Decentralisation is taking over the centre of everything
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
– W.B Yeats
These words from the wonderful Irish poet in his poem The Second Coming may not have been centred (boom-boom) on Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency that did not exist when Mr Yeats was polishing his pen and poetry, but the centre certainly cannot hold any longer.
The first two lines of this poem are supposed to relate to the chaos that would follow when the centre fell and the world fell prey to the Manichean forces that centrality is supposed to keep apart and hold together.
Moreover, Yeats imagines a future where the haters have the power and the good people are weak; blood-dimmed indeed. That could be fascism or that could be crypto evangelists, read it as you will.
As most readers know, we reached centre-breaking-point about four years ago when a lunatic was elected to the White House and everything fell apart followed by an ongoing pandemic that’s only goodness was that it got rid of the lunatic just before vaccines could have been claimed by him.
The world is more becalmed now, more afraid and while lockdowns have prevented anarchy, there is surely more to come, especially if the lunatic returns or somebody worse. But decentralisation may be our savour.
If there is one thing that is likely to be the story of the next decade, it is probably going to be the complete decentralisation of society. Those who know crypto have known this for years – the decentralisation of money has been the goal, a better world when the centre cannot hold.
Decentralisation is everywhere
They are the pioneers and leaders of this new movement because decentralisation is everywhere now, especially among the young. In a world where wealth is so shamefully distributed, who wants a centralised schooling leading to a centralised job, which certainly will not bring wealth, only modern-day slavery to those who have no intention of sharing?
Furthermore, who wants to go to the centralised office any more? All the horror of commuting and the waste of time getting to work. Whatever the prophets of work say, it really will never be the same again. Working from home has always been the right way to arrange a life if those skills to do so are learnt.
Then there’s food. Who wants carbon-burning food that has come across the oceans when it’s better for everybody, especially the planet, that food is grown and eaten locally.
That’s why so many kids (aka super-smart entrepreneurs) have side-hustles, whether that’s the Bitcoin girls and boys, those who deal clothes on Depop, or those who focus on their social networks and being influencers.
Once upon a time, those kids all wanted to be on TV, now they all want to be on Instagram or Snap or whatever platform I haven’t heard about. Even TV has been decentralised because nobody watches the major ‘networks’ any more and why people are refusing to pay for their TV licences, another form of centralisation.
A centralised panopticon
People want choice and they want to be at the centre of their own things, not at the mercy of a centralised panopticon that will rule their lives as technology tries to harness this revolution to keep the people down.
The pandemic is enabling this. Travellers are being more decentralised as the world becomes more local and countries, even states in countries such as Australia where people are kept apart after ‘local’ or ‘decentralised’ outbreaks.
There is danger in this revolution as people start doing it for themselves. The world order has shown it will not be rolled over without a fight, look at how traditional money power-owners have tried to discredit crypto.
Compound that with education, work, offices, travelling and even socialising and there will be hell to pay as Bob Dylan recently sang. The world is changing, has already changed and is desperately trying to do more changing before it’s too late.
That’s why decentralisation, among many other things, is going to save the world. Or as WB Yeats might have said now by swapping two words around. “The worst lack all conviction, while the best are full of passionate intensity.”
Just like the crypto enthusiasts we all know and love.
The centre cannot hold, thank God for that.
Monty