's worth it. Thanks in advance 😇😎
Indeed, that is a good analogy! The more we're pushed, the more we'll explode, look at Rock n Roll in the '50s, young people were told; "don't listen to that devil's music!" and thus it went on to be a world-wide phenomena.
Cg
Absolutely!! Cent percent true.!!
Thank you @vinyprop for all the information and your point of view. This makes me think about it in a different direction.
I kind of disagree, I guess it depends on what you want for an outcome. Do you only want to make money or do you want to be able to pull up to every drive thru window and use it. One day, if you keep making it illegal only a certain percentage of people will get behind the "down with the ban crowd". You will be able to use you coins at the local marijuana dispensary, any porn you want, gamble and a couple of outliers like overstock.com. But, if you get the kids to love it that's the end game scenario, get all the smart minds in the business to go to middle and high schools and give presentations! This shit will spread like wildfire! And, the government will have to adopt whatever their role will be and this will become a Trillion or Trillions dollar market!!! But, good post and well written! I know you mean well and want to only help, well the KIDS are the way!!!!!!!
I respect your opinion, however the data gives a very different story. There are plenty of books, films, and movements in the past, that were banned, and had people who would never have even seen them, clamouring to be a part of.
I am actually writing about a very interesting example at the mo, that I don't want to reveal yet. However, it is quite amazing, the positive power of censorship.
You mention the kids; last I checked, they were the most likely to rebel; tell them they can't have something, and guess what? They will stick a middle finger up to you, and go and find that thing.
Look at drug use in countries that ban them, as opposed to ones that don't, guess which ones are higher...?
Thanks for your thought provoking comments! :-D
Cg
Hmmm.... Quite interesting idea.
I posit the theory that it's all due to Curiosity !
That, and the desire to rebel against authority... but I think it's better if people discover it due to being curious about what the hell it is, and why their governments are banning it, rather than just to spite the governments... Especially if said governments decide to spite back XS
If possible, let's wait till we have an internet-like system that ISN'T constantly in danger of being corporate controlled, before we go up against all the governments in the world and take over the globe.
...
What do you mean, that's not the ultimate goal of Steemit ?
Yes look at how I can go into any shop and buy marijuana. On the other the hand, back in 2013, a congressman made a proposal to ban Bitcoin and then we saw huge 5 x gain in price. There is the publicity there.
In order to get into almost any cryptocurrency, you either have to buy Bitcoin first or mine it. I found it easy to spend bitcoin but to difficult to obtain. Very few places will pay you in Bitcoin and there are websites that pay you but for less than $0.02 a day. So the exchange became a necessary intermediary. There are lots of places that will accept Bitcoin as payment. Now, where do you spend the steemdollars? www.steemfiles.com.
Interesting perspective, but quite vague imo, what kind of a ban will that be, worldwide or for a specific country, and people dont respond the same way to banning different things like banning smoking in public places and banning the use of a seldomly used cryptocurrency. It all depends on the circumstance. There is some truth to what you're saying tho :)
Exactly! This is what Russia found out, they banned something that was hardly in use, and now it has become part of their economy.
The kind of bans I'm talking about, are governmental ones, they seem to work the best. Trust me, loads of people who wouldn't have been bothered, will suddenly be like; "hmm, let me check out this cryptocurrency thing, now that I'm not supposed to!"
I wanted to go into more detail; however in the past, I have been accused (rightly so!) of writing too long posts.
So I instead will explore this further, in the days and weeks to come, there is some fascinating data surrounding this subject. I So, patience please, I will try and be less, and less vague as I continue this subject.
:-)
Cg
great post :)
Whatever they try to do to us - we shall become more powerful than they can imagine
Exactly, like Obi Wan said; strike me down and I shall become more powerful than you can imagine!! :-D
Cg
I like your idea. Yes, you are right. In life, the more you tell somebody (for instance, our kids) not to do this things, it will drive them to do it very often and more intense. For some reason, we don't know why. That's just how it is. And whats good about it is that, it always turn positive.
That's right, with kids it is really obvious, however it happens with adults just as well :-)
Cg
Yeah, right. And adult is more hard to control compared to kids. :)
This is an interesting take!
Thanks, controversial I know, but it's so crazy, it might just woik!
Cg
I read this in a 3 stooges accent.
Interesting; how did that work for you? :-)
Cg
Vive La Crypto!!
I think our current gov here in the US is so money hungry that it'll just tax it rather than ban it. They can be against something one day but as soon as they see profit, they jump in with open arms - I'm just waiting for this to happen with marijuana. They are oh so morally against it but I promise, as soon as they realize what a gold mine the weed economy is, they'll find all kinds of reasons to have a change of heart. BUT I digress from the subject of your post!!
Do you think a ban will happen in the UK? I don't think it'll happen in the US, but I enjoyed reading about and imagining this psychology in action because you're so right about the lure of forbidden fruit!
I thought this already had happened in some way, with medical marijuana being sold (and taxed?) in various states.
No I don't,, for two reasons, we have a reputation for being the financial capital of the world. Which basically means, we have, or will create, extremely lax financial tax laws to attract the richest people on earth.
Secondly, we tend not to ban things, for the exact reasons I mentioned, we're not as relaxed as Holland or Sweden, but we're getting there :-)
Cg