Brave New World vs 1984
Looking at both sides of the dystopia.
Most people have read 1984 or at least know enough about it to understand the constant references made. Especially now in 2020, these dystopic novels only seem to become more and more relevant. However, we would be quite remiss to ignore Brave New World, whose methods of control are completely different than the overt force used in 1984.
1984 tells only part of the story. 1984 is about a technologically dystopian society that is centralized under a boot-on-your-neck statist... really really fascist control system.
Aldous Huxley had a different perspective which is actually even more powerful... again a dystopia of a society under heavy control, but in this case it wasn't the overt control of violence and fear, but instead control through cheap entertainment by tickling the dopamine centers of pliable subjects. This kept the people occupied by triviality so they would miss the horrific things happening in their society (eh hem Facebook)
But it's obviously not just Facebook.
- Bars/Clubs/Drugs/Alcohol/Addictions
- TV/Netflix/Hulu/AmazonPrime/DisneyPlus/Stars/HBO
- TickTock/Twitter/Instagram/SnapChat/Youtube/Tumblr
- Video games / Shopping / Social Status Seeking
- Etc.
Developed nations have far more distractions, putting the population in an apathetic state no matter how heinous foreign policy becomes or how bad other people have it. Life is just good enough to justify inaction and just bad enough to only worry about oneself.
What we see has emerged today is really kind of the perfect mix between the two, because not only do you get Aldous Huxley's entertainment based enslavement... but beautifully enough [that data is then fed into a system of more overt oppression].
Both sides of the coin.
This is why I really think everyone should read both 1984 and Brave New World. Perhaps I'll even read them again sometime if I ever get around to it. I don't read a lot. Blame it on the A-D-D. However, once I commit to something I usually can finish it pretty quickly. It's the initial commitment that is most difficult.
All forms of control are very important. In a digital age, data is the most dangerous weapon. Manipulating that data and convincing everyone that this system is acceptable (and even desirable) is priority number one for those who rule.
Yes, certainly, boot-on-your-neck might-is-right force coming from the military-industrial-complex and the police-state are the backbone of control. However, that control is fleeting in the face of overwhelming consensus to the contrary. Without manipulating the hearts and minds of the people, the elite has no power, which is why they so openly devote massive resources to accomplishing just that through various forms of propaganda and spun narratives.
For example, those who participate in military service are often heavily brainwashed into thinking the actions they perform are for the good of the world. Within this narrative, they are framed as the brave heroes who defend the good guys and kill the bad guys. We've seen many times that if this narrative is taken away they become extremely upset, and understandably so.
So when capitalism and imperialism dictate that we should start negotiating deals with our sworn enemies and terrorists like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, military personnel reject it with every fiber of their being. They were already brainwashed into a narrative that these people were the sub-human sworn enemies of the 'good guys'. You can't have it both ways.
So again, while it looks like the elite can just run around doing whatever they want, they really can't. The invisible web of politics and data manipulation is very complex, and if mismanaged could fall apart immediately. These threads are getting weaker and weaker during these uncertain times and we see the establishment scrambling to tighten their grip. Will it work, or will this house of cards collapse and be rebuilt on flat architecture?
This "New Normal" is happening one way or another.
"Will Bitcoin save us?"
Yes, because it can open the door for all these systems to emerge. However, when it comes to save us it may not be called Bitcoin... it may be a secondary effect that's way removed... kind of like how everybody runs Linux they just kinda call it Android, or the subsystem of Windows, or they call it the underlying POSIX infrastructure of their Mac OS. It's still kind of Linux in every device everywhere you just never know it's there.
Linux won by disappearing into the background. Maybe Bitcoin saves us, not because we use and know we are using Bitcoin, but because it kind of fades into the background as an infrastructure technology that redefines our very conception of how trust works in a networked society.
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I think Jack London did it first, and better.
We never hear about his book, though.
I found it on a shelf in a very obscure library.
Hi @edicted
I think this is a good piece of work. I agree with your premise that Bitcoin may win, not because we all adopt Bitcoinm, but because either learning about Bitcoin makes us educate ourselves about thew current corruption of the current banking system or widespread understanding of trestles, distributed systems standards become the new goal or standard all current systems have to evolve into...Either way we win.
But...
It requires we take a break from the games, just like the Roman Citizenry, who were entertained with the gruesome fights of gladiators, and placated with free wheat, rice and bread. We are placated with Medicaid, Aid to dependent children, free school lunches, Facebook, Instagram and Reality TV. We need to focus on the theft taking place just out of our peripheral vision and also stop paying attention to the false divisions created between us, which distract us from the real division between the rich and every body else. Divide and conquer is the best time tested strategy for pacifying a population and keeping them occupied fighting each other, rather then focusing on defeating legally and economically the true forces keeping them poor and ignorant.
I am studying SQL as my reintroduction to coding. I was a student of javascript, but took some time off and now want to start with SQL and then study essential coding principles and agin before tackling javascript again.I see this knowledge as a necessity in the coming times, not a option.
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even if 50% of humanity will learn about bitcoin and money and economics..
there will still be the other half which will just obey, follow orders and force coercion due to manipulation..
Janet Yellen has said some interesting things about bitcoin. I think they see it's true power more than some might imagine.
HIVE!D
“Backchannels are important when the ‘FRANK’ itself is untrustworthy [BACON].” - Comms are OPEN
SAVED!
To make it happen the understanding of crypto projects is cery important.. for some people Bitcojn means the digital currency or virtual currency but other then that what the bitcoin do is the question they understand...
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Since you mentioned brainwashed soldiers, I am still amazed that people nowadays are still falling for that enemy of the state narrative. There's no enemy. When was America ever attacked by any country. They attack and interfere and without their brainwashed puppets they wouldn't succeed. Maybe some are incentivized by the money to join the army, but there quite a few that truly believe they're fighting for good. There isn't such fight and that's why I have 0 respect for the army, no matter what nation.
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Good information
I read in college and it Keep me wondering how much futuristic vision these authors have.
We are in tough times where we have hard time to understand what is truth and what is lie.
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I do not agree with these theories that we are all manipulated and that we are given bread and circus just to be just an easily governable quantity, a flock. Of course, many things happen, they are studied but I don't think that the rulers are able to apply such schemes, globally and in a good understanding.
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The thing is, if you know what the "elite" are like, then, of course, Brave New 1984 just follows.
The "elite" want control. And they believe that the more control they can impose, the better their lives will be.
Unfortunately, it back fires.
When you try to turn it up to 11, then things start breaking down.
Valium has a "calming" effect on 90% of the population, but in that other 10% it often causes the opposite effect.
So it is with all the control mechanisms.
There are many good people who would never use the black market...
until something that they really want is outlawed / banned, and then the seek out the black market, and find out its often nicer than the white market, and stay. Another one lost to the control grid.
Yes i always say blockchain technology will save us but that doesn't necessarily have to be bitcoin. There was a time the average person was not involved in the stockmarket. Now there is involvement through the 401k plans and online brokerage trading etc... So the masses got involved in the stockmarket just wasn't in the way of direct stock investing.
So the future is not always easy to predict. How it plays out the things we felt were bad could be good and vice versa. One could make an argument that large mainstream social media companies are bad. However, on the other hand we could make the argument is brought more economic prosperity.. more awareness to human rights and allowed for global uproar and intervention. Has connected billions of people and created a way to organize more trade. So the reason the 1984 idea as you mentioned doesn't work because our lives present not as bleak or controlled of a future but one of opportunity.
The tug of war between freedom and lack of security or privacy has been an ongoing topic. The methods these large media groups use to control information is also the ones we use to become more educated. Youtube is ranked the most educational website online. Yes it is again owned by Google but it's also educated and allowed for the education of alot of people to be able to understand the dangers of control of information and censorship.
People wait at their computers waiting to get their daily dose of dopemine by checking messages and who's liked a blog. So the companies find a way to control this by nefarious and conspiritorial means. This is true. This is The Brave New World Scenario. Is it bread and circuses? Yes in a way but it's also again massive awareness so not quite black and white but gray.
People are brainwashed and enlightened on these platforms at the same time. I guess the point i'm trying to make here is this is not the type of topic where it's easy to go this social media bad and the other one good. I think it's much more complicated than that.
I think its easy in a world with many problems to find some group or entity to blame. So ideas like the elite the 12 men in the cigar smoke filled room who run the world. Who plots out and controls our destiny everyday. I think the more likely scenario is we're the elite and the elite are us.
We come to crypto to escape all the issues created by our political and economic systems and what do we get? We get centralized exchanges that have taken the place of banks in which we use at a rate of 95% over decentralized exchanges. We get the worse distribution with on area of a middle class in cryptocurrency. We get miners who dont represent us. We get developers whom we have no control over. So we get much of the same play different actors. I think the freedom we seek comes when we recognize that.
So blockchain technology will help save us absolutely but i don't believe it will be bitcoin. It may be some overlay of bitcoin. It may be some bitcoin like product. It could be a completely different algorithim and consensus model altogether. What ever it ends up being the legacy of bitcoin coming out and leading the charge even if it ends up as a crypto barely hanging in the top 100 will still remain. First movers through history have been replaced and we should be mindful that its not impossible for this to happen to bitcoin.
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