Wherever, and whenever possible, Bitcoin, Steem, and all other cryptocurrencies, need to be banned and in some cases criminalised.
Wha-?
Wait...
, have you gone out of your tiny little mind?!?!
OK, hold on a sec, before you go racing down to the comment section, mouth foaming, neck vein throbbing, hear what I've got to say.
Because obviously, I am still very much, and plan to remain, a massive fan of cryptocurrencies, and the philosophies behind digital money in general.
However, there is an interesting psychological effect, that bitcoin has already exploited, and if Steem is lucky enough, it too will reap the rewards of a draconian ban.
We'll get to that in a second, first let's look at clues left for us, around 500 years ago, by the indomitable; William Shakespeare.
Lessons In Crypto From Romeo & Juliet
Romeo, we can now express our love on the blockchain!
There are not many people who do not at least know of the story of Romeo & Juliet, it is a tale of young love, angst, and bitter rivalry.
Romeo of the Montagues and Juliet of the Capulets, fall in love, despite the long-running vendetta between their two families. Theirs is a forbidden love, which cannot be allowed to blossom in public, yet try as they might, they are discovered, and the course of their love, runs fast along a tragic path.
But what can Romeo & Juliet teach us about censorship?
Well, after they are discovered and forbidden from seeing each other, their love intensifies, so much so, that they literally cannot live without each other, and so decide to die together..
..and therein lies the lesson.
Even though Romeo & Juliet is but a mere play, Shakespeare obviously knew about the power of censorship, he understood, that if you take something away from someone, then that person just wants that thing even more. An object that may have held only a momentary interest, is now a burning object of desire.
The two lovers from Verona were censured in the ultimate way, by their families, in a time and place whereby it was unthinkable to go against the wishes of your elders. They were told that under no circumstances were they to see each other; and of course, their love intensified.
"Yeah, yeah, OK , that's all very well and good, but how pray tell, does that have anything to do with cryptocurrencies?"
I'm getting to that...
first though, let's look at some very interesting real-world examples, whereby censorship had exactly the opposite effect that the censors would have wanted.
Fear And Loving On Campus
So it turns out that it isn't only in fictional romance that forbidden love is twice as sweet as the one which is sanctioned. In 1972, a study was done with 140 couples from Colorado in the United States, the study wanted to find out if parental interference affected feelings of love in either positive or negative ways.
Over the course of the study, Richard Driscoll and his cohorts, discovered that when parents disapproved, or even tried to forbid their children from seeing their respective lovers. Feelings for that partner intensified, in the same way, if parents started to cool on the matter, feelings tended to drift away from passion, and in some cases, dissipated altogether.
Ban It, We Want It.
Then there is the case of the banned speech on coed dorms on the University of North Carolina campus; students heard that the talk had been censored. Lo and behold, attitudes towards coed dorms were extremely unfavourable in the aftermath of the ban, without the students ever hearing the speech!
Then there is the strange case of the Dade County phosphate ban. This was when Dade County, Florida, decided to ban the use, and possession of all cleaning products, containing phosphates.
What followed was quite something to behold, families started stocking up like mad on phosphate-laden cleaning products. Not only that, when asked why they were doing such a thing; they reported that cleaners containing phosphates, made things cleaner, softer, and overall better, than their non-phosphate counterparts.
In nearby Tampa, where the ban wasn't in effect, they asked residence what they thought of phosphate cleaning products. To nobody's surprise, they didn't rate them any better or worse than ones that didn't contain the chemicals.
The results from the studies done in these areas are rigidly consistent:
If a governing body bans something; the people will want it more!
Are you starting to see now how a ban could help our cause?
No?
Well as promised, next we have a direct comparison for you.
From Russia With Love
Did I mention how manly I am?
Earlier this year, the Russian government made an announcement regarding bitcoin, it said that it would be accepting the digital currency as legal tender. This move opened up the avenues of taxation of bitcoin, Eth, and dashcoin.
This can only be described as; a shocking turnaround, because in 2014, the same Russian government, declared cryptocurrency illegal, and threatened that any citizen caught with any digital currency, would be thrown in jail.
Of course they were not aware of social psychologists like Driscoll and Brehms, who have proved time and time again, that scarcity through censorship, will drive up the popularity of the very thing you are trying to ban.
There are no official figures for Bitcoin and other digital currency usage in Russia before, 2014 however, the mere fact that their government have realised that, the law they imposed, will now be impossible to uphold, suggests that usage has skyrocketed.
Of course Russian officials realised way too late, that the ban did exactly the opposite thing to what they intended. What we as crypto heads need to hope for, are more bans and restrictions, as this will get people who previously would have ignored crypto, to take it up with gusto.
Dang it! Ban Steemit, and watch our popularity soar like an eagle!!!
Long live the ban!
Vive La Revolution!
Vive La Crypto!!
WHAT DO YOU RECKON, AM I MAD FOR WANTING A BAN? OR DO YOU SEE MERIT IN TRYING TO RESTRICT THE USE OF CRYPTOCURRENCY? IS THERE A WAY TO AFFECT A BAN OURSELVES? OR DO WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE IF GOVERNMENTS ARE STUPID ENOUGH TO TRY AND ENFORCE THEM? AS EVER, LET ME KNOW BELOW!
Colorado Couples Study - The Romeo & Juliet Effect - 1972 Driscoll et al.