Nineteen Eighty-Four: having a blockchain guarantees nothing

I find it fascinating to observe how human ego manifests itself. Especially when it tries to disguise itself and pretend the exact opposite of its appearance.

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The crypto-space is an amazing social laboratory where the most extreme examples pop up on a daily basis. The subject that intrigues me the most here, is how people with clearly totalitarian mindsets end up investing their time, energy and hard-earned money in a space which has been specifically designed to be the antithesis to their way of thinking.

It's quite obvious those people are very passionate about crypto-currencies (or at least the one they support) and surely treat them as some sort of rebellion against their government and the financial status quo.

Yet, their mindset, without any shadow of a doubt, belongs to the status quo. They reproduce the very behavior that they honestly think they rebel against.

In a way, they are the essence of tragic protagonists presented in ancient Greek dramas - they fight passionately but they are completely clueless and unconscious in their actions.

They live in paradox, not realizing that the biggest enemy they hate so much sits right in the middle of their minds.

Below is one of many similar posts to be found on Ethereum's subreddit. It's a single post by a single person, I've just split it into segments to make is easier to read.

Please note the following aspects which could easily have been taken right out of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four or a speech by Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld or Paul Wolfowitz:

• the concept of an external enemy which threatens our existence ("they want nothing more than to destroy us")
• the external necessity to take on a fight ("we'll be forced to break their spirit", "we'll be forced to actively oppose them")
• assumptions about malicious intentions and injustice taking place ("their only aim is to plunder our innovations and hard work")

In making them [ETC supporters] miserable, I'm not saying we'll get rid of them entirely. They'll always linger around, like a swarm of locusts... slowly draining the ecosystem of value. While I'd strongly prefer exterminating them, I can also recognize how the community lacks the will to mount the more aggressive kind of retaliation that I think would be in our best interest.

I've noticed a lot you are just trying to ignore them or move on or make peace. That's your choice, of course. But personally, I believe this attitude will accomplish nothing. It's a very naive and detrimental approach, in my opinion. I don't believe we can take it easy on the ETC folks. It's clear as day these people are our enemy. So, in making them miserable, all I mean to claim is that we'll be forced to break their spirit; in an economic and social sense, more than anything.

I doubt we'll use technical attacks against them. I doubt we'll waste resources DDoS'ing and forking them. Rather, what seems most likely to happen is that we'll merely continue to criticize, ridicule, disassociate, and outperform them. At this point, the most socially acceptable / politically correct form of retaliation is likely to be a whole sale staggered liquidation of our ETC holdings in exchange for ETH. In this way, we can depreciate the value of their chain and increase their investment risks. That'll have to be an ongoing process.

We can't just dump everything and ignore them. They're very intent on building out ETC to compete with ETH. They have a lot of support from influential figures in the crypto-community, and loads of capital to absorb our supply. That's a shaky threat we'd be wise to keep our eyes on. Basically, there's too much animosity towards this group to permit them to benefit at the expense of the Ethereum ecosystem. Based on their current behavior, and what they're likely to do in the future, we'll be forced to actively oppose them in the ways I describe, is my expectation.

Overall, I agree with you that they can do whatever they want on "their chain", and that this will redirect a lot of illicit / immoral projects away from Ethereum, further differentiating us from ETC. So, in that sense, I agree. They can run their scams in their own corner, and pump their shitcoin to the moon, for all I care. However, to think that we'll just stand idly by, and give them an easy time of it, is absurd. This group's only aim is to plunder our innovations and hard work, and tarnish Ethereum's public image. They want nothing more than to destroy us. People who behave in this manner should be crippled and crushed where they stand.

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Why is this important for Steem?

We could easily ignore this guy - after all, the Internet is full of people like this. But I think here is the important lesson: being part of crypto-space guarantees nothing. Totalitarian mindset is able to flourish here even more, as it has the perfect way to hide itself and cunningly justify its actions ("we need to do it for the bigger goal").

Freedom (including the freedom of speech) is not given once and for all. It's a constant process of keeping our egos in check. Having a blockchain helps us in this respect but guarantees nothing, unless we commit a constant effort to remain very conscious and vigilant of the danger of becoming that which we rail against, as @prufarchy has put it perfectly in the comment below.