Laying down on the job

Today is July the 4th which, means absolutely nothing to me however, I just read this post by @steemitblog saying that it was July the 4th 2016 that the Steem blockchain started distributing Steem to content creators, which is great. The other thing they bring up is calling Steem the Blockchain of opportunity because it turns everyone that uses it into an entrepreneur. This is something that I have been trying to impress on people for quite a while yet for the most part, people are laying down on the job.

Today I had a client meeting with a bigger boss and we were talking about responsibility, proactivity and autonomy of workers and how even though people want independence, when it comes down to doing the tasks that are required but they don't enjoy, they will shirk responsibility, wait to be called upon and do their level best to not have to do it themselves.

This is my own experience as a small entrepreneur also meaning that there are a lot of things to be done but, no one wants to do them. Unfortunately in my case, there is only me available so, the responsibility falls squarely on my shoulders each day whether I want to do the menial tasks or not.

I think this is the same for anyone who wants independence, anarchy and the like as to become truly independent is to become an entrepreneur, a person who must do all tasks required to survive. As soon as the outsourcing starts to happen, pretty soon, there are middlemen and governments that arise once again. I am not saying that cooperation isn't possible but, care needs to be taken to ensure that it doesn't end up creating the same spiralling problems we currently face.

In the case of Americans and their independence, I find it ironic that they continually talk about the land of the free and freedom yet, spend insane amounts of time and money arguing and debating which party is going to enslave them for the next 4 years. What people routinely fail to realise is that as far as independence goes, it doesn't matter who is president as it is the system itself that is the dictator.

In the case of Steem users who are all entrepreneurs here whether they recognise it or not, it is not really good enough to stay out of learning about the system because to stay on the outskirts of understanding means to outsource all decision making to others and not even be able to recognise the decisions that have been made and the effects they have. This is a large part of the problem with governments too, us.

It is we who choose them and rather than build governments that work as infrastructure development and maintenance, w we create celebrities and superstar politicians and then incentivize them by rewarding them highly if they win for our group.

It is a system that can only lead to oppression and systematic and institutionalised violence. And, due to our unwillingness to actually do the work to understand for ourselves, we buy the advertising propaganda and make our decisions with our emotional stances on topics and positions irrelevant to what a government should be handling.

People like to complain about governments but the other thing they fail to realize is that the government is them too. I don't mean it is just representative, I mean that the people that make up that system are humans who had similar childhoods, went to similar schools, played similar sports and likely believed in similar fantasies which makes them, similar to everyone else. What this means is that put in their position, the chances of any one person acting similarly to them is very high indeed.

It is not a great feeling to see what we despise reflected back in the mirror so instead, we compartmentalize our view and only look at the pretty parts of who we want to support and the ugly parts of who we don't. That way, we can feel that we are always in the right and, if what we support becomes ugly, we shirk the responsibility of our choices and lay blame on the very system that we ourselves have built.

When we look at the world and blame society, community, government, religion, rich, poor, immigrants, criminals, refugees, beggars, priests or politicians what we fail to acknowledge is that in slightly changed circumstances, we can hold any of those titles, we are them, just not at this point in time. The entire concept of independence hinges on this. It is the idea that we get to choose our position for ourselves.

It is just a shame that so many outsource their decisions to authorities. The reason is that once an authority, the drive to remain an authority kicks in and then, systems of authoritarian protection take place which means, suppress any threat, quell any divergence.

You are more than a monetary entrepreneur on this blockchain, you are promoter of freedom and independence so that others have the possibility to take back some agency and rethink just who they want to be. Most given the opportunity of responsibility won't take it as there is too much work involved, too much that needs to be considered, too much effort but perhaps one day, things will change and enough will cooperate together, independently.

Happy independence day but, we are all slaves to something. Including the code. Some things can be changed though.

Taraz
[ a Steem original ]