Let's talk about ***** baby

I was thinking today about how much I have talked about various financial aspects of Steem yet, I don't really talk directly about money itself. This is a good thing in my opinion as the more we break away from the centralized versions, the better. But, there is another reason I don't use the word money very often as something inside tells me that it is not socially acceptable to talk about money.

This is an interesting conflict considering the platform's core component is earning and, the wallets are transparent making holdings known. The next weird thing is that I am becoming increasingly comfortable talking about it and, I think that it is a healthy thing and people should talk more about it.

I grew up in a family with one working parent and even though we never went without food, I know that it was quite a struggle. When it came to talking about money, it was always from a lack of and a scarcity mindset. It is these kinds of circumstances that set children up with the mentalities that will affect and be carried with them for lifetimes. Habits that are very hard to break.

We were also somewhat of a role model family also, and I don't mean because we were special but, we were the only real foreign background family in a small town where my father was the head of the art department as the local high school. This meant that there was always the feeling of scrutinizing eyes on us whether this was actually the case or not, it seemed that way. This likely impacted on the public personas we were taught to uphold. Speaking of money publicly was not something that we did. Nor the lack of it.

As said though, I think it is healthier for me now to speak of money in various ways as it allows me to learn from others and in some cases, help others too. It makes me aware of many of the dangers and opportunities and gives me a better understandings of the systems and things that influence them. I think it is similar to sex education where some parents think it leads to teenage pregnancies when it tends to significantly reduce them. Speaking about money may increase the ability to earn it. Of course, it will depend on how and what the conversation is about.

In the year that I have been here I have learned a great deal more about money, fiat, governments, interests, taxes, markets, supply and demand and all of the interconnecting and breaking points between them. And, I did a business degree at university. What a waste that was.

When it comes it money, we have placed ourselves in a bubble where to talk about it is a taboo topic. This is some kind of social censorship that means that the people who often need to know the most about the topic, aren't allowed to speak or ask about it out of fear of breaking convention. Yet, it is one of the topics that polarizes people both in conversation and in the practical sense of holding value.

It is kind of like the small talk rule stating, no politics or religion which is bloody stupid not to talk about considering they are both areas that lead to a lot of conflict and violence. Perhaps if people spoke more about their beliefs and positions, more would actually come to understand and respect each other.

Money is much the same and if people got comfortable speaking about it more, a lot of the issues, fallacies and opportunities could be brought into the light, investigated and get understood. I think that this unwillingness to speak about it is one of the things holding people back from being empowered by value rather than be controlled by it. I think that this has such a massive limiting factor on it that I would wonder if the social convention to not talk about it is an engineered control mechanism.

It is not that everyone needs to broadcast their yearly earnings to everyone but in a general sense, the conversations surrounding money that I have had over the last year or so have been the most helpful Iessons I have learned. As I have mentioned before, the more you learn, the more you earn and I think this is especially true when we learn about and have the vocabulary for financial wealth creation and management. This is true for just about anything one wants to become proficient at of course, learning about it helps.

As base as some people might find it and others believe it takes out the social feeling, I feel that it adds to the social aspect of Steem to talk about money as it removes one of the last bastions of self-censorship. When we can talk openly and frankly about topics that were once considered taboo, we can say that free speech is actually increasing. It is when we feel we cannot talk about something we are being oppressed.

Steem and other decentralized networks similar are going to speed the increase of conversations we have to have and will spill out into the streets where the average person is still trapped and restricted. It is similar to many believing that if only the governments were better, there would be no problems without realizing it is being governed that is the problem itself. They will continue to fight and argue yet no matter who they elect, the only thing that changes is the color of the shackles.

I have always been more of a free thinker but I am now pushing my own envelope on becoming a free speaker also and it wasn't like I wasn't speaking earlier however, I know I was avoiding certain topics and terms. Money being one of them. I am trying to pay attention to what I am trying to avoid as I know from experience it is usually an indicator of something I need to learn.

Don't misunderstand, I am no expert and I struggle heavily still with the habits, debt cycles and scarcity mentalities I have learned and supported my whole life but, I am trying to improve my understanding and as a symptom, my position so perhaps when my own daughter is of an age she can understand some of these things, I can not only speak openly about it but pehaps with the words of experience and change that will help her not to fall into the same holes I have.

There are plenty more unexplored places for our children to screw up for themselves, they don¨t have to make the same mistakes as us. However, to get the opportunity to fall into new holes, they need to navigate the minefields of what we have already walked.

Look at the world currently. It is a pretty good map of what not to do.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]