Why Surviving the Onslaught of State Coercion Will Require more than Education

These last few days have been a reminder of just how vulnerable we are to agnoia (ἄγνοια in Greek which means unwit or ignorance). I have been seeing the dark side of the crypto world and how even those with good intentions might be seduced by the promise of wealth and power by the state. I imagined after seeing this video by Andreas Antonopoulos, how bitcoin might actually become “gentrified” with programmers at Blockstream willingly writing state sponsored code with a built in fork for taxation. Having studied some of the code, I still considered this unlikely, but who knows about what the future will bring?

Then I saw this video by NS James, which has some bad info on how Steem keys are stored (start at 6:34) and was seriously thinking that I needed to power down until @dan set matters straight. If I, as a developer with over 20 years experience can be taken in by disinfo, then what about the masses who know nothing of technology? Will they not just fall into whatever is provided without even questioning what’s under the hood?

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This is the same way I’ve felt about the political debates over the last couple of decades, whether they be left or right, democrat or republican, always there was some measure of subterfuge where nobody was getting the “real” point. I was searching for the God from the machine, because I had lost all hope in human judgement to ever be capable of rendering political fairness. If fact, without it, I assumed that it was only a matter of time before extinction, because terrorism is a byproduct of authority.

Before that, like many others, I fell into the dilemma of the choice of the lesser of two evils and I was split internally between being an idealistic anarchist (which of course many considered impractical including myself until Feb 2017) and being a practical socialist (in favor of Bernie Sanders between the trilemma of political misfits). I now know that anarchy (voluntarism for those of you who prefer refinement) is the only real practical solution to all of this nonsense that we call politics. The fundamental problem is coercion and all violence stems from this fact.

Opt in VS Opt out

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We currently have a system that opts you into the agreements of governments with no realistic exceptions unless you want to take your life into your hands with state enforcers who don’t understand that the badge shouldn’t grant special rights. Such people act above the law when they get state exemptions for murder. Many of us, myself included have seen the glee on the faces of police when they’re allowed to beat up someone. Once at Hercules Gym, one of the cops openly bragged about what he could get away with. He was jacked up on steroids, but nobody would dare press charges. Only police are allowed to break the law, until they make the state look bad in the process. That is where the thin blue line is drawn.

For there to be true justice, all the agreements that you engage in should be those that you opt into voluntarily. The default should be that you’re outside of the system, until you want to take on the rights and responsibilities of being inside the system. I do know someone who has completely erased themselves, pays no taxes, but also collects no welfare, etc. Such a situation requires total personal responsibility. The reason he gets away with it is because he’s more trouble to the state than he’s worth. Because he pays no taxes and has no bank account, the state has to foot the bill. That didn’t stop the cops from harassing him a couple times a week for having no plates on his car. He had to travel with his bill of sale with him constantly.

The Limits of Technical Disintermediation

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I have said in the past that the main push toward a decentralized free society would come from the state having been foolish in it’s economic abuse (the paradigm of unlimited money). The equity drain that this can cause would render virtually everyone using national fiat powerless because of Gresham’s law and ultimately lead to government powerlessness.

The state has however become wise to this and has stopped the endless supply of money, so now it’s a numbers game as to whether they’ve miscalculated enough to still have the third world take over financial dominance. In the mean time, I fully expect state criminals to put pressure on those in the crypto community by offering bribes and threats when bribes don't work. Will the developers stay true to the ideals of decentralization? If they change the code, will anybody notice? Will they care? If they're anything like FB users, probably not.

Time will tell.

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