Rock, Scissors, Paper

How do people in power take control of the masses? Divide and conquer. People in power are like magicians — diverting your attention from the truth with their amusing tricks, so you are not paying attention to the truth.

Our governments have taken too much control and too much of our money. People don’t pay attention when things are good. People can’t pay attention when things are bad. They are trying to keep food on the table, pay their mortgages on time, and keep a mediocre job just for the health benefits.

Their lives become a cycle of rinse and repeat, until they just can’t do it anymore. Feeling powerless over mounting debt and circumstances makes people desperate. When people are desperate they will do anything, including lying to or lashing out at people they feel threatened by on social media. Hypocrisy and local — rather than global — thinking are also problematic. These things have created the tribalism we see.

It is this government’s abuse of power that has made cryptocurrencies so attractive to me.

However, I have grave concerns about the future of crypto, because it seems like the one thing that has come along in my lifetime that can seize control back for people, from people in power, is being derailed by this divide and conquer behavior.

It makes me think of the familiar childhood game — Rock, Scissors, Paper. In my game, rock represents governments; scissors represents business and finance; paper represents the people.

Rock

The thing that can smash the scissors. Scissors better follow what rock says, or it will be smashed. So of course rock and scissors work together. When times are bad, rock will pick the winners and losers, so best to stay on their good side. It’s best to be good friends with rock.

Scissors

Big business and financial institutions. Times have been good for them. Never let a good crisis go to waste. The housing market collapses. Let’s prop it up. The banks are failing. Let’s bail them out. General Motors suffering? Let’s help them through the rough patch. Healthcare for everyone? Let’s label it a basic right. All paid for by small businesses and the middle class. The fuel of the economy… has been diverted to Washington DC. And because this isn’t enough for their exorbitant spending spree, they have to create even more money to pump into the economy. The effects on these classes of people are like a thousand paper cuts.

“The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.” ― Pat Miller

That brings us to…

Paper

The people. They come in all different types. But they have more in common than what they are lead to believe. Or should I say, what they are lead to think.

People all want to provide for their families, enjoy a level of comfort with a roof over their heads, food on the table, good health and enough left over at the end of the week to go out on a Friday night and just have a little fun. But little by little, they’ve been pushed further and further down. How? The cost of college, healthcare, taxes that have to pay for schools and large local, state and federal governments.

This is where the division comes in. When people are stressed, it is easy for them to become irritable. When they feel threatened, they tend to attack. Like a mama bear protecting her cubs. Everything becomes polarized and descents to a shouting match, with neither side listening. Automatic attack has become the norm.

A tweet by Nick Szabo put it most simply, ‘One side’s argument is the other side’s “disinformation.” ’ (I highly recommend following @NickSzabo4.)

Both side’s attention has been diverted.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the ballot box in 2016. Donald Trump, a man who was supposed to be unelectable, was elected President of the United States. How did this happen? It was precisely because for many years the masses were being ignored. They were unified. I’ll equate it to a piece of paper with a thousand cuts, healed itself and came together, to envelop the rock. Yes, when people stick together, when they become a piece of paper, they have power over the rock.

This is not an invitation to explain to me all your grievances against this administration. This is an example. In addition, for every alleged instance of misdeeds here, I can ramble off an equal or greater list of the past administrations. Before you try to debate this with me, I’m going to suggest you get the log out of your own eye so you can clearly remove the speck out of another’s eye.

So where do we go from here? My suggestion is that when you approach or initiate a conversation, start with a blank piece of paper. One that is not already flawed with your agenda to begin with. Find common ground with the people to the left and the right of you. Because whether you like it or not, it’s more probable you are either going to rise with them, or fall with them.