In my last post, I talked about how proselytizing for voluntaryism is mostly futile.
I touched a little in that post upon what I consider to be more effective ways to spread voluntaryism, all of them market-driven. The key is to look for underfilled demands, and try to see how a voluntaryist (or decentralized) solution could be offered--then do that.
One of the unmet demands I mentioned was Financial Stability. A lot of people are out there living month to month, suffering in jobs they hate to make the bills. It can be difficult in our economy to get ahead and make investments for your future, and it's downright heartbreaking to see the amount of taxes that get deducted from each paycheck. So let's expand that concept of financial stability to include greater opportunity for financial growth and greater freedom from financial theft. Now, what if there were a solution out there that could address all of these common concerns for people, while also introducing them through experience (rather than through anarcho-evangelism) to the beauty of decentralization and the concept of individual freedom? To make it even more awesome, let's make this solution easy and cheap to get started in.
You can probably already see where I'm going with this, right?
Crypto is the answer.
If you read my last post, maybe I've gotten you to start thinking about laying off the keyboard in favor of new and more effective initiatives to build the world you want to see. But you might be scratching your head, wondering what market solution you could possibly offer that would help people see the light. Well, chances are you already have all the tools at your disposal. If you're a voluntaryist and you're reading this article on Steemit, I'm guessing you already at least dabble in cryptocurrencies. And teaching people about cryptocurrencies is an excellent way to get them seriously thinking about how freedom works.
The best part is, you don't have to chase people down to get them to listen to you about Bitcoin or Steem or Dash. Tons of people want to learn about this new magical internet money, and chances are, you know a bunch of them already. If you've been investing in crypto for awhile, you've probably already gotten requests from friends and acquaintances to help them get started. Do it!
Some people charge for their crypto consultation services, which is great--getting paid to teach people about a technology that can help them financially while showing them how decentralization can work? Win-win-win!
But that doesn't mean you have to charge. It can be a service you provide freely to friends and family, or to people in need.
While you're showing them how to set up their first wallet, protect their crypto, use an exchange, and post on Steemit, you can seed in brief, light-handed commentary about how this technology can circumvent state power, and why that's a good thing. You don't have to give a long-winded monologue or write a biblical-length screed like you might in a Facebook debate. You're just giving relevant information that will help your friend understand this groundbreaking thing.
As they learn their way around the cryptospace, your friends (or clients)--erstwhile statists--will begin to see for themselves how much better it feels to have your money actually gain value instead of always shrinking. And how amazing it is to not have large percentages taken away to pay for things--like wars and royal weddings--that no one really wants. Many (though not all) of these crypto newbies will begin to understand voluntaryism experientially, which is a much swifter and more effective method of learning.
Consider the way humans learn languages.
When we are babies, we hear words spoken and as we grow older, we try them out and experiment with them. We learn from experience--from immersion. Trying to learn a new language as an adult can be very trying and frustrating, especially if you are expected to learn it just by reading dry books or listening to lectures. It's long been recognized that the best way to learn a second language as an adult is through immersion, by spending time with with people who speak it fluently.
It's the same with almost anything you want to learn. You don't learn to swim by looking at diagrams of people swimming. You don't learn to play piano by reading essays on piano playing. You don't learn to run a business by going to school (sorry, MBAs!) While those activities can help you in your quest to learn something new, they need to be combined with two other essential components before you will actually learn. Besides hands-on experience, the other missing component is desire.
People aren't "getting it" when you beat them over the avatar with voluntaryist propaganda on Twitter because they don't give a shit.
They have no desire to learn about voluntaryist philosophy. They may want to make the world a better place or have some vague desire to fix a social or economic problem, but your philosophy is so foreign to them that it sparks no desire to explore it. It's like if you wanted to learn Spanish and someone offered to teach you Klingon instead.
But with the introduction of cryptocurrencies, all of a sudden a lot more people give a shit. They want to learn how to use this crazy digital currency. They want to get in on the profits, maybe even get "crypto-rich". And you can help them! Now, voluntaryism isn't Klingon anymore. It's part of the language of what they want to learn.
I'm sure many of you have already been helping out friends and family with getting started in crypto. If you have, great. Keep it up! Maybe cross out all that social media debate time you have penciled into your schedule and replace it with time helping people learn about crypto.
This is how we change minds!
Hi, I'm Starr!
I believe all human interactions should be consensual
