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.
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.
I had to stop reading midway through because this comes off as a massive strawman:
Who are these members? Give us some context. I'm not saying your wrong, rather because the members you describe are wrong as presented by you it's hard to believe they exist or if there is a lack of context to what they really mean.
@playerdeus
I thought the "vigilante" reference was pretty clear. There 4-5 celebrities that generate all the traffic.
Yes, but you are not quoting things they have said, rather summarizing and making assertions, with a dab of snarkiness, so it's not clear you are directly engaging the "4-5 celebrities" but rather composing a strawman to knock down and look like you are actually debating anything they've said.
I'd like to upvote this post twice: once for giving me a good laugh, and the second time for saving me the trouble of saying many of the same things. Not that I agree with everything here, but the idiocy of including cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology in any vision of anarchistic freedom needs calling out loudly.
This Is the only intelligent post I've seen from an Anarchist on this platform. You actually acknowledge that corporations have done good things and bad things and that the French revolution failed spectacularly. One point I'd like to raise is that I wouldn't want to see the United States government overthrown unless I thought it had become treasonous. But I cannot take anarchists seriously when they say "We're not exactly sure what would replace that government."
One thing I noticed that I never thought about in this way is that when you say the government sucks, you lump all government together. However, I'd point out that the government of Germany or the United States is different from the government of Liberia not only in structure but in. . . Character?
Nope bud I see this confusion alllllll the time haha Government is always and will always be bad and dangerous ..ALWAYS ....what you're getting this idea of "good" government mixed up with is drum rollllll
...social structure, you can 1000% have a beautiful cohesive social structure with 0 government. That sir is what technology and blockchain have enabled and I'm already making that platform now hehe
You replace government with a well thought out. No distribution of power social structure plopped on the blockchain :)
So let's just say you get to burn down all governmental structures in the United States. The same amount of people are still living on the land where the United States was, and no other country has taken the leap into anarchism with you. Tell me exactly what would replace the government. What would happen when there was a murder. Who would investigate to try and find the murderer. If someone broke into my house and raped my wife and beat me half to death, who would take me to the hospital. Who would catch her rapist. If, in this new society, a thousand people banded together and tried to govern Connecticut by force, how would those people be dislodged? What if Ebola came to this country and became a serious apademic. Who would develop a cure. Who would produce new drugs to fight cancer? Who would be checking to make sure led paint wasn't used in houses? What would happen if we were invaded by China, governe? as it is today? Who would educate your children if you were at work all day and couldn't afford a private school?
haha those are called services and guess what happens with services, people see the demand and create companies to provide that value that you mentioned above...every single one of those Instants could be taken care of by the free market that means people would fill that void with established companies.....if you're that ill logical too think the herds of sheep in the us would just be calm about the government being gone over night then your thought processes are not thorough obviously the government indoctrination is so ingrained in society that kind of scenario you paint would not work out well....and the ussa is too far gone i don't recommend even living there
there is a certain degree of difference between privatizing the telephone-network and the army.
Brehon law could answer some of your questions. I do agree their needs to be real world applications not just philosophical statements.
Great post @kyriacros. You are right about there not being enough critical thinking, that is so important. Also check the Steemit whitepaper about Metcalfe's law and the network value of money. Remember money and value are two different things. A great book to understand this is The nature of value. Why am I mentioning this point? Well, you mentioned that everyone in the future will have their own coin/token. I am not so sure. It will grow out of networks. The largest networks will have the greatest total value of all the tokens and higher value per individual token. Research by Nick Gogerty and others shows that their is a price of about 1000-2000 USD for each of the current tokens like USD, Gold, Bitcoin and others according to MetCalfe's law. So if I made @lpninja coin today, it could have 1 trillion tokens, but the total price of all will be zero because there is only me using it. So, things that are more popular will naturally have more value per token. Ok, so that's what I was getting at, sorry if I explained it in a round about way. Great writing and keep it up.
@kyriacos I agree 100% (For the sheep in the audience I will repeat that more slowly)
I A G R E E 1 0 0 % Also really loved the Hans Rosling link, have shared that myself many times, that software is Gapminder, I Also have that, great way to view reality .. I read so much bullshit everyday it makes me sick. But you have to read and research to learn the truth .. I'm a real anarchist, Pragmatist/Realist, not a fad chasing fanboy anarchist wannabe ..Sheep!
Absolutely great read, thanks for sharing.
Read More, Reason More ... JTS
Thank you @jtstreetman . I was wondering if I would find like minded people individuals and not sheeple. All my posts are based on sharing objective reality rather than fables
It's not their fault @kyriacos ... the so called anarchists and 'free-livers' were probably all vaccinated. Now they have jenny mcmoron disease, and need to be told how to think...by pornstars and actors and... other great thinkers of our time.
So you think vaccinations cause a "problems" ?
No, sarcasm.
I agree - it's always great being the black sheep @kyriacos
Let's start our own #blacksheep gang - follow me and I ll follow you - If you can't beat them join them
i like your thinking but i only follow when i see good content for a long time
The problem is centralized power may it be government or not... Technology has enabled more people to become whales than in previous history... But humans are undoubtedly a slave race the majority feed off of having a mommy and daddy figure... Everyone will NOT be in your terms a " whale" although they could ... They won't. yet the people following this "cult" mentality of anarchy you speak of ( dosent exactly meet the actual definition of a cult) but nonetheless have a 100x greater chance of being a whale in this coming collapse..so you demonizong the people with the higher chance of being in your terms a "whale" dosent actually make sense...still they have the upper hand compared to the Sheep still watching football the olympics and sniffing up Donald and Hilary's ass....I give the post a 5/10
Good post. I upvote it not because I necessarily agree 100% but because it has value and generates commentaries. This is an endless conversation about what system is best... so I’m not going to extend on this but what I can say is that throughout history many different systems were put at work (monarchies, communism, fascism, socialism, democracy, etc.). It was a trial-and-error type of works that usually takes a long time grow and eventually die (everything in life go through cycles). What I think true anarchists ought to value (yes, most people think anarchy has a bad connotation but the real definition is really simple: minimal and weak government, or not at all) is that we need to have a system that leverages the value of human nature as much as possible. This is extremely difficult given our nature but as we keep evolving (just like technology is) we may hopefully reach a point where it benefits most people, but again this seems to be far down the road.
What I think anarchist, libertarians, classic liberals or however you want to call them, should strive for is a new system where Higher Law or Natural law is the true law where individual liberty is protected from the weaknesses of basic human nature. These laws have been found (yes, found, not imposed by an establishment) and even somewhat written in the U.S. Constitution (the constitution was made to purposefully prevent government to grow). This is one of the reason why America was great but political power somehow took over (not 1 Article of the Constitution is respected today)
It certainly is not easy to change such a system that we have today, but why do we see this wave of ‘anarchists’ today? Well I am of the opinion that it is because political power has gotten to a level where it becomes unbearable to many people. Remember, government is the only institution that has the privilege of using force on persons who have not harmed anyone… digest that for second. There are so many examples of this every day. A lot of people, it seems, have forgotten (or never bothered to learn, which goes back to your point @kyriacos, most people are lazy) this today and seem to not be bothered by the fact that politicians live above the own laws they create.
Anyways, to conclude, if I may, maybe if people could live by 2 simple rules it would be a great start to a fairer system: 1) do everything you said you would do and; 2) do not trespass/encroach on other persons or their property.
Cheers!
I appreciate your input man. I hope we will expand on all these in the future. I am actually preparing another rant on this
Hmm I'm not sure what posts you are reading. You sound angry though, calm down and drink some mint tea.
That is what I am talking about. So much angst. Can I have some mint tea? I love that stuff.
#truth this post will be down voted immidiately
I don't mind. I prefer to speak the truth rather than become an idiot following larger idiots
Yes @alexgr . it's ok because there is consent. you put your signature on a contract that specifies this upon opening an account. wtf? seriously.
as for the Greeks getting into the EU scheme. tough luck. they should have elected better politicians. Greece schemed its way to the EU so that others can suck up their debt. the EU didn't care because the EU can always fuck the people if it needs money. again. stupidity of people. not the system itself. same applies to bitcoin. one owes to educate themselves before getting in.
Banks make their money through investements. not transcation fees. I think you are the one that needs to do some reading. not me.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/14/bitcoin-news-bank-of-tokyo-mitsubishi-says-testing-its-own-digital-currency-based-on-blockchain-technology.html
-1- Lol @ consent. You know why? Because the conditions to do what they did and declare themselves in problem were arbitrary. The loans and deposits of Cypriot banks were like 72 to 68, and there were also own assets held by the banks in the form of bonds, stocks, property etc. There was no case of insolvency.
-2- Why would Greece need the EU to suck up their debt, when they could repay it with drachmas - as all countries do with their national currencies? I issue a bond, bond-holder comes to collect, I issue a new bond and repay him. If nobody buys it, I use my central bank to buy my bond. Sovereign bonds are ZERO-risk investments when a country can issue their national currency. You don't need anyone to take over your debt.
If you converted UK's or USA's debt to a currency that they aren't issuing, they'd be bankrupt tomorrow morning because they don't have the trade surpluses to import this currency and use it to serve their debt. Yet the same economies are just fine with their national currencies.
-3- It depends on the financial institution. A bank, paypal, western union, a credit card have different business models. Some gain more from tx fees alone, some gain from them too while they also gain from loan/deposit rate differences.
@alexgr
You sign a document. If you don't like it then put your money under the matress of carry gold bars. Ofcourse is consent
They obviously couldn't. Greece as a country was a sham since its inception in 1830. it was a TROIKA country (france-england-russian) in order to solve other countries problems. Venizelos had a dream but Venizelos stayed with dream. This is why Greeks are so nationalistic arrogant. The national currency of Greece was shit. Actually shit was better than Drachma. Yeah buy your bonds. lol. Unless you have reserves in other banks you can't do it. Venezouella tried to do the same thing. Check Venezouella now.
The U.S has reserves. It produces shit as well. It can sustain its debt because money is about trust. There are McDonalds everywhere. every counry has dollars. China wants to "get out" but they can't because if USA fails..they go hand in hand. Money os debt one way or another because value is about trust.
-1- The document is signed for force majeur or similar circumstances. If these circumstances are triggered in an arbitrary way, it's not what you agreed upon.
-2- Greece was always a protectorate, and still is, under the guise of a "sovereign state". There is no arguing about it. Of its ~180 years of existence, almost 3/4ths are under visible direct or indirect foreign control and the other 1/4 under externally-controlled puppets. The currency had no problem prior to the country entering the euro. Greece didn't need the euro. And certainly it didn't make the debt issue any easier, as now debt was external instead of internal. The euro collapsed the economy.
Printing currency and buying your debt is what over 100 countries with national currency are doing and they are not Venezuelas or Zimbabwes, as the national production hasn't collapsed.
What I told you about the US is if the US had its debt converted to a currency that it didn't print and not how it is right now. Same applies for the UK. The UK would never be able to enter the Euro without imploding. How can you convert 2 trillion of debt in a currency that you are currently printing to serve your debt, to a currency that you'll not be able to print and thus will have to lend from "the markets". It's just a matter of time before the markets pull the plug on you due to non sustainability.
-3- Paypal, Visa, Western Unions etc are in the payment not the investment industry. Banks core business is to sell money with interest, at a more expensive rate than what they give to the depositor. A few very large banks may go the investment route instead of the retail business, but at that point, the investment sector is of no direct competition to BTC and as such the discussion is not very relevant.
Now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Union
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visa_Inc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MasterCard
So visa at 14bn, MC at 9.6bn, paypal at 9.2bn and WU at 5.5bn revenue (=income from fees and charges). So people are paying like 40bn in fees and charges to these companies (there are more companies btw) to move money around for something that can be done at a fraction of the cost. And I'm not including SWIFT and national bank transfers. All this extra money can go "puff", like the long-distance market of the telcos. No amount of "investment" in cryptocurrency can change this reality. Positioning in Bitcoin cannot save these companies their income if cryptocurrency succeeds in eliminating the middleman. That was the point I was originally making in relation to what you wrote on whether the banks are idiots and what they are doing to prepare.
Nobody forces you to open a bank account and put more than 100.000 in it. even if you say that opening a bank account is obligatory youc an still diversify. you have no argument here. jus let it go.
The difference between those countries is that they produce shit. is that simple really. they make money go round and round.
Paypa, visa bla bla are ALSO in the investing business. their front is fee transaction. also these companies have aquired other companies and can as well provide services like coinbase. they can diversify if they want. no problem. they are massive.
I am not saying that what they do is not useless. what i am saying is that only a fraction of these companies dealing FIAT can go kaput. the rest can adopt as they have always done so.
i don't see you having any argument. i don't even get where this conversation is going.
I'm replying here to your other reply (it seems out of place) but I can't do another reply:
Yes I am forced. I cannot do any transaction more than a few hundred euros with cash. By law. If I sell my house, I have to go through the bank.
They may have some investments but their core business is tx fees and charges.
Right, what you are basicly talking about is how Uber destroyed the taxi industry. But that is not an argument for scrapping government, that's an argument for adopting Bitcoin over whatever your current bank is. The same way you might go to airbnb instead of going to a hotel. But what's the replacement for the police?
I wouldn't go as far as debating police necessity. I'd rather stay discussing how btc can destroy the profit-margins of the financial service industry.
"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?" LOL all I could think about as I read this was @theunicornking...
Most amazing post. Time to turn inwards, and posts like yours help with this. Thank you.
An interesting post because it got me thinking of some questions in a direction I have been spending some time with recently. Where is the light? People, like plants and animals, need light to grow. In the case of humans, that light is knowledge. If, as you have noted, the majority of people are sheeple, where is the sheepdog? Isn't it unreasonable to expect a species that has been dependent on the tribe to survive to take the 180-degree turn to individualism without some trepidation - even militant rejection of such proposals? These are an example of the questions that I am working on. I hope you will see them in that light.
Cheers.
This was really fun to read, even if I didn't agree with everything you said, which is the reason why this is such a good post. well done.
People need to connect more dots and indeed, think critically.
Read the book Spychips to get an understanding of how digital currency is a big part of the plan to take away physical cash from circulation. Why would the worlds richest not buy into bitcoin in the first place? They have plenty of money to throw around and cover emerging technologies and currencies. Even if one busts, they hardly lose anything. Do you think they were holding out on digital 1/0's in the bank as the best currency? Or gold?
Get more into self-knowledge, consciousness functionality, psychology, and understand the human-being that you are and the sub/unconscious motivational factors that drive you in life without you being aware of them, limiting your ability to truly be a quality free-thinker. Peace.
This is just. Wow. This was certainly an encapsulating read. You have outlined many truths here my friend.
Very good breakdown. One problem with humanity is exactly the lack of critical thinking. Critical thinking is hard to do, and is counter to human norms.
We tend to think in mental shortcuts; we call these heuristics when they work, and cognitive biases when they don't.
In any case, good writeup!
A well argued, well structured rant.
Tipping my hat to you, sir.
Actually, I didn't try to structure it at all @advinio . I just went on and typed it in about 15 minutes as a rant
Even better. It suggests that your thoughts are structured ;)
Stop being a sheep. Join steem and believe that you can be paid for your opinion.
Great post. I maintain a couple of minor disagreements but they don't detract from your message.
Thank you for an insightful read and some interesting ideas to ponder.
"( 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 )."
I see the point you are making however I don't think this is exactly censorship. It does hurt the profits but this can be used to help keep people who don't deserve the power and steem they are gaining through fame. I don't upvote a post just because I like the author. Some people do. If you thought an author was getting too much for their content you can down vote it. It does in turn negate upvotes and essentially take away a voters desire to reward an author for their work which I can see as possibly against freedom of speech of the voter but it doesn't remove the post from steemit. Those who still want to see it can, and it can still gain upvotes from other users.
I enjoyed your post, I hope you have some thoughts on my comment
This reminds me of a Bastiat quote that's been weighing on my mind heavily for the past few months:
Thanks for sharing this @kyriacos
This is a quote from "The Law" in which it is said the F. Bastiat never got angry or upset, but this is what he said when he did. I forget now who the rant was aimed, seems that it was a council or government "regulators" of some sort.
Thank you for sharing your wisdom Sir! Fantastic contribution, eye-opening conclusions, exciting material. I love it!
I enjoyed your post, my hope is for a voluntary world but I do realize that is more fantasy than reality. It does not mean that I will not fight with my intellect and write about a future that can be based on love rather than hate and force.
I do have to say all the posts making Steem deriding the Anarchist community is entertaining.
Excelent! information to know more and learn, about it,
Very nice!
it is unlikely that the majority of people will ever think for themselves or become self-governing all at the same time. It has always been that way and it may always be that way - unless a small percentage of people are all that is necessary to carry the rest through a shift. That would be telling - as usually it is 10% of the people doing 90% of the work - so maybe that is how it will be. The idea that "we" all have to be united in order for there to be a shift must be abandoned. "We" probably cannot unite at this point because our outcome based education has taught us to argue with each other and constantly find our differences - so there may be an entirely other way that "it" will happen. I am hopeful, actually, but I will always be anarchist and I will always seek horizontal governing groups and govern myself - as I have been doing for many years. I will always mingle with the mainstream and scoff at it and roll my eyes, and I will always live in it, most likely. As years pass I will become less and less outraged and more accepting of the way things are, as I continue to set an example to the people around me of someone who lives by principle. It is up to God how it will all turn out. None of us get out of here alive.
@in2itiveart I understand what you mean. this is why i empasize individualist anarchy
"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."
Are you missing the fact that fiat is based on debt and crypto has a fixed number of coins at requires proof of work, or in the case of the SAFE network proof of resource? It's not the distribution of money that's the issue it's the nature of money that's the issue dumbass. Debt based money != resource backed money. So what if the elites have 90% of the wealth or some shit like that? If we're using a resource economy in an environment with fixed resources then they will need to exchange that wealth for resources like food and water. And if there are only a few resources and they have lots of money then the price goes up.
"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."
Now who is not being a critical thinker. First off let's go back to your original scenario....
"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. "
No state = no corporations. Corporations = legal fictions. Legal fictions = Products of the GOVERNMENT. No government = no legal fictions = no corporations. And where does the government get it's money from? Taxes. How does the government get taxes? Monitoring finances. What's special about cryptocurrency? It obfuscates finances and allows people financial anonymity. On the SAFE network more than bitcoin but still. Use a bloody bitcoin tumbler and tor at least. Point is no financial monitoring = no taxes = no money for government = no legal fictions = no corporations. The closes you come to a corporation in cryptospace is a DAO which does not serve a specific oligarchy and can be opted in or out of using.
"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. "
So let me get this straight. You call yourself an anarchist but are cool with government: an institution based on coercion. You're cool with banks: Institutions based on fraud. And you're cool with corporations: Institutionalized psychopathy which are legal fictions and could not exist without the state. And you're saying the problems in society are not because flouride is being dumped in the water or because of all the insane laws and regulations. Not because we've got corporations that run like behemoth psychopaths who's only goal is profit at the expense of all else. Not because our nations currency systems have been usurped by the central banking cartel and usury and debt based currency has been put in place. No these aren't the problems. The problems are people are sheep and can't be "an individual." While I admit the vast majority of people are conformist sheeple yes, they are largely trained from birth to be that way via institutionalized indoctronation and mass medication. The public education system, fluoridated water, psychotropic drugs to treat any number of "mental illnesses" anything from add to ocd to depression instead of just accepting people how they are or maybe getting out in nature or giving people the right nutrition and emotional support, or there's mass vaccination that causes it's own set of problems. You know I could go on like this but my point is this: While society is pathetic they're largely trained to be pathetic. They're like a large pack of beaten dogs that'll roll over and show their bellies at the slightest move. Now dogs don't HAVE to be that way, they can be indpendent or even be trained to be a fierce pack of guard dogs. Or do any number of things. But if you abuse them and dominate them to death that's what you get: submissive little scared puppies. And that's what our society is like, a bunch of submissive indoctrinated conformists who don't know any better half the time.
Now people are waking up. But yes most are still indoctrinated sheep. But that's not to say that the banks or the government or corporations aren't to blame or are okay. Corporations are fascist institutions pure and simple. Banks = fraud and usury. Government = coercion. It's that simple. If you're going to be an ararchist at least get that much straight.
@blindsite
The existence of @steemit and the whales invalidates your whole argument.
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