We live in large world that is continually getting smaller through travel and of course, technology. This shrinking brings with it a huge range of issues for as humans, we are wired to be wary of strangers. This is why we form communities that have a lot of cultural and value overlap so that we can feel somewhat connected and safe.
If we look at nationality for example, it is possible to see a diverse range of people brought somewhat together under one flag which connects all but, also has a lot of issues as we can witness throughout history and by the looks of things, in the future history too.
But, for any nation to function well it requires a diverse range of personalities who hold a wide range of skills, interests and life goals. This eclectic range of people causes a lot of conflicts and differing opinions but is also a source of inspiration for innovation. It is this continual problem solving and reevaluation of values that helps drive humanity forward.
Within a nation there are citizens that act within the system in various ways but essentially, we are also within the meta system of the globe and are all world citizens. This sounds quite silly but we all have some effect on everyone else through the ways we choose to act or not act.
Steemit is a good example of the shrinking world and also of the world citizen concept as the representation of nationality, religion, culture and values are very wide indeed and the various approaches implemented by people on the platform cause many conflicts between users.
Steemit has the chance to redefine what it means to be a nation in many ways and already has a working, growing and usable global currency with which to operate and interact with other nations, current and coming. I thought it would be interesting to go through what citizenship means and would love if people could add more detail in the comments section.
There are many definitions of what a good citizen is that look at education, science literacy or one's willingness to stand up for what they believe in or for the general value systems of the nation in which they operate.
"The first requisite of a good citizen in this Republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his weight." - Theodore Roosevelt
The problem of course at Steemit is that there is no nation, no flag, no governing body. It is a decentralized system where effectively anyone can enter from any point and act in whatever manner they choose, freely. Well, almost freely as the flag system and the voting system is some kind of restriction on users. But, all in all, a Steemit citizen is largely uncensored and unbounded by a governing set of rules.
This makes 'pulling their weight' difficult as this will inevitably mean many different things for different types of users but, what the overall arch means is that a 'good' citizen does what they can to add some value to the nation. This can be approached in many different ways of course by each user.
There are the educators who look to increase awareness of Steemit, Steem, cryptocurrencies, posting advice and a whole range of technical information. There are also the educators that focus on the walking world interactions users may experience across health, psychology, philosophy, society, politics, science, religion. Education is a large part of any nation's long-term view and there is a lot of value in good quality and practicality.
There are of course the artists too and as I see it, this is also a type of education. Our real-world is continually decreasing access to art as children and as a result, creativity on a whole is also reducing. At Steemit there are painters, drawers, writers, photographers who all bring their unique skills into the platform and can inspire others to explore their own creative pursuits.
There are also the financiers, bankers, backers, patrons who support a whole range of activities including the development of the platform and the support of actors within the nation to continue doing what they do. It is these people who can slowly spread and empower others to share their investment load.
Like in any society, there are also the seedier sides of citizenship, the ones that are looking to take more than they provide. The spammers, the plagiarists, the 100% self-voters and the many scammers looking to fleece other citizens out of their value. Although these people are undesirable in large numbers, dealing with them actually helps drive innovation and strengthen the platform's underlying value system.
There are obviously many more categories and a lot of detail and caveats can go into each section however, that should be enough for consideration at this point.
This Steemit nation of ours is in its infancy and has a long way to go hopefully and the more I am here, the more I write and think about the opportunity, the more I speak with members within, the more I am willing to invest of myself. We really do have a chance to impact on our walking world and create something that is value adding for all involved but, this does take investment from each citizen.
What I think is that each user should take a little time to consider their role within Steemit and find a way they can both benefit from and add value to the platform. Consider what it means to be a citizen of a decentralized global nation where there is no manufactured culture, no organized religion, no common value system or any other authority dictating action.
The incentive is of course there to take advantage of the system as is but, that limits future value which is of course a short-term view that undercuts all. Patience itself should be exercised at Steemit and many forget that the site itself is only a little more than a year and a half old and has a lot of maturing to do.
Like any new nation, there are going to be many teething problems and those who do not want it to succeed. The thing is that if we do our homework and work largely together, all of these challenges can be largely mitigated and we can move faster and further than any nation in history.
What this takes though is large amounts of people willing to act well as there is no government to make our decisions for us. We govern ourselves which means if we fail, it will also be because of us. No one to blame, full responsibility.
This is why Steemit is so attractive to me personally as because in here, I get to decide my direction without being governed by an average for all. There is massive value in this concept and it will spread if we create it to do so and that will ramp up benefits for all citizens. Who knows where all of this will lead but, it could lead to a new kind of sovereignty where we are borderless and each person within is empowered to be their best for themselves and each other.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]
This is a repost from about four months ago and with so many new signups and so much dodgy behaviour out there currently, I figure it is worth a repost. It is really difficult for me in many ways to talk about these things without feeling like some kind of idealist but, I do believe that if people pulled somewhat together and some of those with influence currently gaming the system, supported instead, it would be a brilliant incubator for a whole range of new developments that will affect our world. I was looking for another post I have written but can't find it now. Essentially though, the process to our success as a community is quite simple if you follow an ancient philosophy: Don't be a dick!
"Don't be a dick" Very well said. We should not take advantage of it instead we work together towards its success.
Another great post, inviting lots of thinking.
"Whale wars" re differences of opinion seem to be consuming steem ATM
possibly due to bot voting, possibly due to political correctness (ie diff opinions on a subject) but the thing that stands out to me is the inequality.
And as much as steem is a "distributed" system, it is this inequality (a whale can wipe out months of hard work by a minnow in just seconds) that may lead to the downfall of the system IMHO.
I see that FB is now introducing a "payment" system for content.
Given that FB is already established I wonder if that will kill steem before it really gets off the ground?.
Steem needs to focus on a balanced community, rather than a "welfare system" of whales giving handouts/ups IMHO.
I get the "concept" of community on steem, I just have yet to see it actually working. ie most rewards (90%?) go to a few % (1-2%?) from what I have sen/read in the stats
First of all great post. When i was reading i thought, yes we might be citizens but there are no restrictions or punishment system,when there is a good reward system, but 2 paragraphs later you mentioned that. I think physical contact is the key to stand up for someone else or for a cause. And that makes nations strong because they breathe the same air, they have same history. But the percentage of supporters without any benefit is higher here than the real world i think.
The spammers, the plagiarists, the 100% self-voters and the many scammers looking to fleece other citizens out of their value
Isn't that the same in real world? Didn't most of the successful people vote for themselves?
To be honest i'm a newbie here and outside of the people i've met here and made great conversations with, i don't think i am going to think about other citizens that i don't know when i am going to make a move. But when i make a move or make a stand in my real life i think about my people even tho i never met them. Well i'm a citizen of my country for 27 years, i hope my thoughts changes as i know the community closer.
These are too philosophical thoughts, maybe that's why i can't explain myself because English is not my native language. I hope you understand my point. Thanks.
Steemit is kind of like a little micro world and works similarly. Everyone's moves have an effect on those of others in some way.
Yes, but there are differences in how they use the power they get. Plus, what is success? Is it the most money for an individual or the overall strength of the community that individual lives with and has made their success possible?
I understand enough and thank you for taking the time to comment. I do know it can be difficult for a non-native speaker but the more you do it, the better you will get too :)
Platform works like the old capitalist system which government has no restriction or rules, so as a result of the system people will be divided into groups and start to consume each other and the nation in the end. If there are more people like you creating awareness about future and importance of the community, rather than telling them how can they be richer, we can prevent the collapse. Thanks for your time and understanding :)
Great post @tarazkp! As a steem newbie myself, I am in awe at this platform and also taking notice of the behavior of users here. There's a lot of dodgy posts, upvote begging, etc - but amidst all of that coal is a wealth of diamonds.
The more I dig in and research, the more I realize just how amazing this opportunity is. Steem really does provide the basic foundation we need to become a sovereign and benevolent society.
I think that much of the "dirt" so to speak, is simply a symptom of the old system/way of doing things. When that sort of energy comes into a new system that operates on a higher level, it can take some time for people to adapt.
My hope is that adaptation does happen on a mass scale here, and people start to see the light and make a commitment to be of service to the hive, rather than try to leech it.
The motto of the old oil-powered world is "what can you do for me?"
The motto of the new steem-powered world is "what can I do for us?"
We are trained to believe that our lives and actions don't matter - that we can do whatever the ego wants and that live/society will go on - that we should just shut up and get back to work at the balloon factory. This sort of mentality is what leads to people acting in self-serving ways.
In the steem world, everyone matters. Everyone has an opportunity to thrive. When steemians start to see that their success is dependent on their ability to make the whole platform successful, then things will really start to shift.
We have an opportunity to carry out a cultural alchemy here, and help elevate old-world, base consciousness up to a place of meta-cognition where we all feel a deep sense of purpose to ourselves, eachother, and the entire organism.
I think it starts with rewiring and reprogramming our pillaged brains and broken hearts, and helping our fellow humans do the same.
It's time to grow up and be humans.
This is our task.
And I have full faith that we'll succeed ;)
The motto of the old oil-powered world is "what can you do for me?"
The motto of the new steem-powered world is "what can I do for us?"
I have a post somewhere along the lines of this analogy :)
There is so much potential here yet there are also many short-sighterd individuals looking to take what they can and buy back into the past.
Agreed. The problem IMHO is the way the playing field was created / setup.
It created many whales early on, that now dominate/control the world via tools/methods that have far to much power. A bit like MSM does in the 'real' world. A few creating the reality for most via a controlled enviro.
Steem need to look at the rewards system in general.
All just my humble opinion :-)
Yes, it's easy to see all the ways the system has been gamed, but thats just a natural evolution of things.. Theres always going to be people that come in and try to take more than they give, simply because thats what they have been conditioned to do. That sort of behavior will start to dissipate when those people gain perspective on their fruitless attempts at getting satisfaction through egoic gain. They know no other way.
I'm sure that steem will evolve as a platform as needed - but I don't in any way feel like a victim of the earlybirds (whales) getting so much intiial influence and tipping the scales in their favor. They earned their positions.
To me, it's simply a wakeup call that we can't do this alone.
Its not about doing it alone.
Our connectivity and togetherness is whats going to pave the way to the life and world that we're all here for.
This is why voting bots are so popular - they create a sort of pseudo-community of resource allocation and cooperation. The problem is that they are inherently empty and ultimately just feeding into the same purposelessness and isolation that leads to chasing $$$.
I think the key is to join forces with others to create concentrations of value, and to do it with a deep sense of purpose that goes far above and beyond money and lambos. :)
Everyone wants to be a whale - but we have the ability to come together and form new types of alien organism and social ecosystems.
There's always a way forward.
Ah awesome :) Yeah I feel like i notice new layers of depth to the simple concept of "steem" every day. Like how theres the analogy of the sea (whales, dolphins, etc) - but we aren't swimming in water, we're swimming in steem, which is like water but elevated ;)
Also, countries are generally divided by landmass borders. There are many continents, but only one ocean. I would love to know how @dan and @ned came up with the name and what sort of meaning they embedded in it.
Regarding short sighted individuals - I have a feeling that this sort of dodgy behavior is actually a good thing, because it motivates us to get our shit together and start moving mountains.
For this experiment to be a successful alchemy, we need to assemble on a scale far larger than we've seen before - a collaboration of collaborations.. All the foundational elements are here - its just a matter of elevating the conversation and finding effective ways to make big things happen.
It starts with comments like these :)
This reminded me of the movie - The butterfly effect !! Have you seen it??
I wish the world too was united like the way steemit is !! Sometimes i feel that they divide us on the basis of nationality.
No, but I understand the concept.
You really should watch that movie. After reading so many things that you write about, I am sure you will love it. Science fiction is my favourite genre when it comes to movies !! I believe you too must be an appreciator of the same genre. Aren't you. If not, I believe you must be someone who like documentaries. Correct me if I am wrong.
I think it has Justin Kutcher in it. No thanks. :P
I don't watch TV or movies very much. a couple hours maximum per month.
I'm looking forward to a day where the use of crypto currencies is the norm. There will always be scammers and con artists everywhere, even in the traditional fiat currency financial system. Just hope that Steemit produces more value than it sucks up value.
Investment in cryptocurrency like Steemit is the best.i don't care if it going down now but surely with Steemit I believed our future is secured
really good steemit post the way you are giving a good message to the world.
Resteemed.
sangat bermanfaat
love to read it, thanks for sharing...
what a philosophy.... you used best article in your post.... i waiting for your next post... keep it up....
this is great investing sir and thanks for sharing this, this is something new to me.
nice post body as i think the eclectic range of people causes a lot of conflicts and differing opinions more than it is a source of inspiration for innovation.
this is a informative post... thanks for sharing
love to read it.
thanks for your valuable post
Steem Nation! I really like seeing people who live in the third world doing well on Steemit, I like the fact you could be living in extreme poverty and still have the same chance someone living in a mansion has here.
"Don't be a dick" Very well said. We should not take advantage of it instead we work together towards its success. Citizen is simple word but it has connotation to some. And here in Steemit, we came from different nationalities,from different careers or no career at all but we share the same idea i.e in order for the platform to succeed we have to help one another.
@tarazkp Oopps , I've got that transaction broadcast the first time I reply, hence the second reply.
No problem, it happens sometimes :)
Yeah, Steemit is a great example of an anarchist complex, don’t you think?
Votes boss