I wonder if those who had only ever lived in tyrannies, monarchies, and dictatorships would have believed someone who described how a representative democracy at the scale of the United States was possible.
I wonder if those who had only ever known slavery as “a typical feature of civilization” and “legal in most societies” would have believed someone who described how slavery would eventually be “outlawed in most countries of the world, except as a punishment for a crime” and “abolished de jure in all countries” (source: Wikipedia).
I wonder if those who had only ever lived with repeated failures of human flight would have believed someone who described how the Wright brothers could take their engineering experience to craft a machine capable of flight and just 64 years later we’d land humans on the moon.
I wonder if someone who had only ever lived with fiat central bank debt currencies enforced by threats of nation-state violence would have believed someone who described how bitcoin might work as a decentralized payment network and digital currency which anyone anywhere in the world with the right hardware, software, power, and internet connectivity can mint themselves reaching a marketcap of over half a trillion dollars.
—
I don’t have to wonder if most people believe it’s possible for humans to cooperate non-violently in groups not just at the family or tribal level, but at numbers greater than Dunbar’s number with the aid of technology and consciousness evolution through tools like shadow/trauma work, meditation, plant medicine, and academically proven methods for reaching fundamental wellbeing and persistent, nonsymbolic experience. The answer is they don’t believe it’s possible. They believe the game theory of Prisoner’s Dilemma and selfish human nature will never adopt a more sustainable, resilient system for mutual self-benefit that takes into account our human nature and creates rewarding systems for positive human behavior and wisdom building (like philosopher democracy, a form of deliberative democracy which has been successful at the nation-state level around the world). They seem to believe what we have is the best we can do, despite historical examples where huge leaps into previously “impossible” things have taken place. Like crabs in a barrel, I often feel I’m being dragged back into their stories when I start to talk about my own story that imagines a better future.
Part of me just wants to be quiet, and keep doing the things I’ve been doing (working on non-violent governance systems through DAOs and blockchains, making cryptocurrency easier to use for everyone, talking about philosophies like the non-aggression principle, voluntaryism, mutual preferred behavior, etc., and exploring tools and resources for consciousness development and evolution). If many decades from now, something non-violent and cooperative grows beyond Dunbar’s number, I can point to it in my old age and say, “See, that’s what I meant. That’s what I envisioned. That’s what I knew deep in my bones was possible for the human species.” That would certainly be “easier” in that my “idealism” and “optimism” and what comes across in my communications as confidence (but is really just articulated strong hope) wouldn’t create so much cognitive dissonance among my friends who otherwise think of me as somewhat intellligent, capable, and rational.
And I get it. I know what my brain is doing. As Thinking Fast and Slow describes, my “system 1“ brain is coming to a conclusion it likes because of a story I’ve adopted that “system 2” then tries to weakly justify with platitudes, anecdotes, and examples of limited use. I get how this further discourages people from taking my story of the future seriously. I’m learning to be okay with that. I don’t need to stop talking about these ideas (even if that’s easier), I just need to stop defending them with poor rationalizations. By sharing my stories, I attract those who also believe similar stories. We find each other as multidimensional thinkers and philosophers who dare to dream something into existence which has never existed before and we don’t need to defend these ideas, just live them.
And maybe we will fail in our ignorance, but to me trying is a life well spent. At least we can be counted among those who tried. We chose better stories, and we lived them out, starting with ourselves and branching outward from there. I’m not the only one. Someday I hope you’ll join us.
[Verse 1]
Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us, only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
I
[Verse 2]
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
You
[Chorus]
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
[Verse 3]
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world
You
[Chorus]
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one
You may say I’m a dreamer …..
Nice to see you again 💜
I've been around a little here and there, but mostly on Facebook lately as there's where most of the interesting engagement is, sadly. The mobile interfaces for Hive still aren't that great, though ecency isn't that bad. I'm trying to remember to post stuff here as well as Facebook at least once in a while.
Same for me and I am mostly on IG and Twitter but I actually took a long break of nearly everything.
I just got burnt out but trying to come back more often.
Those last years were so tiring
I wish you more than the Best
Hey luke you did come to El Salvador, in a BTC delegation in the past, why you do not talk with our president about hive blockchain as a educational proyect to onboard the masses, this could get and help to our people and changhed the life of a lot of people near here.
Thanks a lot.
I don't have that much influence, but it is a wonderful thought. Our delegation didn't end up meeting with the president. He seems influenced by many BTC maxi's so I doubt he'd be open to other coins.
thanks a lot for answer me, yes it is true, the presidente agenda is very hard and dificult to get a meeting with him,
i saw in one ocation, that he give a retweet in a post of criptowendy, i told her too that if she could talk about hive to him it could be wonderful.
well we are here and if i have the oportunity i do not let go out.,
best regard.
.
Well, I am now too old and have never been a believer nor have I had blind faith in any human nor divine entity for too many years. So, as far as optimisms and expectations from the future go, you could say I am just an old Defensive Pessimist.
One who is already convinced that the imagination capacity of the human being and their ability to really envision what is truly possible and feasible to achieve in this life, always is gonna be subjected to the degree of ignorance, superstitions, speculations and limitations of the society, culture and environment by which they have been surrounded an entire lifetime and where they have been developed and grown up.
That's why I am increasingly under the impression that human beings nowadays find themselves more and more trapped in a modern and contemporary Tower of Babel that distances them more and more from a clear communication and understanding of what would be really feasible to achieve, for everyone as a whole, if everyone at least would try to work together and united with a common goal in mind full of justice, education, empathy, equality and solidarity as a single and exclusive goal among all participants.
But yeah, each madman with his theme. I just suspect that there are already too many lost souls in the world as to they all be able to agree about what should be that common goal by what work on and that it could be truly achieved among all humans in unison without exception.
Beautiful song hey. There are a lot of human inventions that need not be. How's it going down there in PR? You still there?
Hi Luke,
Glad to read from you. I just want to say that your story is beautiful and your efforts will surely bear fruit. What extent of it in how much time is a question only time can answer. But I do wish you best of luck!