Thoughts on Counter Culture

Thinking back on my entrance into crypto Twitter conjures up a novel sentiment that occupies its own space within my soul. This fondness is distinct from cherished childhood memories, or those seemingly insignificant experiences with friends that end up becoming the mile markers denoting indispensable events that shaped my life for years to come. After all, my foray into this foreign subculture was intentionally undertaken in a quest to understand the mysterious, magical, internet money that would certainly be the answer to pressing problems that needed expedient solutions.

Five years later I find myself warmly reminiscing, yet bittersweet as I further grasp the ramifications of the change to come.

Understand that at the time these experiences were not of the warm and fuzzy variety. For the uninitiated the beginning of this quest would be best described by thinking of an inexperienced Luke Skywalker walking into the Mos Eisley Cantina sans his wise, battle hardened mentor. A digital landscape of frogs, memes, Lambos, and an inability to distinguish friend from foe. There was no one in the real world to discuss crypto with, and back then every mainstream mouthpiece incessantly insisted that even Bitcoin was a scam.

I paid my dues. My God, did I pay my dues. However, I learned. As my wise Father-in-Law once told me "No education is free". He was right. My supportive, yet longsuffering bride, did her best to be understanding as she slept in a cold bed while I spent countless hours researching and staring at charts. That woman is a gem.

Admittedly I fell in love with this whole thing. Understanding what Bitcoin actually means for humanity, the camaraderie within the small shitcoin and alpha communities, the true friends I made along the way, and the adrenaline. This is the stuff that is impossible to artificially replicate, and mine was not a unique experience.

Hundreds of thousands, eventually millions, of people experiencing their version of similar circumstances. Enough to create crypto specific archetypes, and we were all in this together. Us against the world, early adopters with risk tolerances that probably could land you a psych diagnosis under the right circumstances.

This is the stuff of subcultures, and one day there will be books written about us.

The last significant cultural movement in the US at least, was the so-called hippie movement of the 1960's. Aside from what I have gathered from reading Hunter S. Thompson, I really don't know a ton about the reality of those times. That said, I am relatively certain that those people had a different understanding about their subculture that existed in a more pure form than the regurgitated information that we are exposed to via our filtered sources of information. Did they know what the ultimate outcome would be? Of course not, and they certainly didn't know precisely when it would end. The innocent parts of it at least.

As I sit here today, I see a different popular attitude towards crypto, and I see the subversion of the subculture attempting to take shape. This is inevitable, no sense in fretting over it. The ramifications of the technological innovation are too massive, and the bulk of the money has yet to be made. We knew mass adoption would come, but couldn't know what form it would take.

That said, it is quite humorous to see the monolithic corporations try to solve the crypto puzzle and lay claim to the cartoonishly overfilled sacks of green cash stored within this vault that they visualize, but do not possess the keys to. You can almost envision the stereotypical fat, old, bastard who appears as an amalgam of the Penguin and Warren Buffet in your mind's eye thinking "This web3 stuff is for young people, so go hire some!". If only it were that easy you soulless, greedy, fuck.

You see, corporations have an unsolvable problem on their hands. They have painstakingly constructed the predominate culture. They have spared no expense in shaping the world in such a way as to suck every penny out of it. The best they have come up with thus far is to use what they know to try to bend crypto to their will, and they are flailing.

Crypto culture is counter culture. While greed is ever present in any human endeavor, our values can also be found just the same. In this space we value privacy, freedom, creativity, beauty, and independent thought. The existence of Bitcoin itself is in response to the greed of the banks and the corporate fiefdoms and governments that serve them. We exist because they gave us no choice. The game was rigged from the start, and this is becoming more obvious every day.

While it is inevitable that change is coming, it isn't going to occur on their terms. They haven't figured this part out yet, they are still trying to tie our hands by using their bought and paid for political stooges. In their best case scenario the biggest NFT exchange will be owned by Coca Cola and will consist of people handing them money for jpegs because that's what this crypto stuff is all about right?

Sorry dipshits, it isn't going to play out like that.

The cat is out of the bag, we can operate independently of you and ultimately we have the final word. The current crypto natives, and the generations to come are not going to play your game. More nations will adopt Bitcoin as their currency and escape the tyranny of a fiat reserve currency that has been oft weaponized against them. You want us to own nothing, while you own everything. No longer will we be digitally bought and sold as consumers of advertisements, you want to try to sell me something? Pay up sucker. In other words you had better start getting used to disappointment.

Our counter culture will eventually become the predominant culture. It won't look the same, but I am hopeful that it will look far better than what we have inherited. We will own our art. Gatekeepers will not be allowed to decide who hears our songs, reads our books, or watches our movies. We will build a new financial system based on sound money, and an even playing field for all. We will resist censorship by being immune to it in the first place. Our ideas will compete in the free market, and rise or fall on their own merit.

The day of the degen will eventually be over, this is inevitable. I am almost certain that when it is all said and done we will have won. The part we play will eventually be unnecessary as our spiritual and physical descendants build a new civilization from the wild west we inhabited. Turns out this isn't bittersweet at all.

Thanks for reading, as always. I hope you enjoyed this piece. A like, follow, and retweet goes far and do me a solid by giving me a follow on Sigle on your way out. That's all I have to say for now. Until next time, Jack.

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