420 sats \ 4 replies \ @elvismercury 9 Feb \ parent \ on: The Design Pattern 🦅 bitcoin
I teeter totter on stuff like this. I can be fully convinced by the logic that the systems grind forward, and even seemingly giant things like assassinations get swept under the rug of history.
And then, wrt things I really understand, or things I witness, I see how a thing happens, or doesn't happen, because of one single person. And that maybe the 'grand sweep of history' is similar to a lot of crazy-making stuff in this space: it seems simple because people don't understand it deeply. When you understand things deeply, nothing is simple. It's like the opposite of that one meme.
Anyway, my current synthesis is that many giant macro things are the result of historical forces, technological determinism, and so are, in some cases, akin to acts of nature. Except that they can be sped up or slowed down by decades and even longer. That's where I think btc is. Maybe inevitable on a tectonic timescale, but not on the scale of one person's life.
I should've chosen a different analogy other than assassination which popped into my head lol. I'm saying the structure of government itself doesn't change, but you guys are correct, a bunch of other stuff does, including decisions within that government (it's made of representatives after all, we don't have a direct democracy). I wonder in your case, had you been assassinated in 1977 instead of dying peacefully in Graceland, if your music would've taken on a more "serious" quality than it has. Would In the Ghetto be played at protests, used in social awareness films?
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I wonder in your case, had you been assassinated in 1977 instead of dying peacefully in Graceland, if your music would've taken on a more "serious" quality than it has. Would In the Ghetto be played at protests, used in social awareness films?
It's a good question, how people are redeemed by how they ended, and their ends become part of the meaning of their lives. I do wonder what the Vegas era has done for my legacy; the gut reaction is that it's turned me farcical, but I think, upon reflection, it probably added nuance and timbre to it. A tragedy more than a farce. Assassination presumably would have moved it elsewhere.
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Ha, when I clicked on it thought I was going to see Bastiat the Austrian economist for some reason. Forgot about Basquiat's skull. Good points.
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I agree with this idea that technological determinism means certain things really are inevitable, and individuals merely speed up or slow down this tectonic movement.
On this topic I think it is worth pointing to the work of the wonderful author, Stefan Zweig. He was fascinated by the influence individuals can have on the world and tries to drill down into the very moment, the very instant that changed the course of history (at least for the individual in question's lifetime).
From what I can tell this is the original publication, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decisive_Moments_in_History, though there is a modern version readily available here: https://pushkinpress.com/books/shooting-stars/
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