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Over the years Steemit has no doubt become a legitimate community. A coalition of netizens from all over the planet, with our own (decentralized) form of government, our own constitution (The Steem whitepaper) and our own currency (Steem, SP, and Sbd). It is not so farfetched, then, to wonder exactly what kind of community we have here.

Ever since the beginning of time we humans have tried our bests to discover the most suitable form of government; the best system of co-existence where resources will be utilized maximally, leading to the highest standard of living for every member of the community. After much attempt and failures, however, this system of thought has been dismissed as mere utopia-seeking. Anyone who dreams of such a future now is tagged an idealist, out of touch with reality, and the way things are.

Steemit Community, A New Utopia?

Karl Marx (1818-1883) had a dream once. He dreamt of a form of society free of class distinctions; where the rich would not exploit the working class to get richer. Every member of the community would contribute his own quota and get rewarded justly. The government would oversee things, in the transition period, called socialism, until the community is able to govern itself, then there would be no more government. The people would govern themselves. This, of course, is a form of decentralization, in theory. But in practice, Marx's doctrines were abused, the government grew to control all resources, while the rest of the community suffered.

No thanks to the rich, the workers built the nation.

Capitalism, Our Savior from The Savior?

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Communism was supposed to be the savior from capitalism. But as we have seen in recent history, it was capitalism itself that proved to be the savior.

What did Marx have against capitalism at first, however?

The same thing everyone has against capitalism, of course. Exploitation of the poor by the rich. The top 1 percent. Yet after the failure of communism, a la Bolsheviks, the whole world (backed by the West) turned a more sympathetic eye towards capitalism, but the problems remained--totally biased distribution of resources, concentration of wealth in the hands of the very few etc. Which brings us back to,

Steemit: The New Utopia?

Thanks to the blockchain technology, we have a genuine shot at a truly decentralized form of, well, everything. I recently read an article by @full-measure about a decentralized jury system.

And here on Steemit, we have a group of people who have set the dream of a truly decentralized system of government into motion. But are we the new utopia?

The Steemian Dream

Minnows! Minnows everywhere trying to become Whales.

The Steemian dream, like its American counterpart, is ineluctable in any capitalist system. And the Steemian dream, also like its American counterpart, has its pros and cons. As a minnow myself I know the temptations I go through daily watching whales get rewarded with huge sums for not-so-great posts. Sometimes I just want to go on every discord channel on a rant. Or worse, begging for upvotes. Which brings us to:

Conclusion

It is obvious Steemit is not an utopia; where everything is perfect. It has its shortcomings. A little from each side. But it can be genuinely said to be a credible step towards the realization of that goal. Yes, there are pseudo class-distinctions, but this is really only a reflection of the amount of resources, time and effort a member has put into the betterment of the community.

In the end Steemit is a community that thrives to amalgamate the collectiveness, brotherhood, and decentralization of communism without its totalitarianism and lack of freedom, while trying to eliminate the greed and selfishness of capitalism all the same retaining its drive and its reward of genuine effort.

Thanks for taking the time to read. Forget not to upvote/resteem/comment your opinion(s).