By Bitcoin Tydskrif - 7 maande gelede - Leestyd: 8 minute
Bitcoin As 'n Stigting Vir Gemeenskapsbou
Community is crucial and that never has been clearer to me than it was this last month, as wildfires claimed 10,000 hectares of the area around my home, leaving many people with nothing except the clothes they were wearing when they escaped.
Op sy hoogtepunt is ons brand deur brandbestryders van regoor Portugal bestry. Meer as duisend man, 400 brandweerwaens en 14 vliegtuie het uiteindelik die oorhand gekry. Ons het die massiewe rookpluim dopgehou en nie een van ons het baie geslaap vir die vier nagte wat dit gebrand het nie, terwyl ons kyk hoe 'n naderende oranje gloed die lug verlig. In sy nasleep, noudat die brandweermanne die heldhaftige taak voltooi het om die vuurdraak dood te maak, is dit die krag van die gemeenskap wat na vore tree.
Amongst the local small businesses, there is an almost festive atmosphere. Stories of last minute escapes are shared by those affected, damages are compared. Together, we take reckoning of what has been lost and celebrate the small victories over the fire. A home saved here, a family reunited with their livestock and pets there, a house not touched by the flames even though everything around it has burned.
People have poured in from far and wide to volunteer. Donations of food, clothing and household items are piled high against the back wall of a local restaurant and shared out amongst those who need them. Gender roles seem to be falling naturally into place amongst the volunteers, with the men mostly taking the heavy tasks of clearing scorched earth and charred trees to clear the way for people to start rebuilding and the women cooking for the teams of men and the families who have lost their homes. Now, a month on from the fire, the progress is very visible. Fallen roofs have been shovelled up and cleared, structures checked and cleaned in preparation for placing new beams and rebuilding. The melted pipes of irrigation systems have been pulled out of the ground and taken away. Personal possessions have been sifted through and what can be saved has been secured. We have received excellent information sessions on how to go about managing burned land, what to clear, what to leave, how to prevent land erosion and when and how to start replanting. With the first rain of the autumn coming in strong, the first sign of green is already showing again all over the blackened landscape.
A dear friend of mine, herself a dedicated bitcoiner, put it beautifully in a message to me when I told her how overwhelming it is to see people coming together this way. “This is what people do when they govern themselves,” she wrote, “It’s beautiful.”
Nooit was ware woorde gespreek nie. Ek dink nie ek het nog ooit gesien hoe 'n gemeenskap so glad in rat gly nie. In lande – soos die meeste Europese lande – waar regerings steeds in 'n sekere mate funksioneer ('n mens kan redeneer, oor funksionering) blyk dit dat baie mense kontak met die gemeenskap verloor het. Terwyl kerke eens die hoekstene vir hierdie verband sou verskaf het, is die meerderheid mense nie meer verbonde aan enige godsdienstige vereniging nie en as jy hulle vra oor hul gemeenskap of "stam", soek die meeste na 'n antwoord. Hulle praat oor 'n groep wat losweg saamgestel is uit medewerkers, sportmaats, vriende wat nie noodwendig naby is nie en bure met wie hulle 'n meestal toevallige band van nabyheid deel. Die weefsel van ons samelewings is nou 'n oop weefsel en baie individue glip eenvoudig daardeur in isolasie, met net 'n paar drade hier en daar vas.
Vanuit 'n historiese en sosiologiese perspektief is die verlies aan gemeenskap diep kommerwekkend. Mense het nie gemeenskappe vir die pret gevorm nie. Ons het nie saam gegroepeer nie, want dit was lekkerder om saam met 'n maat die walle van die kasteel te jag of te beman (hoewel dit seker ook so was). Deur die menslike geskiedenis, maak nie saak wat die era of geografiese omgewing is nie, mense het saam gegroepeer, want saam is en was ons nog altyd veiliger, doeltreffender en meer in staat om ons konteks tot ons voordeel te beïnvloed, of dit nou 'n vuur bestry, 'n vyandelike aanval is. of politieke oorreik. Met die risiko om soos 'n politieke slagspreuk te klink, saam is ons werklik sterker.
Vroue speel tradisioneel 'n deurslaggewende rol in die skep en binding van gemeenskappe, grootliks omdat hulle sosiaal en biologies baie aangespoor word om dit te doen – 'n vrou se eerste beskermer vir haarself en haar kinders is natuurlik haar man – maar buite hom of in sy afwesigheid is dit sy gemeenskap wat haar tweede lyn van beskerming is en waarop sy staatmaak vir veiligheid en hulp in tye van nood. Daar kan oortuigend geargumenteer word dat dit die verbrokkeling van die gemeenskap is wat ten minste gedeeltelik verantwoordelik is vir die stygende statistieke van depressie en angs onder vroue van alle ouderdomme, maar veral die jonger geslagte in Noord-Europa en die VSA. Sosiale media blyk 'n gemeenskap in hordes volgelinge te repliseer, maar as 'n plaasvervanger sny dit eenvoudig nie, en verskaf slegs dopamienverslawing in plaas van ware konneksie. Vanuit 'n geestesgesondheidsperspektief is verlies aan gemeenskap net so rampspoedig as wat dit deur 'n historiese en sosiologiese lens gesien word.
Dit is duidelik dat dit nie net vroue is wat kwesbaar is vir hierdie katastrofiese afswaai nie. Oor die geslagte heen maak statistieke vir swak geestesgesondheid, insluitend isolasie, depressie, selfmoord en verslawing, depressiewe lees en hul toenemende voorkoms, ten spyte van die toenemende lewensgemak vir die meeste mense in die ontwikkelde wêreld, selfs meer so. Dit is 'n gebrek aan gemeenskap wat so 'n leemte in mense se lewens laat, bowenal 'n gebrek aan 'n gevoel dat hulle bydra tot 'n saak wat groter is as hul eie persoonlike welstand. Dit is dalk naïef – maar ek kan nie help om te voel dat die aktiewe stigting en stimulering van die groei van plaaslike gemeenskappe ongelooflike herstellende potensiaal vir ons kollektiewe welstand kan hê nie.
Which is just one of the reasons that it is so incredibly heartening to see a community here in full strength, drawing together to support and provide for one another, each member contributing what they have to offer. For some it’s money, which is being channelled straight into providing emergency relief or donated to the people whose livelihood was dependent upon their home. For others, it’s muscle and machine power, in chainsawing, clearing and cleaning. A few people have dedicated their time to coordinating the influx of volunteers. For those of us who have no idea how to wield a chainsaw and whose lack of muscle power threatens to make us more of a hindrance than a help on the front line of the clear up, it’s kitchen duty, providing food for those working and those in need. That community is vital on all the levels of Maslow’s pyramid of human needs is clearly exemplified in the wake of our fire.
Maar hoe om te werk te gaan om die saad en wortels van die gemeenskap op ander plekke te herinvoer, waar dit met die verlies van 'n gedeelde geloof en mededingende sosiale verhoudings in alle aspekte van die lewe, dit so lank verlore gegaan het? Kan ons as individue en gesinne hierdie groei bevorder?
As a fellow bitcoiner, I think you know what I would propose. Besides its myriad other aspects, Bitcoin provides a unique foundation for community. We’ve all experienced it if we have attended Bitcoin events; I’d bet my bottom dollar (if either you or I still believed in the value of the dollar) that you had more in common with the person you had a five minute chat with in the queue of the bathroom at the Bitcoin conference than you do with your co-workers, who you have known and worked with for years.
Bitcoin is about shared values and a shared knowledge that the system we are living under just doesn’t work. Its capacity to lay the foundation for community (not to mention the rest of its cornucopia of economic, technical, social and philosophical gifts) is second to none. A community based around Bitcoin is a whole new and unique model which has the potential to fill the void which other failed (fiat) models of community have left.
Those of us who choose to already experience some of this Bitcoin community through Telegram, Twitter and Nostr. Amongst other Bitcoiners, we can, to put it simply, just go ahead and skip the small talk. Mostly, we’re all aware of the role governments, big pharma, mainstream media and the food giants play. Once these issues are no longer a topic of conversation, it’s beautiful to watch what emerges – we’re all pretty much in agreement about what has broadly gone wrong in the past so we tend to focus on the future. These conversations are incredibly valuable. I, for one, love the thought provoking contact and the sense of online community – but there’s the danger that those online communities and the people with whom I socialize and the businesses from whom I buy the goods I need in daily life can feel like two separate worlds. It takes some steps to bring those two worlds together but I do feel that they are very much worth taking. Shared values make for strong bonds and as you build a Bitcoin community around you, you get to experience the luxury of this.
Delivering regular Bitcoin education sessions and watching as businesses around me start to accept Bitcoin is, for me, planting the seeds of a whole extra layer of community. It could be said that we have an obligation – not only to ourselves and our families, but to our communities, to seed and foster the growth of new, Bitcoin based communities. Doing so will bring us huge benefits. Not only will we be able to transact and save in real money amongst ourselves, building parallel economies which are uncensorable and tailor made to fit our own needs (because we are incentivized to orange pill businesses we most want to buy from), we will have access to the social, philosophical and even moral benefits that being part of a true community brings and which most of us have never yet fully experienced.
Kan Bitcoin lead us back to a golden age of community, where all of us can experience these benefits? I think the answer is that it probably can. Some of the green shoots of it can already be seen growing out of the ash left by the collapse of fiat models of community. So if I may be so bold as to offer you some advice – go out there to that shop, restaurant or bar you go to often and say those magic words: “Do you accept Bitcoin tog? ”
Dit is 'n gasplasing deur Holly Young. Menings wat uitgespreek word, is heeltemal hul eie en weerspieël nie noodwendig dié van BTC Inc of Bitcoin Magazine.
Oorspronklike bron: Bitcoin Tydskrif