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I’m writing this to keep my thoughts organized because like that moment of disorientation when you suddenly wake from a dream, I find myself blinking at the pace of reality changing around me. So, some thoughts.
Canada has moved ahead with the apparent capitulation of financial rights of their citizens in regards to protests, Australia has moved a bit excessively into lockdowns and aggression towards non-vaccinated, and now we’ve moved out of Covid somewhat in War!
Remember that guy Ned Price, the State Department Spokesman, when asked by Matt the AP Reporter “Where is the evidence that there is a [Russia] propaganda film in the making?” Ned Price said, “I just delivered it.” That ain’t right!
There’s apparent disregard for law of the monied elites, the slow pace of justice, as well as the double standard of law between wonton destruction of property and Jan 6th protests. It all seems too much.
As a lot of the roots of the escalating insanity seems to be related to money and the foolhardy printing of it, and how this printing is reshaping the nation, I’ll stay focused on that, or try to. For instance, I saw that the founder and CEO of Kraken Crypto exchange issued this warning in regards to what Canada was doing about donations to the Ottawa truckers:
- Kraken’s Jesse Powell to Americans: ‘Get Your Coins Out’
- Kraken Co-founder and CEO Jesse Powell issues warning to Americans & Canadians about holding their coins on centralized exchanges.
Where he generally promotes self-custodial wallets. Also the CEO of Coinbase reflects the same cautions to members. How did governments react?
- Regulator in Canada Warns Crypto Exchanges Not to Promote Self-Custodial Wallets:
Predictable. Governments in general don’t appear accepting of dissent to government pronouncements anymore which doesn’t bode well. I mean why would they, after all how can they properly safeguard their citizens, if citizens are independent and thinking for themselves, acting on their own accord and complicating things.
Here’s more fun facts occurring in the world in March of 2022.
- The war in Ukraine is underway. There are two wars really, the Wests war with sanctions and money control, (their go-to strategy) and Russia’s war with bullets and blood.
- Brent Crude oil is at $110 and climbing…
- inflation at running at +7.5%.
As we drift away from the world I grew up in to one of safer, more inclusive totalitarian control where only the donor classes are able to enjoy versions of freedom, hampered only by their own self-imposed sociopathic constraints. Perhaps an Orwellian type of freedom then, but that’s a tale for later.
So onwards…
These above mentioned events and many others occurring presently are telling us, (us, the people comprising the ‘masses’) something important. But we’ll need some time to investigate and digest. Time, unfortunately being the one thing that seems always short and expires irrevocably. With Time taken for the job, then sleep, this leaves the hours remaining in the day at about 8. Between raising children, eating and food prep, exercising, shopping, commuting, managing money, paying bills, (auto-paying anything always seems to get away from us) and of course socializing. Somewhere in that mix we’re supposed to pay attention to what our elected officials are doing, stay up on current events and have a hobby. We need priorities for sure, for without them we are unable to properly safeguard our children’s future or watch the policies enacted by government which always seems to be leaning into more control, less efficiency, more nefarious and dystopian and with that, less freedom for the individual. And of course increasing the burn rate of their spending.
This leads us to the idea of narratives which is a sort of spin. We all apply spin on things in our everyday life so we’re all familiar, but government statements, are passed through a plethora of media and news outlets making them official and perhaps an aspirant truth. And that media, organizes and reports, dialog that for sure ‘spins’ the narrative into the desired direction.
Per the web, “Spin is a type of media bias that means vague, dramatic or sensational language. When journalists put a “spin” on a story, they stray from objective, measurable facts. Spin is a form of media bias that clouds a reader’s view, preventing them from getting a precise take on what happened.”
Spin is the precursor to cohesive ‘narratives’ across government agencies and spread even to other Nation States and their ‘independent’ media, as in the case of Covid 19 mandates. This appears to drive a collusive global policy, and counters the wishes and better judgement of those being represented by the representatives supposedly representing us. Spin drives narratives, and narratives drive policy, and policy determines the quality of life within that society. The fact that orchestrated global policy is cohesive implies a power above the Nation State, above sovereign countries like the US, or Germany, Japan, China, UK, France, Canada, Korea etc etc. These nation states run on common narrative rails which have immense power and influence over millions of humans on this planet.
An interesting book which explores the power of the narrative idea is Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. In the book, the author postulates that early hominids ran into Neanderthals as they migrated out of Africa and into Europe. Now, disregarding the possible coloration differences (Neanderthals possibly had light eyes and light hair), African hominids were beat back and returned to Africa with barely their lives. Then thousands of years later, the African Hominids returned to Europe and wiped out and bred through the neanderthals virtually eliminating them from the gene pool, then covered all the places of the earth, eventually reaching all the way to Australia. Breeding out other hominid species along the way who had foolishly set up shop on Earth. It should be noted that people of Europe (of which I’m one) through examination of their DNA has shown that they carry portions of Neanderthal DNA (1-4% or so) within their human DNA. Other humans in other parts of the world carry other hominid species DNA in their human DNA. Everyone should read this book for the thought provoking knowledge that it provides. And further to the point he mentions that the real world of rocks and animals are only as real as the gods, or corporations or nation state narrative constructions that allow them to exist. Powerful stuff.
So we see the reason we won the second go with the Neanderthals is because Homo Sapiens had developed the ability to create and sustain narratives. Narratives that are with us still today. Religion is a narrative, politics, nation states, waging of war, education, structures and ideologies of all types are narratives and all people are influenced or controlled by the prevalent narratives. These narratives formed early, and civilization, our civilization, followed. They are so intrinsic to our development that it’s hard to see who we would be without them as they form our social, religious, financial, educational, and fundamental moral structures and more. These narratives reflect the needs of those governing, not the needs of the governed. And we all partake to some degree. We tell our children the prevalent narratives that they must abide by, and really all lives are developed within the stories that we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Generally then, narratives have power, and the governing power’s pervasive ability to foster narrative through the control of information (print, radio and TV media today) ensures the power of the state. By spinning events to the needs and wishes of the ruling classes the thoughts and actions of those ruled are controlled and guided. This need not be nefarious, a benevolent and charismatic leader can hold sway over millions today and do so ‘for’ the benefit of the people. But not so likely it seems as the presence of such leaders are rare.
Swaying sufficient numbers of a tribe to whole heartedly savage other tribes and other early hominids, like neanderthals in Europe, required a tight and cohesive form of control. And this control then resulted, as they reached the ends of the earth, with no ‘others’ left to ravage, to simply turn around and start killing each other, and this continues to this day, all for the spread of narratives and control of others. We chalk this up to greed, or racism, or a fundamental genetic structures inherent in ourselves, implying flaws in the human condition. But really? It’s all principally, for better or worse, the method of our ascension and retention of our position within the animal hierarchy of this planet.
The dangers of having this power, are well known and cautions have been given by educated elites carefully and to under grads, but mostly to other educated elites, which if deemed improper or provocative, are perhaps ‘woke’ or censured and perhaps cancelled from having a voice to resist the ongoing narrative. And make no mistake, fully half or more of humanity wants to be told exactly what to do. So that they can, if not prosper, at least avoid the cost of standing independent.
Presently however, this constructed edifice of binding behavior to the central narrative is being assaulted by today’s pirate radio, i.e. podcasts, (as noted by Eric Weinstein) which have proliferated in the west (Joe Rogan anyone?) and slowly people are starting to see the benefit of dialog and of a free but messy government instead of neat and tidy authoritarian control. Some are hesitant, others eager to lever power away from existing structures and wield it themselves and many are, of course, neutral, waiting for the game to play out a bit more. In all though, the blinders are coming off and many see that changes are required and damn the consequences at this point. World leaders today are flawed, their policies are flawed and we follow them at our peril so choose allegiances carefully. Death may result.
But lest we digress too far, remember this all goes back to Time. Who has the time to dig into what is true from often nuanced arguments, to determine what consequences may result from narratives, to research for an historical precedent, to subjectively feel whether this is even right.
For as feeling creatures this last is often that which drives consensus among populations. We can all gather the gist of an argument in minimal time, (facial clues, voice inflections, speaker mannerisms, etc.) and determine a judgement in record time. Based on feelings mostly but also the depth and belief of our own internal narratives and beliefs. But these feelings, alas, are manipulated and are now part of the mix of tools used for control and proliferation of narratives, advised by professionals whose jobs are to determine the best techniques to drive adoption. And these advisors have a depth of historical context, hold PHDs, are paid handsomely, and love the work, so put in the hours. Perhaps we shouldn’t trust our feelings, at least not fully. And perhaps not at all.
Thoughtful analysis is the better way to go, and this often means educating yourself to ever changing conditions. Covid has taught me the rudiments of biology, especially viruses, and natural immunity, Keto has taught me the rudiments of diet and metabolism, and foundations of hunger and the benefits of fasting and Gold then Bitcoin has taught me the basics of monetary theory (The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous recommended) by forever digging deeper into the ‘rabbit hole’ of how money really works and why. And lately even Defi has taught me the rudimental functions of finance, Interest rates (at one time Cake was at 134% annualized on Pancake Swap), leverage, liquidity, and other methods of manipulating the flow of money for personal gain and enrichment.
Essentially, this thesis shows that a decentralized algorithmically controlled model of finance with a proven and functional, algorithmic base-layer of value supporting it all, may be the secret sauce that could fully disrupt the idea that authoritarian rule, based on utilizing a flawed monetary theory, is the foundational substrate to building power. We’re not there yet, after all greed is still rug-pulling folks all the time, however this work has begun. So far it’s clearly Bitcoin, but there are other models in process as well and who knows if a better Bitcoin can emerge, though as Bitcoin maximalists have expounded, the wheel only needs invented once and that’s certainly true.
Of course what we all know for sure is that the last 15,000 years have been filled with rulers fighting for control and throwing pawn after pawn to realize their dreams of avarice and glory. Where legacies are spawned and pawns sacrificed, narratives crafted and refined, and the energy expended is the lifeblood of peoples caught up in narratives thought worthy of death. Peaceful empires swallowed by empires, with strength grown from the wealth of sacked territories and through the forced labor of slaves, controlled by incentivized citizens.
And here we are today, in yet another war, that could very easily escalate into a global nuclear holocaust and for what? For the enrichment of a few narrative creators bent on bumping heads in a global game of chess played with blood?
If Bitcoin could but scream, but it cannot. It is only an algorithm, an idea, a narrative if you like, that can be used, like any tool, for the betterment of the human condition or discarded on the scrap heap by monied interests playing the game of control with blood and guts.
This present situation, this geopolitical hand-me-down from some bygone era, where the possibly coerced territorial grab presently in play is perhaps a new proving ground for a new form of governance, ruled by rules not rulers, where property is sacrosanct and war can’t be easily financed. Where rulers are constrained and disincentivized and people are empowered. We have a chance for a change… we may not always.
There are some obvious moves that need to occur to spur a new renaissance. Implementation would be the challenge. Blackmail and leverage appear to be the modus operandi of governance today and we’ll have to move past this model. So…
Rules Based Monetary Policy - First and foremost we would need a way to de-incentivize the blackmail and coercion involved in politics today. Recall that Trump was impeached twice for talking about draining the swamp, Kennedy spoke out about the Military-Industrial Complex and was assassinated. And yet, this would be bigger. This would require a global monetary realignment, a true paradigm shift of tectonic magnitude, where dollars would be based on a new value model, beyond gold, a new base layer of unimpeachable accountability, open-sourced, algorithmically defined, rule-based, and transparent in real time, on a public accounting ledger, visible 24-365. Bitcoin.
Transparency. - Along with a Rules Based Monetary Policy, and already present in that policy is transparency. Basically the problem with all forms of centralized control is the back room deals by rich, entrenched, family connected, generational wealth individuals with influence and power. Effectively card carrying members of the deep state that are beyond government oversight. Transparency would be the answer to much of the inequality in the world, and through global communications and simple attention it can be achieved today.
A stronger rule of law, - Human rights for the people, of the people, and by the people, world FUC%ING wide this time! From the ashes of this inevitable greed and debt collapse, change will be certain to occur.
- Whether that change will result in an authoritarian and automated control of humanity through a sort of drone-surveilled police state is up to us, those alive now, in this generation, in this window. Resistance to any sort of government control or mandates is hard. People may be economically sanctioned, their food security compromised or money weaponized. Look to Canada or Australia; two countries that I thought of as free, harrowed into compliance with force and economics.
- Or that inevitable reset can be the renaissance of humanity. All we really need are human rights. The right to Peace, Prosperity and Happiness. People just need to get involved in the process of governance, with incentivized involvement in community. Humans are amazing and we should marshal that potential. After all, the next Einstein, Bohr or Tesla could be in Yemen at this moment and he/she may be only 9 months old.
Sustainability - Going forward, we’re going to have to start marshaling the resources of this planet effectively. In general all life is either sustainable or its gone. Let’s learn from the natural order and adhere to those lessons. This is basic and right.
Education - People need education. I didn’t realize how stupid I was until I made the time to investigate things on the internet starting about 15 years ago or so. Topics like monetary theory and policy, how money is created and who it benefits, how food production works and the dangers involved with mono-crops , how biology and the science of health work, what effects diet, exercise, emotions, gut-biome and what effects emotional states have on health and longevity. None of this was taught in school. And this is to the utter shame of civilization.
So, can we save the world? I would like to say of course we can. But really, it’s an uphill fight all the way, and forever more. But the alternative is death and enslavement, so there is some motivational impetus that we can work with. And the revolution has already begun, it’s called Crypto. Specifically, I’m referring to Bitcoin but really any decentralized, open-sourced financial product that can help the human condition is welcome. The fact that the price of BTC has gone up inextricably over its life but now appears to be stalling a bit, as we trade sideways for what seems like an eternity, doesn’t subtract from the utility of the network value of Bitcoin.
Jack Mallers, a kid from Chicago, wrote the code for Zap and Strike, (a Bitcoin wallet and eye-opening payment network and possibly a paradigm shift in commerce and value transfer) said that he ‘actively trains to have an outsized impact on society’, (see the Bitcoin Magazine live interview on March 4th, 2022 with Jack Mallers - (About 8 minutes in). I propose that we all need this point of view. Not forever lingering on the sidelines watching hope fade, always waiting for the right time.
Having traveled outside of America as an early retiree, I now have time to reflect. And some time to jot down a few lines to try and understand the mess that has come to entwine almost every living being on the planet in a sort of unsolvable gordian knot. To unravel that knot we need a new way of thinking, and that new way of thinking may be the simple move to a Bitcoin Standard, to provide peace, build prosperity and with time, some happiness as well.
DMZ
03-08-22
Author bio
My name is Dan Zipay. I was a traveling Service Engineer for a US based equipment manufacturer in the Metal Industry. Traveling around the world opened my eyes a bit, and living in other countries, like Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, and working in even more, I came to appreciate the human condition a bit. I got interested in Bitcoin in 2014 and bought my first half of a bitcoin in 2014 at a price of $200 dollars. but like many I bought more (had 12.5 at one time) then sold it them at $1000 each with a real nice gain. Who would have thought it would go to $30-$40 thousand dollars each. Anyway, I've retired early and am now living in thailand with my thai wife and our young daughter. A dream that Bitcoin helped build. I think it really is the answer to the problems we are seeing today. is it the end all be all of every solution needed? No, but it's a step and a big one.
Disclaimer
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