My last few posts have all centered on how we create healthy communities and happy lives. A key aspect that I've been focusing on is doing that while acknowledging that there will always be forces in our midst who don't care at all about such ideas. In fact, there are many individuals and groups of such individuals who work tirelessly to destroy many of the aspects of community life that we most value.
In response to my posts on dealing with psychopath and sociopaths especially I received questions on how one contains their destructive influences.
I offered there a few approaches communities have used across time. It's hard to really recommend for any of them though.
The reality is, containing destructive forces isn't exactly feel-good work! It is rare the person who really wants to have anything to do with it. Yet across time, people have stepped up to fulfill the duty to protect the community's well-being, which required dealing with some unpleasant elements.
Here I'd like to make some suggestions that I personally engage in as part of my sense of obligation to protect those who are unable to protect themselves. That's particular those children who will be born after I die, but also plenty of ones living now who I'd like to see get to swim in a clean ocean and breathe clean air. (Not to mention those future members of this blockchain community, who would like to get to create content and earn rewards for that content that may someday support them, just as we do.)
Voting: Official Solutions
Here on the blockchain the closest we get to this solution is by choosing witnesses. Witnesses have a big influence on what gets included in hard forks and whether those forks even happen.
IRL we vote for politicians, judges and sometimes sheriffs. In corporations we vote for board members.
In any situation where we are given the opportunity to choose who represents our interests, we should take that right seriously. And also realize that rights come with responsibilities.
Often people face a set of choices they find unpalatable. To refer back to my previous post's psychological terms, we find ourselves choosing between narcissists and psychopaths. (Not here on the blockchain, of course!) Faced with such options, often people feel it is a crime to choose to give power to either.
The reality is, someone is going to fulfill that role. They aren't just going to leave the seat vacant because we chose not to choose. But I'll take your garden variety narcissist any day above the psychopaths out to end life on our planet just as soon as they draw their last breath!
There is such a thing as better and worse. Whenever we are faced with a clear psychopath, we must do whatever we can to diminish the power of that individual, or group of individuals.
Empowering Meaning: Art & Culture Solutions
If you didn't watch my video from yesterday, please do. I think it provides a good framework for what I'm about to say.
A big part of any of us living fulfilling lives comes down to the stories we use to give meaning to our lives and explain our world.
Art is a huge part of how we draw up that mental story. Whether the fairy tales and myths that are read to us as young children.
Or the movies we see. Or the games we play. Even the lyrics in the music we listen to.
It all programs us for a certain world view.
Just as we can choose what forces to empower with our votes in some contexts, we also "vote" with our time and money in many contexts.
We choose which movies to go to, which shows to stream, which books to buy or check out at the library. All this passes data back to the creative/production teams behind that work that leads to either more or less of certain types of content being created.
Are you voting for artistic works that support a cultural story that is pro-community, pro-Earth, non-violent and that presents a definition of "success" that is about how we win together rather than praises those who dominate others?
Because this is a power we have to promote that which supports our well-being and disempower that which works against the world's well-being. And we don't need prisons for that. We don't need fines/downvotes or firing squads.
But we do need action.
We do need to hold the clear intention that the community's benefit be protected, creative thinking about how we can contribute to that, then consistent action (that may be inconvenient) to bring that vision into reality.
In Summary
Vote when you can vote. Choose.
Be selective in what you give your time and attention, for the light of your gaze is always empowering.
Do whatever you feel inspired to do that promotes your idea of a healthy, happy world, and encourage others to do the same.
Suggestions?
Looking even at here on the blockchain. How do you see this platform working to protect healthy community norms?
Is there anything more you'd like to see done, speaking of specific actions to be taken?
