{"id":5505,"date":"2020-06-02T11:42:30","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T15:42:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=5505"},"modified":"2020-06-28T10:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-28T14:43:21","slug":"capitalism-perestroika-moment-bitcoin-centralization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2020\/06\/02\/capitalism-perestroika-moment-bitcoin-centralization","title":{"rendered":"Capitalism\u2019s Perestroika Moment: Bitcoin Rises as Economic Centralization Falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>mong the great sages of the ancient world, there once dwelt a mystic who the ancients heralded as the \u041caster of \u041casters, the Great-Great or the Thrice-Greatest Hermes Trismegistus. This man, if a man indeed he was, was the author of the Corpus Hermeticum<\/em>, the discoverer of alchemy, the founder of astrology and the forebear of occult wisdom.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Egyptians deified the Thrice-Greatest as the god of wisdom, Thoth, while the Greeks recognized the equivalence of Thoth and Hermes through <\/span>interpretatio graeca<\/span><\/i><\/a> and worshiped them as the same deity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hermes\u2019s influence on philosophy, dogma, science, mathematics and \u2014 most importantly \u2014 our collective map of meaning, spans across two millennia and more cultures and religions than probably exist today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hermes matters for this story \u2014 not because his arcane teachings have anything to do with crypto or decentralized systems and protocols (he was a prophet alright, but he’s got nothing on Satoshi), but because one of his fundamental principles of reality \u2014 the <\/span>principle of rhythm <\/span><\/i>\u2014 serves as a pretty good ruler for mapping out the colossal societal phase shift we\u2019re currently facing today.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to <\/span>reflect<\/span><\/a>, writes Allen Farrington in rebuttal \u2014 and reflect we will. It was unfortunate, perhaps, that it took us being stranded in our homes, <\/span>besieged by an invisible, undead enemy to finally question how we managed to mess this up so profusely, but at least we\u2019re finally doing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rhythm compensates<\/span><\/h3>\n

The hermetic law of rhythm is the embodiment of the truth that all things rise and fall. That the pendulum swing manifests in everything and that the measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left. This principle, once you\u2019ve witnessed it, cannot be unseen. It applies to all things, at all levels of analysis. It is almost fractal in nature and much reminiscent of human <\/span>stupidity<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relative to whatever dimensional axis the current cultural pendulum is swinging, one thing is obvious even to the oblivious \u2014 the pendulum has reached maximum amplitude.*\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Economically, we were very late into the long-term <\/span>debt<\/span><\/a> cycle even before the coronavirus hit. Adding fuel to the flames, the central bank of the world’s reserve currency, or the FED, seems to have mistaken West Ham United\u2019s <\/span>hymn<\/span><\/a> (“I\u2019m Forever Blowing Bubbles”) for a viable macroprudential policy manual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moving past that \u2014 culturally, we\u2019ve hardly ever been more polarized; the gap between the haves and have-nots is at an all-time high (and getting worse by the day). Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin has been quoted as saying that “<\/em><\/span>every society is three meals away from chaos<\/span><\/i>.”<\/em> If there\u2019s any truth to that, we’re coming dangerously <\/span>close<\/span><\/a> to finding out for sure.<\/span><\/p>\n

Systemically, we\u2019re unstable; institutionally, we\u2019re corrupted; psychologically, we\u2019re bewildered; and royally \u2014 we seem <\/span>fu<\/span><\/del> doomed.<\/span><\/p>\n

In other words, we\u2019re long overdue for a correction, and we feel it in our gut. The law of compensation is ever in action. It\u2019s deeply ingrained in our individual and collective subconscious. The average individual doesn\u2019t need to understand all the intricacies of Keynesian economics to realize that \u201cmoney printer go brrrr\u201d can\u2019t possibly be the solution to our predicament. The <\/span>meme<\/span><\/a> went viral for a reason: Everyone knows that that\u2019s not how <\/span>anything<\/span><\/i> in life works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, we must face the music. We can\u2019t kick the can down the road anymore. It’s 1986 for capitalism, and we\u2019ve got nothing ready-made to replace it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Centralization as a feature<\/span><\/h3>\n

Acclaimed journalist H. L. Mencken hit the nail on the head when he said that:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always an easy solution to every problem \u2014 neat, plausible, and wrong<\/span><\/i>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that\u2019s what we\u2019re dealing with here, let\u2019s not pretend otherwise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s financial crisis is hardly a univariate issue. The entire multitude of events that led us to this mess is impossible to encapsulate in one text, so we will instead focus merely on one piece of the puzzle, a piece near and dear to the crypto ethos: <\/span>the centralization of power, and our ongoing struggle to resist it.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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