Quote from: Chaoskampf on August 16, 2013, 06:02:11 AM

The revolution won't be televised, but is it going to be orchestrated through internet forums? What are we really doing? I believe in crypto's disruptive nature in regard to present monetary and social systems, but are we the revolution itself? Will it be through this passive non-engagement that we'll overturn the systems of power and exclusive control? In other words, if we just go off and play with our own currencies and pretend that the rest of the world doesn't exist, will it go away? Are we working under the premise that crypto will ultimately overtake the market-share of world currencies, rendering the status-quo obsolete (and in effect overthrown)?

I'm an ardent supporter of the Linux operating system. I believe it to be superior to the status-quo (Windows) in almost every way imaginable. However, I don't really have any expectations that Windows is going anywhere anytime soon. It has a stranglehold of most corporate computing, and through many different causal channels, more software and services are written for it than any other OS. I can't change that. I can tell everyone I know about how great Linux is, but I can't buy Linux boxes for them, and I definitely can't influence what major corporations are doing about their choices in computers. The centers of power (the major market players) are caught in vicious cycles, driven partly by their own influence of the very markets they are buying into and also by the market itself. Deviating from the well worn path presents itself with difficulties, despite how much more rewarding/productive/fulfilling the journey might be. I have to accept that fact that Linux is up against a system that has already been bought and sold by software monopolies which cannot afford to allow others to the table. They depend on exclusion, control, and an ultra-proprietary model of operation.

What I mean to assert by describing the state of the computer OS ecosystem, is that hierarchically organized power is good at one thing, and that is attaining more power. This is its ultimate goal. Its medium of operation comes second place to its pursuit of power it seems. Monopolies don't have to worry about their products because they have no competition to respond to. In the same way, we could consider that the present banking and monetary systems are monopolies. Through their use of legal, military, corporate, and social engineering, they have crafted a rather comfortable seat for themselves in the global sphere. Do they really feel threatened by crypto? I know some of you will point to recent legal action as signs towards a positive affirmation, but do they really? Will oil reserves be bought in Bitcoin? Will Blackwater (or whatever they call themselves nowadays) be payed in Bitcoin? Will Halliburton be accepting Bitcoin any time soon? How about the bond payments due to China? What about BP? How about the major banks themselves? Will JPMorgan be paying its multi-billion dollar expenditures in Bitcoin any time in the near future?

What is my ultimate point, you might be asking...

I want to ask you one thing. What are you doing to change any of this? Buying weed off Silk Road? Maybe some video games or graphics cards from here or there? Trolling on the forums, or even worse, on the BTC-e trollbox? Are you day trading alt-coins? Maybe you're telling all your friends about crypto? Are you working on a Bitcoin startup? Maybe you're doing odd-jobs and hoarding crypto in hopes of getting rich? Are you mining? Is this your revolution? Is this what we'll write in the history books?

Let me state my point as explicitly as I can. Bitcoin will not change the world. People will change the world. Bitcoin is a symptom of a sick society, not the cure. You've become too comfortable with being a consumer. You consume things. Your food, goods, services, your love, humor, compassion, pitty, and ultimately other human beings. As a consumer, you are fundamentally a spectator to the world around you. You are a feather in the wind, being tossed around in whatever direction the gusts will take you. As a spectator, your attention is fixed on what's immediately in front of you, and right now it's Bitcoin. Take a step back. Look around you. I don't need to tell you that we're in a load of shit. You already know that. But do you know exactly how deep we're entrenched? If you do, then you surely know we'll need a shovel or two. What's more, you'll know that things will have to get quite messy if we're going to dig our way out.

Let me tell you first that I am an ardent supporter of capitalism, but not of kepto or narcissic government sponsored capitalism. And I love your archaic 1911 drawing! But in several respects you have it backwards and here is briefly how that might be.

In the late 1970s/early 1980s the personal computer arose, there was a strong demand surge through the 1980s and firmly established market segments in the 1990s. This was CAUSED BY CONSUMER BEHAVIOR STRICTLY. So yes, bitcoin can change the world exactly as the result of consumer behavior. I could give many more examples of exactly how consumer behavior changes with technology and how in turn that changes the world.

EG, fax machines and the downfall of the Soviet empire? Transformation of the the Chinese economy? Look, the very anti capitalism systems of the Soviets and Chinese collapsed under technological influences, as they could not keep their tight controls necessary to maintain power. These political systems were of course dreamed of initially by idealists and brave men, who fought for them, but only to find later, that the collectivist government was the safest possible haven for thugs, criminals and all other misfits who wanted an easy life at the expense of the masses.