This post is not what you think. I'm not about to tell you how awesome Steemit is, nor why that awesomeness prevents me from leaving. This piece will in fact be an investigation as to why I have been here for nearly two years, through the scope of predestination.

If you do not believe that everything happens for a reason, then do not be so quick to think that this post will be useless for you. I am not utterly convinced of the concept either, but through this experiment, whether I discover my reasons for being here or not, you may find a new reason to appreciate the time you have spent here.

The community

My best guess as to why I've found myself on Steemit for almost two years, is that I was supposed to meet some members of this community. This is easy to buy, as there are still a fair few Steemians out there who appear to have a strong desire to enact a change for the better on this world. This is of course something I would very much like to do too, and a desire that I can only say has greatly increased throughout my time on the platform.

Lessons

I have learned so much about myself throughout my time here. Most significantly, what I am and what I am not willing to do for money. In the outside world, it is far easier to trick yourself into believing you are just doing what you need to do. But, within the boundaries of this blockchain, I have found that it's more difficult to ignore your motivations.

For example, in my earliest months here, I would often seek out trending posts and leave comments on them, in the hopes that someone would notice the comment and then follow me etc. It wasn't until one day when I was reviewing a whales steemdb activity to construct a strategy on how to "accidentally" get on their radar and say something that they were likely to find enjoyable, that I became overwhelmed with a feeling of self-loathing.

I learned in that moment what this platform had been doing to me. It was cultivating a natural state of deception - and self-deception. I had to start asking myself a lot of questions. Am I reading this post because I want to read this post, or because I want to leave a comment for self-serving ends, or because I want to forge a relationship with the author to benefit my income? Am I upvoting this post because I think the author deserves more rewards on it, or am I hoping for reciprocity? Am I pretending to myself that what this person is doing is acceptable so that I can remain a potential target for their upvote, or for another self-serving reason? Even; am I writing this post about how good Steemit is because I think Steemit is good; or because I know that's where the bulk of the upvotes are concentrated?

I asked myself these questions and more every time I found myself interacting with people on the platform, and before long, I realised that I was a prostitute. Since that day, if I ever felt that I was reading or writing something that had a motive that was unclear to any at first glance, I would stop doing it. I decided that I would not allow a piece of technology, or the potential monetary rewards it could offer me, to dictate my interests and my personality. Rather than allow this platform to shape me, as it has done to so many others, I elected to do my best to shape it- albeit embarrassingly unsuccessfully as of yet.

This lesson has been invaluable to me; for I realised at least a year ago now that there is no prize valuable enough to incur the cost of disingenuity. Each time we act in a way that is unnatural to us, in order to acquire material wealth or to increase the likelihood of us doing so in future, or even when we act in a deceptive manner for any other self-serving reason; we lose a part of ourselves in the process. We can allow ourselves to become a product of our environment by repeatedly behaving in the way our environment suggests we ought to. Or we can strive to make our environment a product of our existence, being true to ourselves no matter the cost, because the cost for not doing so, is quite literally us- our true selves.

Understanding

So many hours in my life have been spent pondering the current state of the world. How the fuck did we get here? That's the most common question that echoes around in my mind. Conspiracy theory videos almost had me convinced that the evil that rules this world emanated from some external, ugly force. But, my time on Steemit has been most enlightening. We are witnessing a progression of human behaviour that is akin to the evolution of human society.

By observing the Steemit community over these last 18 months, and particularly the last 6, I feel I have come to a far greater understanding of how we got here. Perhaps more importantly, by examining this string of events within this ecosystem, we can all learn what problems one might face during the construction of a new, anarchistic society. At this point I imagine that is the true purpose of Steemit to be honest. An experiment that someone out there is definitely paying attention to. And any who follow me will know that I believe we are currently being conditioned to hate the government, and that a revolution will not only come; it will be invited.

So such an experiment makes perfect sense when we consider that we may have to do some rebuilding when fiat is replaced with digital ledger based currency. But the shady bastards leading us to such ends are not the only ones learning from the experiment. I am too, and I intend, should such a time ever arise, to use my observations here to anticipate and prepare for eventualities, as well as be a helpful and informed voice within my own local community at such a time.

All three

If I put these lessons together, it almost seems like there's an obvious reason I am on Steemit. Perhaps I am here to find those who have rose above the immoralities that Steemit has deemed acceptable. Maybe, me and said individuals are supposed to come together to use the observations we have made amidst this human experiment to better develop a means of rebuilding this world; so that we can choose a different path for this world after the red button has been pushed. Perhaps I am here so that we can put an end to this problem-reaction-solution bullshit we have fell for countless times in history. Maybe we are here to remove the "reaction" from the equation, for then our response to the problem they gave us would be the solution we came up with; and we'd not be needing their solution, which I am most certain is a digital dictatorship.

Perhaps I, and perhaps you, are on Steemit so that we can learn exactly how to save this world. It's too complicated to go out there and review every aspect of society and what's wrong and what needs removed or altered- etc. But, it's not too big of a task to view the problems a large community and economy would face if done so by observing this ecosystem; and therefore, within the evolution of Steemit, lies all the lessons needed to learn to build a better community; and thereofor a better world.


If you are reading this, and you also feel that Steemit cultivates disingenuity, and if you are unwilling to let it do this to you, and if also you have a strong desire to save our descendants from the world we are creating for them, and(that's a lot of ands)if this post has convinced you that you are here for a reason; then let me know and we shall arrogantly attempt to purge the inequity from this world.

Of course, if things do not happen for a reason, and they simply happen, then I am likely still here only because no one is yet willing to buy my account and all the content contained on it.

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If trolls did activism...