It's been said many times before ofc. I wouldn't dare presume that I, out of all of the people using Nostr who may stumble upon this post, have experienced this qualitative attitude change any more or less profoundly. I can say for certain that it has been profound, but to measure what that means for me versus you would be ludicrous. Instead I will try to illustrate what I'm talking about with an example.
Imagine you are an average earner, somewhere in North America, with a nine-to-five job. You work at a publicly-funded institution where DEI has become a priority, employees show a general lack of interest in what they do and work-processes are obviously inefficient and out-of-date. There's little reason to try and improve upon these, since there is little oversight by management, who are themselves overburdened by the various departments in their purview. Wages increase on a fixed schedule and promotions, to boot, do not go to the most capable or accomplished employees, but to those most aligning with the company's political 'vision.' You initially got into the line of work because it was your passion, but did not expect the level of political bureaucracy it would entail.
You try to save for your future, but you hear you need to make your cash work for you. You try to research the markets, only to realize this can become a second full-time job. Inflation and credit-expansion are rampant and your cash is like a melting ice-cube.
Centralized institutions engender inefficiency and use coercion to impose its ideology. As though we could just DEI harder then all of our problems would go away.
Bosses who have something to prove in order to ascend even higher on the politico-corporate ladder, tell you how to do your job (wrongly), hire more incompetent managers and power trip whenever questioned publicly.
Day-after-day, dealing with the salvo of fiat shit being hurled in your direction grows tiresome. The fact is, picking up someone else's droppings is not what your passion is. You want to enjoy your life and not have to work two full-time jobs trying to figure out how that can be possible.
Enter Bitcoin.
You start to stack sats every paycheque, and this assuages the pain. Endless podcasts arm you with artillery against every straw-man fiat argument. Slowly, Nostr is the only place where you consume media. You fix your glare firmly on the future and you do what the fiat mine requires of you. This is a real exit.
You realize, that must be what the laser eyes are all about. Laser eyes tell the world that you are seeing things rather differently from the no-coiners, the fiatomatons. Maybe. To be honest, you just think they look cool and make you feel like an insider. Remember that guy in the Bible, sees Christ and goes blind? First he was persecutor par excellence and then devout believer. I remember the phrase vividly: "something like scales fell from his eyes." The analogy can be well understood by people in the bitcoiner community. Or, have you seen that movie, They Live? ... Just to be sure - I'm not here to proselytize for Christianity. Bitcoin maybe, and if that leads you to Christ, then hey - who am I to get in the way?
My Fiat Revelations
Perhaps you have had a similar experience to the individual in my example. Perhaps yours is quite different. Quite frankly, I'd love to hear about it in a dm or a comment.
Anyway, since you've stuck around this long, indulge me these three points for why I've started this blog.
Laser-vision isn't enough. If now I can see clearly, I believe it incumbent of me to find my own way to contribute to the space. How much more can bitcoin change me? I'm hoping tons. I'd like to activate that change by providing more long-form inputs in the space. My contribution, at this point, will be to begin sharing my insights on Nostr, curating lists and helping to grow the community.
-
Consciousness is better shared. Here the second point is an attempt at justification for the first. The act of writing is like a using a machete to blaze a trail in the rainforest. By reading, you walk the same trail, but you are being guided. In writing, you need to be ready and know how to manage when you stumble upon the jaguars and pythons. Either way, the view you get can be stunning. Nostr and Bitcoin are powerful on their own, but they are not intuitive. As I learn and discover more about these spaces, I will post about it here. Hopefully this helps to clear the way for others venturing into these spaces.
-
Fiat is vampiric. (I've written this before - if you know that, then kudos, you're a stalwart FR follower.) I think one's life amounts to their limited energy accounted for in time. Money provides a medium of exchange with which one can receive compensation for their time and energy, allowing them to transmit value into the future. Fiat currency debases our ability to transmit our energy and time into the future. Our time and energy and life are thereby drained from our bodies. Vampires, like the fiat central bankers, stealthily sink their teeth into our necks and bleed us pallid. It is really that nefarious.
Fiat Revelations is the place where I'll sharpen my stakes and grow more garlic. I hope to do this by writing long-form at least once per week, for starters, and hopefully some growth will happen. Hit that follow button and you will see for yourself.
Expect more reflections in the future. If you enjoyed reading, the be a dear and follow, repost, highlight and zap me to support my work. Most of all, stay blessed and keep stacking.