Shattering the "Nothing Ever Changes" Story

The American people are in a state of extreme excitement. One side is jubilant over the victory of President Trump, while the other side is in defiant resistance. The emotions are running hot on both sides. The surface politics of this situation have been discussed ad nauseam, and it is clear to me that there is no gain in delving into these superficialities anymore—at least not now. Instead, I will be examining the underlying emotional issues that caused the election of Trump, in an effort to prognosticate where we are going from here.

The story people have been telling themselves about American politics is that nothing ever changes. This is why voter participation had gotten so low. The government always seemed to be going in the same direction, no matter who won elections. This story was depressingly compelling, and it stayed with Americans for a long time—until, of course, the 2016 election, when a man who broke every rule, defied every odd, won. And then took the country in a very different direction.

People who still try to tell the same story about "nothing ever changes" are being drowned out by both Trump supporters and his liberal opponents. They both clearly see now that things CAN change in the political realm, and the country CAN be moved into a very different direction by simply electing someone President. The importance of this revelation cannot be understated. Trump was elected by people who wanted to prove the "nothing ever changes" story wrong, almost to the point that the consequences didn't matter, as long as the status quo was changed. And this does NOT mean that the right will be in power forever: the left can take advantage of this new situation by picking the right candidate who can tell a convincing story about bringing the country back towards a more progressive vision—one that is even more progressive than the traditional democrat party would like.

So how does this relate to bitcoin? My analogy is rather simple: President Trump is to the political system as bitcoin is to the monetary system. Changing the political world was great, but it's nothing compared to changing the way people all over the world conduct business. Everyone knows that the fiat currencies are backed by nothing and can be inflated to worthlessness at any time by people who control the levers of power. But we have tried to ignore this fact and use fiat currencies anyway, why? Because of the exact same story: "nothing ever changes". Not only does this story preclude Americans envisioning an entirely different monetary system, it also allows them to pretend fiat currencies never crash or undergo any kind of crisis, despite massive historical and even modern day evidence to the contrary.

Well this story isn't holding people back anymore. And we're not interested in the current "disruption innovations of creative destruction" that don't really disrupt anything, save for making some businesses bankrupt for the benefit of others. How does Uber putting taxi companies out of business help me? It doesn't. It's not true disruption. Bitcoin, with its trust-less network that cuts out the middlemen between two people exchanging currency, is. And the same people who argue that bitcoin doesn't have a future are the same people who think voting doesn't work: because "nothing ever changes". Not anymore.