These days, most of us look for peace concerning war – especially here in Europe – while others find peace in money or society. We’re always looking for a piece of mind. Today, we’ll focus on the last two issues. However, one could say how Bitcoin makes wars unaffordable, but that’s a topic for a different article.
The title of this piece came to me when I sat on the third floor at Harrods. For those who don’t know, Harrods is a costly shopping center in West London. Mostly famous for their Christmas lights and green shopping bags. I met a friend there because she wanted to visit and see what the fuss was all about.
Once we got there and started walking around, I realized something interesting. Even though a lot of the visitors seemed happy, mainly because they bought shoes or clothes worth £10’000, a lot of that happiness was fake. As soon as they paid for their items and started walking away, their facial expressions changed, and they immediately opened calculator apps on their phones.
One doesn’t have to be a detective to realize what they are doing. They tried to figure out how much money they had left. Granted, you’ll find people at Harrods who don’t care about their bank balance, but they’re a rarity. As I mentioned, most of these people seemed happy but quickly became highly stressed by their previous actions.
The Struggle With FIAT Money
This phenomenon is not rare; you’ll find this daily if you look closely enough. Most people are overconsuming and consistently trying to play catch up. Whether with luxury brands or how they interact in society regarding financial literacy, a lot of conversations are centered around status, and mostly everywhere, status equals money.
The issue here is not humans – most of us grew up this way and didn’t question this way of living – but the machine encouraging all of this, the money printer. Ever since the US dollar went off the gold standard in 1971, the world has been in significant debt. The only way to not get in trouble was to double down on money printing and stimulating the economy with more debt. There were phases when things seemed to turn nasty but central banks managed to turn the ship around by handing out more money.
Newton’s third law of physics has taught us that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This law perfectly describes the result of these money prints. Society as a whole has turned into one giant consumer, one who can’t help him or herself but spend all their hard-earned money. Either through status symbols like cars, clothes, or the newest iPhone.
Modern society can’t help itself but be in dept. Why? Because this is what central banks and Wall Street encourages us to do. They can create derivatives and financial products on top of that debt and then use it to pressure other countries to follow their rules.
Most of us chose to ignore this because these actions by Wall Street led to more money, more money equals more status, and the death spiral continues until we hit a point of no return. These are primarily bailouts or financial crises.
The regular Joe doesn’t care because they don’t know what money is. To them, it’s what drives their lifestyle or pays the bills until the end of next month. Again, this is not their fault. Most of us in Bitcoin never understood money until we discovered this technology.
What People Choose To Ignore With Money
Whether it be the US dollar, British Pound, Euro, or Japanese Yen, most of these FIAT currencies are not here to make life easier, and most of them are being abused and used as weapons.
Many countries rely on these currencies, especially the US dollar, as it’s the world’s reserve currency. The USA calls all the shots in an age where data and money control everything. Even though they’re heavily in debt, they manage to turn this into a positive and sell or sell part of their debt to leverage against smaller countries or states in the world.
On top of that, they’re world leaders in military expenditure. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, they spent 800 billion dollars last year, which represents about 32% of worldwide expenditure. Most of this is being financed by their monopoly with the US dollar.
These are facts many people choose to ignore in the FIAT world. Why should they? It’s easy to shop for the next iPhone or car if the money keeps coming.
However, these last couple of months has changed the game completely. Gone are the days when one could easily lend money and rely on good market performance. Rate spikes by central banks and increasing inflation are the results of decades of money printing. People live in a dystopia where uncertainty controls their daily lives. Most of them are being programmed to believe 5% inflation is a good thing and that we should target to get there as fast as we can.
This is the issue. Non-elected officials are reprogramming us to believe higher inflation is reasonable and necessary for the near future. If I speak to friends who’re not living in Europe, North America, or Asia, most of them burst out laughing. They wish they had 5% inflation! To them, FIAT is a lost cause they don’t worry about anymore. They opted out of Bitcoin. Some villages in South Africa already started with rough concepts to live in a Bitcoin circle economy.
What Bitcoin Brings To The Table
OK, it took me about 950 words to get to the topic of Bitcoin, but I had to set the scene and introduce you to the world of ordinary people out there. As I mentioned above, the title came to me because I saw people hustling and buying expensive things than being miserable afterward.
If you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole and discovered the beauty of Bitcoin, you end up slowing down. Your time preference changes, your understanding of economics changes, and you see the world differently. Even though there is FUD, you understand the principles and know that Bitcoin is the antidote to consumerism and the FIAT standard.
Currently, there is an extensive discussion happening online where Jason Lowery is advocating for Bitcoin to be looked at as a weapon. He compares it to the Second Amendment in America, with which you have the right to keep and bear arms. He argues how Bitcoin’s uprising is similar to the cryptographers’ fight with the US government in the 1990s. Back then, they argued that cryptography is being used as a weapon. Cyberpunks agreed partially, as they used it to defend their privacy and speak openly. Some cyberpunks later changed their stand. They argued that cryptography is more like the first and fourth Amendments, protects the privacy of all parties involved, and is a tool for freedom of speech.
Now, I’m afraid I have to disagree that we should use Bitcoin offensively as a weapon. To me, this is nonsense, but it’s a tool to defend yourself from oligarchy, tyranny, and financial theft.
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. Albert Einstein famously said this quote, and it sums up this topic perfectly. We will see more instances where Bitcoin will be abused. Nation states will try and use it as a weapon, whether that be in the form of monetary policy or using ASICs as weapons. Mainstream media will continue with their FUD and dishonest reporting.
These are all things we can’t prevent. What we can do is teach people how vital self-custody and personal ownership are. What are the advantages of Proof of Work, and how can we shape a future with the best defense on planet earth, which is Bitcoin.
This is a guest post by Joël Kai Lenz. You can follow him ton Twitter @_jklnz. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Satoshi’s Journal or Satoshi’s Entertainment Company.
