Politics of Inevitability

In his book "The Road to Unfreedom", Timothy Snyder talks about the concept of the "politics of inevitability". By this he means a politics in which statements such as "unfettered capitalism leads to more democracy" and "increased globalization is good for everyone" are taken as inevitable truths.

It is fair to say such statements might be true, but politics always happens in a context, so to take such doctrines as inevitable is a big mistake. It depends.

The cryptocurrency space is riddles with such doctrine; "Bitcoin leads to freedom", "More privacy is always good", "Taxation is theft", etc.

Money accumulates (& hides)

There is a wealth of evidence that - in an unregulated market - money accumulates. There is also evidence that money wants to hide. Incentives to avoid taxation etc. create pressures that produce this effect.

Money is power. Since money accumulates, power accumulates, and creates incentives and pressures to further this accumulation.

The cryprocurrency-road to fascism

The accumulation of money and power in combination with the politics of inevitability leads to what Snyder calls the "politics of eternity". This is a state where no change is possible, history only repeats, and it matters not what you do, only who you are. This is fascism.

Accumulated money and power produce incentives for such politics. If no change is possible, wealth & power is kept and never lost.

By providing the world with unregulated money, free to accumulate and hide without possible intervention, cryptocurrencies paves a path from the politics of inevitability to the politics of eternity, and thus fascism.

It is not inevitable

To dogfood the argument, going down that road is not inevitable. I for one sure hope we can and will avoid it. But I think it is important to know and understand that this path exists, and that the incentives that can produce it are very real, as we continue to build this brave new world.

Enjoy.