It's Time to Decentralize the World. Each One of Us Bears Responsibility. Actions Matter.

in #introduceyourself6 years ago (edited)

What world do you want to live in? Who holds sway over what you choose to eat, watch, read, buy, learn? How much control do you exert over your own existence? Are you an electronic commodity for a corporation, blipping on their financial statements? Perhaps just a hash mark on ballot used by a politician to proclaim his/her legitimacy? Or, are you a thinking, feeling human with self-determination? Choices and associated actions....relearning how to be human. Evolving.

Hello Steemians, my name is Daniel Shortell. One of my many hats involves writing fiction (flash, shorts, novels) from my home in New York. I cover themes including the worldwide corporatocracy, the absurdity of human behavior, the fallacy of "experts", critiques of social norms, twisted existential situations, the American empire, weaponized science, power paradigms, weird cultural artifacts and much more. Satirical, cynical, absurd, speculative, implicative, expletive...hopefully you get the point and you'll join me for a ride. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it hurts (but is still sort of funny).

People like putting people into boxes I find, so let me put myself into one in a few bullet points:

  • Born in Virginia, USA
  • Practiced several different religions, now I'm a confused spiritual agnostic of sorts with a Muslim wife and a soon to be ??very confused?? son
  • Degrees in Finance, Computer Science, Information Systems
  • Did the corporate job thing for a number of years, hated it, then moved on to many different ventures
  • I've written a couple of novels (http://www.danielshortell.com/) and am feverishly working through a collection of short stories at present
  • Have traveled to 30+ countries
  • Speak one language mostly fluently. Speak two other languages perfectly incomprehensibly
  • Like animals, no longer eat them
  • Like honeybees so I keep them in boxes and steal their honey (which they made by stealing my neighbor's nectar). If you are my neighbor, the return of your modified nectar is most likely the only reason you like living next to me.
  • Skeptical, analytical, a little bit Stoic, loathe authority, love free-thinkers, enjoy making things with my hands, read voraciously but understand little, write often but convey little, struggle pathologically with conviction
  • isms scare me, ists confuse me (what the fuck were we talking about again??)

So why am I here? Well, in my continued effort to eliminate the corporate/government influence over my life, I'm migrating my electronic presence to the public blockchain space. Thanks Steemit (Larimer et al) for making this experiment possible! I'm planning to use Steemit to pulse publish not only flash and short fiction but also migrate my blogging and G+ activity here as well. The idea of creating value (crypto) by creating/curating content sounds very natural, very human. Wrinkly patriarchs printing the faces of dead statists on little bits of paper to create value sounds arcane, fraudulent.

As I see it (in a post-Occupy Wall St world), it's time to resume the push for individual sovereignty, and tools like Steemit certainly help. However, decentralizing yourself isn't limited to extant blockchain resources. For me this means severing relationships with entities that operate against my own best interests (and rebooting them in disseminated, community-oriented ways):

  • Quit Facebook (the worst centralizer of social connectivity in the world) in 2011. Amazingly, I didn't die a social death.
  • Stopped using the corporate banks in 2011. Now I use a web of community and local banks. (That is, until cryptos are READY)
  • Ceased participation in the fake two-party, blue/red corporate-owned political system in 2013. No lesser-evils, no voting, no participation until disintermediated, non-electoral voting is available in a many-party system.
  • Cut the cord in 2015. Fuck any archaic boobtoob, pushed-to-you psycho-babble, talking-head cultural/"news" propaganda.
  • Quit the SAD diet in 2016 (now plant-based) along with participation in the vast majority of the medical industrial complexes' silly menu of pointless checkups, needle pokes and generic patient advice.
  • In the process of quitting Amazon. Google, you're next.

------------->Minimize consumption, make a smaller footprint, owe nothing to the system and take the bare minimum from it, explore your potential, expand your consciousness, and help/collaborate with those around you. This is the steady march from being a manipulated commodity to a self-actualized human. Social revolution.<------------

So, in foul-mouthed summary....Fuck politicians, corporations and THEIR incestual linkage. Fuck the MSM THEY use to push THEIR propaganda. Fuck the SAD food system THEY have developed to keep us tethered to THEIR "health" system that THEY profit from. Fuck THEIR banks and THEIR US dollar ponzi scheme that traps people in a cycle of debt peonage and lifetime servitude. Fuck THEIR military industrial complex designed to profit off of human suffering while controlling the world. THEY are George Carlin's big 'ol club that you ain't in. So, what are you going to do, what do you choose? How can you decentralize your existence?

Visit my website, http://www.danielshortell.com. Or connect with me here on Steemit as the social revolution takes place.

A FINAL NOTE:
As an M.S. of info systems, I like to keep an ironically low-tech format when my writing hat is on: mostly words without all the fancy fuckery. So, if you desire images of boobies and curious cats or dicks and donkeys while your intellect is being massaged, you might find yourself underwhelmed here. And for that, I don't apologize...words have meaning and attention spans could stand to grow in our throw away, second-to-second, ADD-cultural-petri-dish.

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Hey Daniel... Welcome! I upvoted and will follow you. Definitely agree about corporations owning us and ruining our country. I'll read more tomorrow (it's after midnight). Best of luck in the Steemit world!

Down with the intermediated corporations, Up with the public blockchain!! Good to see you here @eileenbeach!

Welcome to Steemit my Friend .. Cheers to your Steemit success!! SUNSHINE247

Thanks @sunshine247 :)

My pleasure friend!!!

A critical voice that does not simply accept current grievances, but raises awareness about societal issues and widely accepted misconduct in the name of profit. You have just gained a new follower.

Awesome to have you here! Steemit is such a great tool for people to communicate beyond the reach of those who view humans as something to be harvested.

Welcome!

I wish you all the best.

Feel free to check out my blog @maxdigi, this way we can support each other.

Cheers
maxidigi

Thanks @maxdigi, will stop by and explore :)

A very interesting read!!! :)

Thanks @andrecampbell77. I try to temper my cynicism, but cyn. can be used as a tool for positive change, hence Satoshi's blockchain :) Great seeing you here.

welcome to steemit... I hope you are comfortable here

Terima kasih @lopezdacruz. Optimistic for a great experience :)

Returning the welcome. Nice logo. I suck at this commentary thing. So.... I see now what you meant by relating to my post. Ha. I guess I'm not so alone in the world after all. Although you're much braver than I to have a mission to decentralize. Mine thus far has been eating half as many tacos in a sitting. Will give a story a read. Thanks for stopping by and nice to greet you.

Oh, hey there @omitaylor, clearly I'm crap and don't know when people are commenting on my stuff. Or, and I prefer to think of it this way, SteemIt needs to up its game and get some better notification shit going on. Anyhow, tacos are fucking evil and I'm glad you are doing a half boycott on them, brave move sista, brave move ;) Likewise, greetings and good luck vibes.

Love what you're saying and what you're about! Going to follow you. So happy to be a part of this community!

Thanks @kimberlylane :) Great to have you here and looking forward to what you have to say. Could definitely relate to the things you were saying in your entry post ;)

Welcome to our community :)

Thanks @maryarez, looking forward to digging in!

Hi, I am @cryptkeeper17 and I am hosting a seven day contest to sponsor for free at least one person into @steembasicincome, which costs $1.000sbd to join. I would like to extend you an invite, it does not cost you anything, and the entire payout is going to sponsor one (or more) new members in this club among the new steemit members that enter the contest. https://steemit.com/earthnation/@cryptkeeper17/contest-for-minnows-free-membership-to-steem-basic-income-possible-010-upvotes-1517857865

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