There is an innate human desire to be the elite and the exclusive. Some of us line up for days to be the first ones to acquire new products, and others adopt new technologies like cryptocurrency in hope to get a headstart on an investment. We want to have an advantage; an advantage over others.
The lies of the 1% are that we should all strive to be the 1%. Rather than seeking the wealth and well-being of the 100%, our individualistic culture locks us down to a treadmill for the elite. The oppressed not only wants to be free, but we want to be the one in power. The assumption that if only the marginalized can be in power then our society will be a better place. We forget that the oppressed can often become the oppressors if given a chance. We forget the history of vengeance and hate that consume all sides of a conflict and that all of us have thus far failed in ridding itself of our underlying sin. Our greed, pride, envy, and hate that feeds our individualism, and in turn, births a destructive form of nationalism and we end up pointing fingers to everyone and everything but ourselves. Our boots are stuck in the cycle of the 1%, and we need more than a revolution. We desperately need a revitalization of compassion.
Blockchain technologies laud the advent of democracy and decentralization by providing a platform for the individual. However, the platform is not neutral, if left unchecked or if left to new elitist, we the users will again be conformed to the past pattern; a pattern that will facilitate a redressed version of the 1%. Today the elites are not only those with old money from the babyboomer’s days, but they are also the ones with the most followers, the most likes, and the most influence. Chris Hedges writes,
The old production-oriented culture demanded what the historian Warren Susman termed character. The new consumption-oriented culture demands what he called personality. The shift in values is a shift from a fixed morality to the artifice of presentation. The old cultural values of thrift and moderation honored hard work, integrity, and courage. The consumption-oriented culture honors charm, fascination, and likeability.
Rather than heroes, we orient toward celebrities. Even though blockchain models like Steem are designed to reward content creators and participants by distributing publishing powers to its users, it does not address our desire for popularity and exclusiveness. Our content and motivation are in danger of becoming self-serving as we attempt to one-up others in an attempt to grow our stake in the game. We seek to be the cream-of-the-crop by capitalizing on each other’s desires to be on top. Popular contents become less about the diversity of narratives and themes and more about the efficient and pragmatic steps for an advantage.
Technologies can’t transform humanity toward diversity, it may enforce and coerce through redefinition and incentives, but the nature of technique has always been toward standardization and the “one best way.” Jacque Ellul speaks of technical automatism that reduces our agency of choice when presented with possible techniques. He writes,
“In reality, he neither is nor does anything of the sort. He is a device for recording effects and results obtained by various techniques. … He can decide only in favor of the technique that gives the maximum efficiency. But this is not choice.”
The natural inclination of technology platforms like Steemit is to facilitate its own growth and survival through the most efficient means. That is, it will naturally energize the most popular content that keeps itself alive and filter out content that does not contribute to its network activities. To the system, the most efficient content wins.
As participants and human agents in the system, we need to evaluate our rules of engagement with the content and the system. We need to intentionally think through the effects of the content we are publishing and reposting. Are we encouraging elitism and mere spectacles? Is our content conforming to the system for the sake of individual success? Are we happily ignorant to be a cog in the machine just for a few tokens?
If we are to make the most out of this new technology paradigm in the blockchain, we need a firmer grasp of our humanity. Qualities such as compassion, rest, “gut feelings,” and all the metaphysical experiences that technologies and automation cannot compute. We need to start considering the whole and not just the part. The whole of society, and not just the individual. The 100% and not only the 1%.
The death of paradise is in the individual.
The life of paradise is with the others.
Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle (New York, NY: Nation Books, 2010).
Ellul, Jacques. The Technological Society. New York: Knopf, 1964.