Good morning Steemians!
So tomorrow I'll post my long anticipated:
- 10 Golden Rules of Crypto Trading ...as for today with all the craziness going on in the world I wanted to make a post detailing some of my thoughts/ideology & opinions pertaining to social injustice particularly the distribution of wealth and why we live the way we do and more importantly how it can be fixed (although that's an optimistic outlook to say the least).
It doesn't take a philosopher to realize that we are living in an extremely turbulent time period, politically, economically, philosophically. Radical changes are happening and people are afraid of the future.
Once you accept the fact that the world we live in isn't fair and is filled with ugliness, hatred, greed, gluttony, envy, jealousy, pessimism, violence & oppression; if you can come to grips with that, than you can truly look at the beauty of life and everything great about it.
Sort of like a glass half-empty/half-full situation. Once you realize the glass is half-empty; you'll spend your life focusing on the half that's full. Or at least you should:
So while we're focused on social injustice & life; it's important to always use history as a barometer and always refer back to our ancestors and the mistakes made in their history to prevent us from making them again. Cliches exist for a reason. Because they are true. History has, does, and will repeat itself. Of that, I have no doubt.
The question for now, the present is the same question all people ask, wonder and are concerned for: the future of the world. So while I can babble on about the 20th century mistakes we've made and how we're repeating some of them (isolationism, nationalism post WWI that led to the rise of fascism) I'm going to instead focus on the future since that's the direction we're headed towards. What will life be like in 20-30 years? As a 27 year old milennial; I do think of what life will be like when I'm older. What will life for my children be like? My grandchildren? These are common questions and concerns I think every human being shares.
I think that's important to note because while we have MARGINAL differences as human beings (no matter where you are on the globe); we all breath the same air, bleed red, and want financial security, safety, and a warm bed/hot meal for ourselves and our families. That much we all have in common. So in order to work towards a peaceful world; we have to find a baseline starting with what we all have in common and work from there. That's how we were able to avoid nuclear warfare throughout the cold war for 70 years. That shared common interest that us and the communists had; which all human beings have: survival. Despite the fact that we couldn't be more different, MAD (or Mutually Assured Destruction) was the promise that if one superpower fired a nuclear weapon at another, we'd have a nuclear holocaust and end up in a total Fallout 3 type world. So despite ALL of our differences and believe me, there was MANY; it was our survival baseline. Our common interests and necessities as a civilization that kept us alive.
So moving on to the 21st century I'd like to focus on what I refer to as the sleeping giant a.k.a. China
The main reason (among others) why I believe China's XI Jinping, the CCP in general, is a sleeping giant is for the obvious truth. They are cleverely using their 2nd largest economy as a powerhouse for establishing diplomatic relations, modernizing their military, creating a martime silk road, and spending more money on what's called "soft power" which is just a nicer way of saying propaganda among other countries to influence their lifestyles to be like ours.
Nobody has done this moreso than the U.S. post WW II to the fall of the USSR, commonly known as information warfare, these clashes of ideologies would sometimes manifest themselves in the form of physical confrontations known as proxy wars: (Korean War 1950-1953, Vietnam War 1966-1975); and are usually shunned upon by the masses as an international power-struggle between diplomats that we have absolute no interest in taking part in yet we are pawns, their generals are the knights/rooks/queen and their leaders are the player himself) while they have rampant overpopulation, pollution, and poverty, they are the most populous nation and largest in the world in terms of exports, and along with India have the capability to take nearly 1 billion unbanked people in Asia who have a need to make digital payments yet have no central bank.
This is where the need for a decentralized form of currency BTC/Blockchain comes in.
Additionally, for the first time ever (21st century) with XI assuming power in 2013; we've seen China for the first time exercise it's diplomacy in regions where we would've never thought they would've; such as war-torn, famine ravaged: as Trump would put it "shithole countries" where they recognize that although there is no potential for economic growth at the moment; lending them money and establishing a repoir now will give them a foothold in the region that will be very prosperous in about 20 years.
They're very effectively playing the long-game.
This is crucial for China to secure their maritime silk road and thus having a bigger say in the geopolitics of African nations and secure commerce by having a solidified trade route protected by naval bases.*
This is currently happening as we speak.
Something that maybe 10, even 5 years ago we never would've thought China would've been involved in.
We tried socialism; that didn't work. Communism is great in theory but in practice is rooted in deep seated corruption which is the reason it will never succeed.
Same goes with Democracy...
...as long as the top 1% of the top 1% continue to swallow up small businesses (which every American politician on both sides of the spectrum is quick to declare "the backbone of the global economy yet as a nation the U.S. has a bigger wage gap for the average CEO versus the average worker than ANY OTHER country on Earth) than lobbyists a.k.a. the money and their special interests will always take precedent over the voters.
Politicians are greedy to put it simply and are not satisfied with their wages (they believe they're entitled to more) so for supplemental income they use what they have: their legislature. It can be used to turn multi-millionaires into billionaires with corporate tax breaks, remove estate taxes (which only apply to those with enough land worth millions) and lower taxes from 35% to 21% on billionaires.
It's a never-ending vicious cycle where the 1% use their money in the form of lobbying to influence power which thus creates legislature that creates more money for the 1%ers by passing more legislation that allows them to create more money which gives them more influence over legislatures and rinse and repeat over and over.
This is where corruption in Democracy lies:
- We (as a civilization) are human.
- We are imperfect.
- We tried to create a utopia in a world that's simply not fair.
The best we can do is maintain some semblance of integrity by expressing our morals and beliefs by putting our money where our mouth is and being vocal/spreading awareness about the corruption that exists.
This is why I firmly believe in the karmic balance of the universe.
What goes around most definitely comes around.
If you have no desire to help others (whether through charity donations, spreading awareness, or activism) because you don't get paid or something out of it; than do it for yourself. Karma will repay you.
If we were all on the same page; we could easily end problems like famine, poverty, all social injustices by cutting military expenditures and using that funding & resources to solve those issues.
But instead the majority of the world's taxes/resources U.S. has the highest GDP yet $0.65 on every $1.00 of taxes goes to the Department of Defense to make sure we have the best military at all times even though we already do... Even if we cut that budget to about $0.50 instead of $0.65 that extra $0.15 on every tax dollar can literally change the world.
My point being: we (U.S.A.) spend an ABSURD & RIDICULOUS amount on our military. Even before the collapse of the USSR; CIA analysts predicted that with our technology, airforce, and navy our military was powerful enough to defeat the Soviet Union 3 times OVER... and that's BEFORE they collapsed!
After they collapsed in 1991; their defense budget was forcibly cut by over 80%; making the U.S. the only remaining superpower, strong enough to defeat the entire world's military COMBINED (and that's a fact; not saying that to be facetious. our military is simply OVERKILL.
But can you honestly blame us? President Woodrow Wilson, who led us through the victory of WWI, tried to establish the League of nations the pre-cursor to the United Nations as an attempt to rule out isolationism/nationalism by realizing that "no longer can we live in a world where it's every man for himself."
Wilson is perhaps the most underrated/overshadowed president in modern American history, and simply pointed out that history will repeat itself if the world does not work together in solving international problems. The League of Nations was a joke and dissolved almost as quick as it formed; nobody took it seriously. Turns out he was right. Less than 20 years later we reverted back to isolationism/nationalism and the rise of fascism led to the bloodiest war in history from 1939-1945 (as early as 1928-1945 if we're talking about WW2 in Asia)
It was Wilson's blueprint combined with FDR's solidarity that led to the creation of the U.N. & E.U., an upgraded version of the League of Nations which effectively tied the European economy together to make it so that if one fails, all fails. There hasn't been a war in Western Europe in almost 100 years as a result.
However with President Trump's "America First" rhetoric along with #Brexit and the rise of Nationalism in France/Germany/Italy and many other European nations (in large part due to cyber information warfare and social media forcing us all to live within the confines of our own bubble.)
We're once again in a very precarious situation which puts us ALL in danger of slipping into that very same geopolitical environment we had experienced not once, but TWICE in the FIRST HALF of the 20th century
However despite our poor consequence management (U.S. & NATO) as well as sticking our noses in foreign elections/toppling authoritarian regimes which some nations like "The Hermit Kingdom" may misinterpret as imperialism; America's intentions were always pure.*
...with the exception of the corruption & influence of lobbyists.
Our system of checks & balances is ingenious and the founding fathers knew they were IMPERATIVE & CRUCIAL for the creation of a corruption-free democratic sovereign entity.
What they didn't foresee is that one day America would be the world's largest empire; and the irony is that we today treat many of our citizens (Puerto Ricans, immigrants, etc.) as second-class citizens which would probably make John Adams and Thomas Jefferson roll over in their grave; as the entire American Revolution and declaration of independence began as a call for sovereignty and a frustration with being treated as second-class citizens.
No taxation without representation was the call to arms which to dumb it down for those who might not understand: "why the hell should we pay taxes when we have no say in parliament?" Now other nations that we've colonized and helped rebuild feel the same way. Along with the "Dreamers a.k.a. undocumented immigrants who came here illegally at such a young age that some of them ONLY speak English & after a lifetime of paying taxes, working hard, and contributing to society, are now being rounded up in caravans and deported like trash. Very similar to the way we treat our veterans. Remember the preamble to our constitution: "we hold these truths to be self-evident that all man are created equal (yes the irony is not lost on me that this was written while slavery was still legal)
"Everybody loves a soldier until he comes home and stops fighting"
- Liev Schreiber
That's why I love America. So as long as the 1st amendment (Free speech) exists and it always will than people will always be able to voice what isn't right (which authoritarian regimes don't allow among their population.
So as long as people are willing to seek the truth; they will find it, because it will never be repressed.
It all boils down to whether you're willing to take the blue pill or red pill.
I know this analogy has become an internet phenomenon/meme for it's hilarious connotation to "The Matrix" trilogy; yet there is a great deal of seriousness in what appears to be a silly pop culture reference/expression. The Blue pill is indicative of security, ignorance, bliss whereas the Red pill is indicative of knowledge, truth, or as the younger kids are calling it: WOKE
It's true when they say ignorance is bliss because some of this stuff is just hard to look at...
But if you choose to live your life that way; ask yourself this: are you really living at all?
Peace & Love all. Hope you enjoyed the post. Spent a good deal of time on it!
Remember my 10 golden rules of crypto trading (as I've gathered from years of experience; which will cover all three main forms of trading being 1) HODLing 2) Swing-Trading (my personal favorite, and what I do mostly) 3) Day-Trading (the highest risk, highest reward; yet also hardest form of trading) will be posted tomorrow!
Review some other posts to see my past TA; specifically around 7-12 days ago, than look at current charts; you'll see that I have been 90% (atleast) accurate thus far! If you need a reason to follow my TA as opposed to all the other "experts" who claim they're fortune tellers; than here it is:
- Don't follow my TA! That's one of the golden rules I'll post tomorrow! That is **take all trading advise including my own with a grain of salt and do not make any buys/sales based on someone's direct opinion unless you are paying them to broker for you. Otherwise anything they tell you is speculation. That's enough for today; I'll detail more tomorrow.
Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a wonderful day.
- @a1MTarabichi