The Bitcoin subculture is dying. It was always destined to die. If Bitcoin were to become a relevant and dominant global currency, it meant that it would inevitably morph into the mainstream culture. The idea that it would somehow fix mainstream culture is rather silly and naive. We find ourselves facing a tremendous amount of conflict because those who follow mainstream culture are unwilling or incapable of coming to grips with reality. The expectation that they would have their minds changed by Bitcoin podcasters, books outlining the history of money, and influencers wielding ref links is silly.
That doesn’t mean that the Bitcoin subculture has not had an impact on larger society. It doesn’t mean that all the energy and excitement around Bitcoin was a waste of energy. But in the larger conversation, the cypherpunk ideals that many of us strongly believe in, will likely never be adopted by the masses. That is because the masses do not value self respect, thinking for themselves, and human dignity. Many of them have been sold the promise of convenience, comfort, and safety.
Most revolutionary movements are based on a collectivist set of ideals which are destined to fail. Michael Malice outlines this in masterful detail in his book, The White Pill. The book details the history of how idealists, such as Emma Goldman, aligned with the Bolsheviks in order to topple the Tzar, only to find that they had helped enable a monster to take power that was a thousand times worse than the system they had fought to replace.
In the west, the history of the Bolshevik revolution is rather fuzzy for some reason. Not only does the majority of historical discussion fail to mention the absolute carnage wrought by the Soviets, but it also fails to mention the good intentioned idealists who aligned with the Bolsheviks during the revolution.
The Krondstadt rebellion of 1921 is the perfect example of this. (link for context ) Russian sailors who had fought on the side of the Red army, for the ideals of empowering the working man, staged a protest as they saw the writing on the wall. They demanded elections, a restoration of civil rights, and more representation from other groups such as the anarchists and socialists in government. The Soviet’s response to their protest was to slaughter them with artillery.
What started as a revolution based on the ideals of equality for the worker, turned into one of the most oppressive and tyrannical forms of human organization ever created. This story is an important one for dissident groups to understand for multiple reasons. The first is the danger of disrupting existing power structures as the new one replacing it could and often does turn out to be significantly more destructive. The second is that no tyrannical power structure can last indefinitely because the human spirit cannot withstand it.
To be successful as a revolutionary, you have to be ruthless, which many of us aren’t. I’ll speak for myself here. I am not a murderer. I am not willing to kill in order to further my political aspirations. I am not willing to lie, cheat, and steal in order to conquer others. I am appalled by those who do these things and work to build my life in a way where I work as little with individuals like that as possible. If you are like me, that puts us at a serious disadvantage compared to those whose goal is to conquer the masses into believing our world view. I am not a pacifist and am willing to kill in self defense. I hope that never happens, but that is different than the belligerents who actively go on the attack in order to accomplish their goals.
Framing things in the terms of revolution is not helpful for peaceful and sane individuals. Many of us may become revolutionaries if the circumstances get dangerous enough though. I would argue that we are not there yet, though we still do live under many forms of tyranny. We may not be revolutionaries, yet find ourselves in conflict with mainstream culture, the institutions that dominate it, and often the state. There is something innate with us that cannot comply with the societal norms being force fed down our throats. We want to produce things of value, not focus on the nuances of microaggressions. We want to build a legacy, not focus on the intracies of compliance.
The idea of a revolution has been made to be seen as sexy in pop culture but the reality is that a real revolution requires the individuals participating in it to often to go to places as dark and depraved as the people they are fighting against. There is a likely chance of not living to see the end of it and facing immense amounts of danger. What many people opt in for instead are social movements larping as being a revolution because it’s safe. It can be cathartic to larp with others who are also frustrated with what’s going. But larping will likely do very little to change anything, as we are watching happen now with a good portion of the ecosystem interacting with Bitcoin.
Public perception is a mirage that is constantly getting manipulated by individuals who have incentives to try and lead the public in a certain direction. That is why it is important to mostly discard what the masses think. Much of their opinions are informed by news anchors, journalists, writers, statist pundits and philosophers who spew nonsensical garbage meant to elicit some sort of behavioral change. Whether it is to vote a certain way, behave a certain way, or purchase a product, most of the information presented to people by propagandists is not meant to empower the individual.
In today’s world, it is not a revolutionary action to join a social movement, use a certain technology, hate the shitcoins, run a bitaxe, buy a hardware wallet, or lobby a politician. Unless you have been able to achieve meaningful progress in your life for the better, becoming more confident in yourself and your abilities, you have not made any progress. The most effective thing you can do to create positive change in your life and the world around you to utilize your own brain. That action may lead you to buying a hardware wallet, but it is important to understand the order of operations here.
“Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
-Ayn Rand
To fix the symptoms, you have to first understand the malady. There has been a social movement that was created on the premise that if we “Fix the money, we will fix the world.” Now we watch as many of the podcasters, conference speakers, and authors that preached this concept to us are beginning to marry the establishment that they once railed against. Bitcoin is being adopted by governments and politicians. It is being accepted by the banks, by the biggest corporations in the world and it seems to be fixing very little. Privacy abuses by governments and corporations are only increasing. Taxation continues to be just as sinister as ever. Market manipulation due to central planning appears to only be accelerating. The social movement that appeared to have the most chance at disrupting all of this appears to be disappearing and morphing into the system that many of us had fought to replace.
If there is any chance that Bitcoin will have a positive impact on the world, it is not strictly because of it’s innate qualities. For Bitcoin to have a positive impact on the world, it must work to empower individuals with decency and self respect. Those individuals need to be active participants in their own lives, thinking critically about what is truly best for them and utilizing Bitcoin as a vehicle in order to be able to pursue the things they value.
My philosophy is that tyranny is impossible when individuals value themselves enough to use their own minds and are willing to fight to protect the right to do so. Bitcoin is an interesting technology because in many ways, it enables the ability to do that. The sad reality is that tyranny exists because the majority of people in our society do not value their minds. They value safety, compliance, and comfort. The choice of safety over thinking is why we are facing hard times and it will likely only get harder.
It can be discouraging when you look at the world around you. You see problems that seem self evident, but your peers fail to understand either due to ignorance or apathy. You may feel isolated and alone and likely will continue to as long as your have the belief that your duty is to change others minds. The information industrial complex wants people to focus entirely on things that they have no power over. The TV attempts to get people upset at everything outside of what is in their immediate control. Change fails to happen because individuals are so hyper focused on everything except for themselves.
You have the opportunity to change yourself despite what everyone around you is doing. Just because the general society is sick and has low self esteem does not mean that you also have to. When you change yourself and live with self respect, you become an example for others. So much of our culture is dominated by hollow influencers trying to influence how people think. They are often either blatantly full of shit, or exposed as being charlatans eventually. The goal of personal growth should not be for the purpose of trying to change other people or changing the world. It should be because you actually value yourself.
To think for yourself in modern society is a revolutionary act. It can be difficult and in many ways dangerous. Freedom is never safe. As we watch the Bitcoin subculture shift and morph into pop culture, it does not mean that we have to shift and morph with it. We will find each other and together we will build the world that we want to pass down to our children.