It is very human to create a conflict to arouse enthusiasm in others. The common enemy (real or fictional) unites ranks and dissipates internal friction. It is a social phenomenon. Apparently, human beings are biologically conditioned to have a dual mechanism in our relationship with others. We have an ethic of cooperation with friends and an ethic of competition with enemies. In social networks, bellicose phrases are used all the time in search of more followers. Conflict obviously sells. People feel like brothers fighting for a common cause. The individual is no longer alone. He is a hero of the story. In other words, it is a good business to sell a war.
“Why would anyone trust nerd money vs central bank money? The nerds brought the Internet. Banks brought the Great Depression”, Andreas Antonopoulos wrote on Twitter.
That tweet suggests that there are two opposing groups. One is the cause of great evils. And the other is the cause of great goods. I’m afraid it’s a pretty archetypal script. It is not new. And it is not the original product of these times. The thing goes like this: The town owes all its misfortunes to the evil conspirators. The world is a place full of internal and external enemies. The people are always innocent. Enemies are always guilty. Then, from the bowels of the resistance, a superior person or a superior object emerges, embodying the hopes of the people themselves. With the help of the forces of good, a holy war against the forces of evil takes place and leads us to the inevitable final victory where the community of the faithful will enjoy a long and golden period of peace and prosperity.
In a world as fragmented as today’s, people need to remain a community. The sectors, then, exploit the desire of the masses to escape from reality and create a fantasy that is structurally consistent and easily understood.. Bitcoin, good. Banks, bad. The previously marginalized and disoriented individual merges into a great global movement. And that fusion gives him a new and very satisfying psychological strength. He manages to overcome his feelings of inferiority to submit to the “train of history”. That mystical emotion dispels his fears. Ultimately, he gains status by becoming a hero in the battle against the forces of evil. Well, that explains how any untrained youngster has the guts to call any Nobel laureate in economics an “idiot” after watching a couple of documentaries on YouTube.
Obviously it is not possible to summarize the causes of the Great Depression in a tweet. However, Andreas Antonopoulos resorts to fallacies to place his phrase of the day. We must remember that he is an influencer with an account with many followers. That is, he is one of the leaders of the tribe. He is a friend who belongs to our side. The phrase was designed to ridicule criticism from enemies. But the phrase is a semantic nightmare, worthy of the novel 1984. “Banks” caused the Great Depression. Then, we jump to the creation of the Internet. Nerds created the Internet. Sure? And then those same nerds created Bitcoin. I mean, didn’t the world grow economically after World War II? Wasn’t there a dotcom crisis?
We well know that banks are very interested in investing in Bitcoin. Banks, whether we like it or not, are in everything. On the one hand, they are the financiers of the main crypto companies. And, on the other hand, they supply the necessary capital. We cannot fall into the mistake of thinking that Bitcoin is, in its entirety, a citizen project promoted only by retailers. Why does the price of Bitcoin fall due to changes in monetary policy? Well, because one thing is related to the other.
The world is changing. Millennials are replacing baby boomers. And Silicon Valley has more and more power over the economy every day. The urban middle class leads the digitization process. It is obvious that we are in the midst of a boom in everything digital, the product of widespread technophilia. Now everything past is obtuse. Tradition doesn’t work. The old must be destroyed. AND the reform must be total. This is the sentiment of the times. Bitcoin is the son of this phenomenon.
The investor should never swallow everything that is read on social networks whole. In many cases, ideological wars are created so that the young and the most radical have a distraction. Silicon Valley is not in a battle with New York. Ironically, what we have is an integration. Tech companies are expanding into the finance sector. And the financial sector is increasingly technological. The most important companies of the moment are technology companies with financial services and financial services companies investing in technology.
The current correlation between Bitcoin and technology is not accidental. Nerds want to be bankers. And bankers want to be nerds. Libertarians are still talking about the Great Depression, invoking the past and ignoring subsequent reforms. I think it’s time to turn the page. Right now, we are in a digitization process that includes us all. We all help create the Internet. And we are all driving its evolution.
The crypto community is riddled with ideology. In particular, there is a lot of libertarian. And I’m afraid that libertarians have a hard time giving up politicking. Like a broken record, it always falls on the subject of central banks, state intervention in the economy, and money printing. That’s valid. And we all have the right to have our political positions. However, ideological bias can harm our investments. Why? Because we too often fall into dogmas, fantastic thoughts and useless fights.
The investor must be practical and objective. The goal is not political reform. The goal is the growth of an investment portfolio. We can have political ideas. But we put them on pause when it comes to investing. For ideological reasons, many in this space refuse to acknowledge the influence of the US Federal Reserve on the price of Bitcoin. On many occasions, I have been called a “Keynesian” for speaking of this influence. Obviously one thing has nothing to do with the other. But it reveals to us the ideological bias within the community. Describing a process is not endorsing a process. By better understanding the process we can design better strategies. Is there a battle between the nerds and the banks?
Disclaimer: The information and/or opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views or editorial line of Cointelegraph. The information set forth herein should not be taken as financial advice or investment recommendation. All investment and commercial movement involve risks and it is the responsibility of each person to do their due research before making an investment decision.
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