In 113 BC two barbarian tribes called the Cimbri and the Teutone had encroached on Roman territory and began attacking Rome’s allies. The Roman response was to send their army under the command of Gnaeus Papirius Carbo to drive them back. But when Carbo arrived the barbarians said they didn’t know that they had encroached on Roman territory. They had simply been looking for land to settle and call home. That they were willing to cooperate without a fight and withdraw.
Gnaeus Papirius Carbo being arrogant pretended to agree and said he would allow them to do so. He then sneakily went and ordered a detachment of troops to sneak around and kill the barbarian delegates as they made their way back to their camp. This betrayal infuriated the Cimbri and Teutone, and they attacked destroying Carbos mighty Roman army in a day. This would lead to defeat after defeat for the Romans for some years to come, before the barbarian hordes would finally be put down by Marius in 101 BC.
I don’t know why but watching the response from the Steemit commmunity with the recent acquisition of STINC by @justinsunsteemit reminds me of this event. The move by @justinsunsteemit does remind me of Carbo. He made a lot of the right noises, but the moment the community responded to the wrong ones he made by freezing the stake, he went a more surreptitious route and enlisted the help of the exchanges. This clearly was a bad move on his part and clearly isn’t panning out as planned. To most it felt treacherous.
I do see @justinsunsteemit perspective though. As he stated himself, he’s a businessman. He’s trying to make money. Anyone feeling locked out of what they believed they purchased fairly could easily lead to an aggressive counter response by that party. Either one of two things happens here:
He was put in the trick bag by Ned Scott and bought something he believed to be something else.
He dangerously presumed that he would be able to walk in and by force drive this community into a direction he wanted.
In all honesty I don’t know which was at play here. Could be a bit of both. Either way both @justinsunsteemit and the community had the logic of they would rather betray first than be betrayed.
The witnesses who help keep this place alive are easy to panic, and difficult to appease. The amount of both reasonable as well as pedantic conflict I’ve seen here over the past couple years has lead me to that conclusion. However most, if not all (for the most part) have worked towards what they believed was best for the Steem block chain and the communities that spend so much time on it. If @justinsunsteemit took a careful look at the consistent themes over the timeline that this place has existed, it would be easy to see this. Sometimes people cooperate, other times it’s like being in a sorority house where all the girls periods have synced and it’s non stop bitchery.
The mistake being made here by @justinsunsteemit is he’s in danger of treating the witnesses and the community as a whole as the treacherous scheming eunuchs in the palace. We aren’t. This isn’t the Romance of The Three Kingdoms... it will be like the real Yellow Turban Rebellion without the romance. The losses will be heavy if conflicts of interest persist for both sides. @justinsunsteemit will harm his investment, the community will continue to fight back until the bitter end. It could result in a hard fork, it could result in the chain being seen as a useless home for a shit coin, rather than a thriving place for one.
When Cao Cao defeated the Jibei state he took the best of the best from their number and created the legendary Qingzhou corps. @justinsunsteemit you could be taking the best from our witnesses and communities right now and throwing resource at creating a truly amazing return on what you put in on this investment. This was never a place that could be bought, sold, flipped, or easily strong armed. People call it home, will be easy to panic, defensive at a moments notice, and put aside differences and consolidate on a common ground if it’s felt the place is under threat.... so why not display your not one?
I’m a nobody here on this chain and don’t mind it one bit. Between my different accounts at the moment I’m holding just under 15,000 sp. Some I’ve earned, some I’ve bought. It’s not a lot by comparison to others. I had no clue what I was doing here when I showed up and in many ways still don’t. I’ve seen conflict after conflict on this here. It’s one of the constants here due to the fact that without contraries there’s no progression.... and there has been progress.
I don’t see a continual position of opposition where the witnesses, and the community are treated as rebels with @justinsun behaving like they need to be put down coming to any good for either side. @justinsunsteemit has admitted that he wasn’t aware of the fact that we had been operating on an agreement that the ninja mined stake wouldn’t be used to vote in witnesses. Ok..Cool. So it’s probably time for a back-pedal on his part.
If @justinsunsteemit was truly looking at the history of this place then it would be apparent that it requires an eye to grow, not an eye to remodel. This means taking into account all of its history and various temperaments. If this place grows @justinsunsteemit makes money and the communities that call it home will thrive. If there’s an attempt to completely gut it and renovate it everyone will lose. The history of a place will often tell you where it’s going and where it could go. @justinsunsteemit needs to look at that.
At the end of it all I will continue to vote for the witnesses I like, and during this conflict with @justinsunsteemit I will start to vote for the other long established witnesses who are standing with them. I do see both sides here, but one side holds more under one person than the other... so I’m standing with the community for what my little vote is worth. I’m not going to use the Steemit front end anymore. I’d love to see a common ground found though. As a lowly member of the community that’s really what I’m waiting on though it seems distant/unlikely.
Outperforming Ned and steering Steemit Inc forward should be an easy task. Ned Scott always put off the impression of a guy raised in weird Oedipal comfort who was incapable of consistency. A narcissist poorly playing at being humble. His words and promises to the community were as empty as the air he breathed them into. I’m glad he’s gone as he was an anvil around the neck of growth.
If you’ve not voted for witnesses who aren’t tied into Steemit then have a look. For this fight at the moment I like @lukestokes, @blocktrades, @good-karma, @roleandp, @themarkymark, @ocd-witness, @aggroed. I’ll be voting for others later today. I’ve read through a lot of of the higher up people’s blogs recently, and learned more about people I had no clue existed on our witness list as well. For those of you who haven’t taken that approach you may want to.
Well guys if you’ve made it this far thanks for reading my little rant. Again my opinion counts for little as many of ours here do. I’m under no illusions in that regard. However putting ideas and thoughts out there for the sake of it is what blogging is all about. In the meantime I’m looking forward to checking out all your posts and projects. Keep on Steeming.
image credits:
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