I have been noticing something and I would like to bring it to your attention.

It seems that strife, abusive stuff, and bad actors, including scammer-types on this platform get more views and attention than those who are participating in the Gift Economy.

Why do you think this is happening?

Did you know that there is an account called @anonymous.donor who just rewarded @alexandravart with an additional 500 STEEM after discovering that I had given her 250 STEEM? This is the Gift Economy in action, but I bet you had no idea this happened. This type of thing isn't what captures human's attention. We are wired to pay attention to threats, and stories that get our adrenalin going.

I bet you never saw this article that described this action: https://steemit.com/steemit/@paulag/steemit-good-news-story-the-act-of-giving-is-alive-and-well-on-steemit

It is very curious that whales who operate vote selling "businesses" continue to get a lot of attention, those engaged in various wars, cheating, etc., while those of us (myself and @fulltimegeek) who are delegating our SP voluntarily (and with no monetary ROI), are not getting the same attention.

This is very curious isn't it?

If you were following me, you would realize that I also drop gifts on people, when I feel the urge. You would think that this kind of activity would necessarily go up in popularity, with the view counts.

It's not the case.

It is my guess that the world is not ready for the Gift Economy because most people are not in the proper frame of mind. Most of the whales on this platform have no knowledge of how the Gift Economy operates, and hence, do not see its value. The Gift Economy was the dominant form of society in tribes, before the corporations took over. It is worth taking a deep dive into it to understand how it operates, and also, how people emerge as leaders.

Leaders of Gift Economies were picked because of a mixture of characteristics: intelligence, spiritual qualities (like artistic visions, social skills, philosophical attributes) but the most important reason they were chosen was this: whoever was the most successful in sharing wealth with their tribe became a leader. So, people would not admire those who hoarded wealth. The ones who hoarded their wealth were not chosen as leaders. The people who had the most to share with the tribe were chosen, in addition to spiritual qualities. So, in a Gift Economy, if you have no social skills, no spiritual qualities, you will never be chosen to be a leader.

This is clearly not happening in Planet Steem and the larger society. Modern society, actually doesn't even value spiritual qualities when deciding who to emulate. The only thing that matters is wealth hoarding. Wealth hoarders are the ones that modern society has decided are important. And I see the same thing happening in Planet Steem today. Steem is following this dominant, and flawed model mainly because most of the whales are embodying this philosophy. They too, believe that being a wealth hoarder is the way to go. This is evidenced by the vote selling activities which do nothing to improve the platform, but only serve to enrich the whales even more.

Also, another thing: @fulltimegeek, @ned and myself are the only ones who are voluntarily gifting our SP to others AFAIK. If this was something that was highly valued as a practice, and @paulag's statistics show us that it was indeed a positive effect on Planet Steem, (with regard to human values), it would have been adopted by the majority of whales. This did not happen.

If you look at what kind of effect our SP delegating has vs. the effect of people vote buying, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize which method is superior, with the end result being: HUMAN HAPPINESS. Our method is clearly the winner. See the stats for yourself here: https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@paulag/analyzing-delegation-generously-given-by-stellabelle

As we all know by now, money is an emotional abstraction. Unhappy people don't buy Steem coins. Happy people do. I know how to build value, as i understand the basic mechanisms of human happiness. A lot of these so-called whales who are trying to decode how to make Steem valuable, by trying to enforce their narrow understanding onto this platform are flawed by their lack of understanding of human happiness.

Human happiness is the goal, and it is also the reason people stick around. It really is this simple.
From now on, I will be using GIFs that contain images of gratuitous violence in order to speak about the Gift Economy in action. OK?

Carry On,
Stella

In a nutshell, I am talking about this:

"Native cultures are based on the philosophy that humans are the stewards of the natural world, and not consumers of the world’s resources. Unlike European American values, "wealth" in Native American culture is not measured by net worth, but rather by a combination of spiritual qualities, material goods, and behavior. Leaders are selected for their ability to take care of the tribe by sharing their wisdom and wealth (Millett and Orosz 2002)."

I think people might confuse what I am saying here. I am not saying we should be poor, and that we cannot be wealthy. What I am saying is that rich people, and rich whales on Steemit, will in fact increase the value of their investment if they operate with the abundance mindset, instead of nickel and diming that is currently dominant. Delegating SP freely is a way to drive up the value of Steem, at the same time as making people happier. We can have wealth, with our abundance mindset, and not hoard it. I don't even mean you have to give out donations at all, I am only speaking about SP here. You can hold onto your numbers, but delegate freely SP, and grow the value of Steem more.

further reading: https://www.learningtogive.org/resources/native-american-culture-giving