Yeah, ok it sucks. Everybody thinks so, it's not just me!
There is an attitude right now, and I would argue it is shared by not just millions but billions of people, that things are not so great right now. Maybe you haven't noticed, because you are buried in your own life, but its getting pretty hard to ignore, the world seems as if it's in an uproar!
What's a Man to do? Build a better one.
Let's take a look at the tools we might use! I love tools. I used to watch a lot of 'Tim 'the Tool Man' Tayler' as a kid. My dad is a carpenter, and his dad is a farmer turned carpenter. I'm mostly a farmer, but if I have to carpenter I will so watch out!
This might have been a trope in the 90's, with the 'bonehead male' in his garage, fixing up an endless supply of different muscle cars, using way to much power to apply just the right amount of torque.....
Tools have defined the development of humanity.
And we have some interesting tools today. How about:
- Distributed Ledger Technology
- Scientific Method
- Increasingly Accessible Repository of Human Knowledge (e.g. Archive.Org)
- Open Source Culture
- Permaculture
Using these tools, and others, we must build a better world. There will be no lack of grunting, groaning, farting, monkey noises and probably some fun and games along the way too. There may be difficult times ahead as well, but this article is not about the tools you may need to protect your family.
This article is about ANNOUNCING the need to create a better world.
I think you probably know it, but then why aren't you optimistic? Why does the world look so negative? Heading toward a black hole of abandon?
Its because it was designed that way.
We need not just a new system, we need new systems. On small, local scale, free, independent and interdependent, sovereign, biodiversity friendly and valuing new variables like ecosystem services and local employment. On a medium scale, non-banking governments, with limited authority in adjudicating offenses of the Non-Aggression Pact. On a large scale, no authority, only voluntary protocols - allowing decentralized networks to rule.
The geopolitics of a Chinese takeover of Steem and a US-again based fork HIVE did not escape us in March and they do not escape us in July. It is hard for my patriotic dander to not get ruffled, but my job will not be to fight kinetic battles.
I fight the real battle - Governance Protocol
So much talk about the fixing of DPoS after the back and forth, soft and hard, attacks on STEEM that lead to the current situation. What progress has been made on either chain since then? Blurt has launched, and our team runs a witness there, they have removed downvotes and installed a Regency to guide governance for two years.
But not one chain has yet lowered the amount of witness votes per account! Or tried any of the other interested ideals put forth during that period of intense discussion of fixing Delegated Proof of Stake governance.
But ARCHON has. Its not its own chain, but a tribe. A tribe dedicated to experimental projects, like governance. A tribe that supports open source development, and where I hope to use my large and growing stake to incentivized Open Ecology and a new area I am working in, Open Sustainable Development. OSD is a project that has been on the runway for over a year with the @quintaesencia account we help manage.
We will never run out of ways to divide ourselves as humans.
Several hundred years ago, the Constitution of the United States was made as a tool, an advanced governance technology that provided a framework within which different states, and those with different interests could live together.
What happened since then? We've broken the tool. Over time, with wear and tear, our tool for a life of liberty has been preverted into a dishrag with which we clean over our horrendous atrocities, at home and especially abroad.
Other countries now proclaim the right to commit atrocities! Since the moral ground the US stands upon has been so terribly eroded, its hollow and hypocritical structure will not be able to mount a cohesive and competent response. The US system is not 'a little broken'. Its been broken for more than 100 years, dating to long before the turn of the last century, with 'Gun Boat Diplomacy' in the Pacific, the questionable annexation of Hawaii in 1898 and the follow-on Spanish American War period, where the US, instead of freeing Spanish Colonies like the Philippines, won from Spain, decided to emulate the Europeans from the previous centuries.
The little known 121 year old war in which the US subjugated the Philippines will serve as an apt example:
Like Vietnam in a later era, the Philippine people viewed the struggle as a continuation of their fight for Independence from Spain. Unlike in Vietnam, the US troops were able to do enough damage to the Phillipine people to declare a victory.
What does this have to do with anything?
There is no ground left to stand on. No amount of tweaking will make what we have today into a liveable system again. We must build something new, and I believe it must have the following characteristics:
- Local
- Replicatable
- Variable
- Flexible
- Resilient
We must strengthen our networks, our social and cultural networks now more than ever. We must meet our neighbors, say hello to them, and build community. We must 'man up' and build. And we must document our experiences with clear and level heads so that best practices can be developed and improved upon.
We need Founding Fathers and Mothers to build 1 million villages.
Now is a great time to be alive, and our choices matter. We are in a cultural Winter, but already the winds and seeds of Spring are harboring their full potential! Come build with us.