While the FUD be strong, the road be long.
Last night I was with some friends on a terrace having a cider. The last time I did this was perhaps two years ago and it was nice to get out for a couple hours after the workday and shoot the breeze in the rare warmth and sunshine. Today, it is raining again.
There were only there of us there and while they are quite liberal in their thinking in many ways, when it comes to the economy, it is quite the opposite. I find this interesting, where someone can want freedom for individual decision making and expression, yet simultaneously do not see how not having financial freedom (this is much more than just having enough money) greatly limits a person, restricts them through economic pressure and slavery.
What is it that is so hard for people to accept when it comes to freedom of economy, why is a decentralized currency so hard to accept? Is it a question of ignorance, an unwillingness to take responsibility, the desire for convenience? When the world is crumbling in so many ways, when the wealth gaps are increasing and more and more people are becoming disenfranchised, disillusioned, depressed - Why is there so much resistance to trying something different? Why is even talking about these things seen as inflammatory with so many people?
Perhaps it is that most of us don't want a cure, we want relief. We don't want to actually solve the problems, we want someone to give us a pill so we feel better, feel less pain, feel as if we have agency, feel like we matter. Instead of actually improving the underlying systems, we act at the surface level only.
Over the years I have heard many of my friends talk about clothing, something I used to be far more interested in. We would be at a shop and one would say to another, "that dress is slimming on you". I think we have all heard these kinds of things somewhere - dark colors, cinched wastes, size and direction of stripes etc. However, none of these things are slimming, they just give the impression of making a person look slimmer whilst wearing them. The only thing that is actually "slimming", is losing size.
This is an analogy for most things though, because losing size takes effort, time and requires personal changes to routine, something that most people do not want to do, even when they want to do it. Everyone wants better results, but when it comes to acting toward it, it isn't worth their real attention. They do pay attention at the surface level, they do talk about what they read in the news or complain about the rich getting richer, but that is them feeling like they have agency, even though it is a flaccid action - it is putting on black dress that gives the illusion of changing contour lines.
For most of the things people find important and would like to change, are able to be influenced through consumer decisions. If you do not want to make the rich richer, stop consuming in ways that push money into their pockets. If you want to stop using oil for personal transport, makes consumer decisions that move away from doing so. If you want social media to improve, stop supporting platforms that are not acting in a way that you support - it literally is, be the change through consumption.
People want a healthier economy, yet what they consider "better" has conflicting ideas involved. They want more money in their pocket and more less economic disparity and less global poverty, but they want their country to be successful, even if it increases poverty and disparity in others. Currency and centralized control of individual's financial capabilities is a large part of the problem, as it takes a lot of the ability for people to consume differently away from them through restriction of options. A decentralized currency and economy that doesn't care about who or where it is used, opens up options and gives the responsibility to the user.
Perhaps this is what people are so scared of - once we have the responsibility of making our own decisions, we will have to face the fact that we are part of the problem and always have been. Firstly, we are part of the problem in what we buy, then we are part of the problem in not pushing for a change at the foundation level so that we are able to buy differently. For most, all that is really cared about is that they as an individual has what they want. Even when it is impossible, that is the goal being driven.
I will work hard for what I desire, in a system that makes it almost impossible for me to get what I desire, but never actually take any practical measures toward improving the system. I will use my value to satisfy surface level goals so that I feel like I am succeeding, even though fundamentally, I am not changing at all and quite likely, degrading. I will buy a larger shirt that makes me look slimmer, so I don't have to eat better or exercise. And next year when I don't fit into that shirt anymore, I will buy the next size up.
The crypto markets are depressing to watch at the moment, and it isn't just because I have watched massive amounts of value drain away over the last months. The real heart-wrenching thing is that it is indicative of the industry itself, where people are making the decision to pull away from change and drive themselves deeper into the status quo - the place where the rich get richer, the growing poor increasingly suffer. It is human nature, isn't it? Protect the self at the expense of others. If this was already a decentralized global economy, it would actually work quite well, but because it isn't it just becomes more oppressive.
This is the catch-22 of shifting over to a new economic model that empowers the individual, because it takes the majority of the world to collectively agree to make the change.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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Oh, don't even get me started. I am good at planning and i made some exit strategies for quite few friends of mine, but boy, i cannot talk about financial independence and stuff like that in public, as most of my friends got different views. The only safe place to talk about strange strategies and how to never work again just for the money, and do what you enjoy doing, seems to be the internet. Ironic, isn't it?
It is interesting that people are against financial independence. It shows how strong the conditioning is.
Yes it is.
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really loved the comparation of the current economic situation and the slimming problem! you are absolutely spot on 😄 unfortunately, too many people are just.. lazy to solve the problem. the comforting lie is always 'better' than the unpleasant truth and this is the main problem
We like to deceive ourselves most of all.
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The collective challenge is a big thing ...
We had a meeting with our consortium this week and I was so heartened that members started talking about how they could work together (in this case, put forward a slate of candidates for trustee positions endorsed by the whole group) to change things. It's long, it's slow, but sometimes we make a big step forward on the journey.
For some weird reason I was looking forward to the meeting (they can be very draining), I don't know why I thought there would be some movement, but there was and it made all those months of working, pushing, worthwhile.
At least you got the sense of change. Too often, it seems like one step forward, two back - instead of two forward and one back.
I find it ironic that we are built to collaborate - yet we struggle to do so.
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The very definition of my job 🙂.
I think a lot of people are so settled in their jobs/work that they are scared that in case their currency fails, or devalues a lot, their worth will be really less.
So, they don't want to believe in cryptocurrency. They want their centralized currency to succeed because their companies/business does not pay them in cryto.
Sure, there are a few people who like to diversify. And avoid the risk that real estate and national currency can fail at any time. And they will still have enough money in the form of decentralized currency to survive.
For example, my father always invested only in real estate. And because first few of his investments paid so good(in 1980-1990) and the recent ones from 2015 are in loss, the idea is ingrained in him that investment in real estate will pay.
Anything else like stock markets etc will make you a loser in the long term because you cannot time the market to enter and exit.
A lot of people around me has grown up seeing the massive gains in real estate world. Even though the real estate has been a loser in the last decade, they still want to invest in it only.
It takes an open mind to put your hard earned money in something you don't understand completely. Even though you you can put your money in something that you understand but others say it will be a loser.
I believe crypto world works on belief. People like us believe that there should be decentralized currencies.
Similarly, there are people who believe that every currency should be backed by a government, who is answerable to us(even though they only have excuses for economic failures and promises of a better future).
Most people don't have that much value, because of the system. You'd think they would want to change.
All markets and value are on belief - without it, there is no value.
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As usual you have exposed a critical issue at a core level. One of the most fundamental drivers in human nature is a desire for constancy. This drive gives the illusion of stability and security and helps support faith in the continuity of one's existence (a psychological counter to a primal fear). Unfortunately it also creates a significant resistance to change. Moreover it all operates at a subconscious level making it extremely hard for us to realize how we participate in our own struggles.
Knowledge and understanding through sound education are a critical element in combating this behavior. To my way of thinking this is one of the great values of social systems such as Hive. It is also a reason I enjoy reading your thoughts and responding to them.
Another critical factor needed in creating the change is good leadership in our social/political environments, sadly this is almost non existent. This is one of the major issues I am currently working on trying to change. As a political analyst focused in Ethics, Constitutional Law and the Role of Law in Society I see real potential to make changes (at least here in America) to fix our system and make it work as it was so brilliantly designed to do. This will redirect the ship of state in a manner that can only tolerate good leadership in those areas that need to be centralized while at the same time supporting movement into decentralized economics.
I define leadership thus: A Ruler is someone who wears a mantle of Authority and only takes up Responsibility when circumstances force them to, A leader is someone who wears a mantle of Responsibility and only takes up Authority when situations require them to. Sadly we see far to much of the former and almost none of the latter. Worse still is how so many leaders in the world believe, in their ignorance, that they are actually the latter.
As always an enjoyable read on your part. keep being you and doing what you do.
Blessed be.
It is a funny blindness, where we hold ourselves back, yet don't see that we do it. It is like we are mentally numb, unable to feel our own movement.
It is getting worse, because we punish completely anyone who does anything with which we disagree. We see things as black and white and there is no nuance, therefore no room for error. Make a slight miscalculation, get cancelled totally. What this means is that the people who become the next leader in place are a little worse than the one being replaced, and this happens a hundred times. We are moving toward less qualified people, lower quality leaders, disposable everything.
Benevolent dictators are so few and far between, it is better to build a system that doesn't rely on them.
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Sometimes I wish people could see things through your eyes.
A lot of people think short term and so dont care about what the future holds.
It was obvious that the spike was a result of the influx of new people who had no experience in the crypto industry. They came inn because of the hype, thy left when things became bad.
We all need to work out our salvation and it starts with us
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They would be digusted! ;D
Well... the spike was driven by the institutions playing out a pattern for profit. Part of that pattern is to draw retail investors into the market.
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Not for me. I like the slight current down trend. I was not around crypto in the beginning, Steem was my beginning in crypto. At the beginning of this month I want to take some of the slow drips I get from investment tokens and get one EOS, (Done!), and one Doge, (Done!), and now I am working on getting one Eth.
The drips from the tokens that earn get sold, my POB earnings get sold, (all on hive engine), then I take a guesstimate at what would be 25% and send it to myself via either H-E or Leo-dex, (sometimes the .5% transfer fee difference matters sometimes it doesn't to me), then I send it to Ionomy. I could let it sit there in Hive and HBD, but the whole purpose right now is to buy int some Eth. So the hive gets sold and the Eth gets bought. (I am at 0.022 Eth). By the end of the year I hope to be at 0.5 ETH, will it happen? I don't know. I know it will not happen if I do not make the effort to make it happen.
Less depressing in price, more depressing in why people are selling.
It is worth getting some out and into some other tokens and Eth is looking like a buy at the moment. :)
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Yeah, I am trying to take a little bit of my rewards and branch out and away from Hive and H-E tokens with it, I thought Eth was sitting at a semi stable cheap price.
Love that. We do as we are told to do. Those of us who deviate are called cray cray.
I'm glad you got to go out with friends.
I am definitely seen as cray cray :)
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I am somehow guilty of this but I am so grateful to my friend because he guided me in financial management aspect and guided me in decentralized stuff as well. This is truly an eye opener article. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
It ism worse hedging bets - as nothing is certain. however, I don't have much hedge in anything else :)
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I've always wondered why this is the case. I mean a lot of people complain about mainstream social media platforms all the time but few actually look for alternatives. It makes me think that perhaps we don't really like acting in our own best interest sometimes
Yo opino más bien que todo el tema se puede discernir de muchas maneras ya que requiere un estudio profundo ya que cuando emitimos un punto de vista lo hacemos de forma muy particular y personal, inciden muchas variables para cada quien porque en ello también están muy presente las percepciones subjetivas y llegar a un consenso al respecto requiere una aplicación dedicada para emitir conclusiones con más peso y que tengan el resultado esperado pienso y creo que tu post es muy bueno pero bueno es mi opinión al respecto. Feliz dia.
Maybe it's inflammatory for some because they subconsciously take it as a slight?
Also change is terrifying, so maybe they'd much rather everything stay the same but with more benefits for them?