The Catch 22 of our Time.

Human history can be divided into different eras, each of which has seen societies emerge around their latest technology advancements and created living situations very different from one another. We started with the hunter gatherers tribes, which then turned into agricultural societies. Here for the first time, a single city can amass enough population and we see the emergence of the firsts empires; China, Mongolia, Persia, Egypt, Greece and eventually the Romans. After this stage we get the feudal or Middle Ages, followed by the dark ages which culminate in the renaissance. Here the industrial revolution happens and we end up in the latest era which we tend to call “Modern” Society.

The funny thing is that looking back it is really easy for us to see the period in which each era ended, where the transition period from one era to the next takes place and when the new one begins.

But looking at the records of each one, it seems that for the people living in those times this was not clear at all. We can safely say that the Roman Empire ended around the year 500, yet people didn’t acknowledge this until the year 800. Meaning that all those who lived in that transition time still believed the empire was alive and well, when in fact, it wasn’t.

For everyone who chronicled those years, it was a time of chaos and understandably so. We can’t operate effectively in the world if we don’t understand the time we are living in.

I would argue that our era ended around the year 2000 and we are going through the transition from the Modern or Industrial Society to the Information Society. The revolution started with the Microprocessor, the Computers and the Internet. The speed in which information can travel around the world is bound to change every aspect of our lives. In doing so, the society we’ll build around it is going to be much more different than what we have now.

The system unfortunately resists change, the powers want to keep their authority. By doing so, they have to turn ever more tyrannical and oppressive.

At the same time, the media that is supposed to be informing us is deliberately using misinformation and censorship to pretend that business is going on as usual. Of course, this cannot go much longer.

When you look at the economy this becomes undoubtedly clear. The debt we have reached as a society is crazy and the only way that we can pay it off is by printing large sums of money. Unfortunately, every time you do so, the cost of living goes up. As do wages, but they never keep up. In effect this means that those who struggle will do so even more. Where the people who are holding hard assets (gold, real estate and some stocks) will benefit massively as they will all increase its value. People who saved their whole life (as we were told to do when we were young) will see all that they worked so hard for, devalued. Inflation is often called a hidden tax, and it generates a “Reverse Robin Hood effect” in which money (or purchasing power) is taken from the poor and given to the rich.

This has been happening for a long time, but now it has reached a tipping point. There is no way to pay the outstanding debts without printing and inflating our currency. Yet, the divide between the rich and the poor cannot be widened any more, without the risk of social upheaval.

On one hand, we would destroy the economy if we don’t pay our debt. But if we do, on the other hand, social revolution would be almost inevitable.

This is the Catch 22 of our time.

In the end, the new revolution will bring unprecedented levels of freedom to each individual, leading onto a flourishing new society. But, in the short to medium term, things will probably turn rather ugly for those who don’t pay attention.

I don’t believe the people in charge of this are evil, but they seem to be trapped. No matter what they choose to do, pain at a global level will surely follow.

Bitcoin appears as a shining light at this stage. A way for any person, no matter where they are in the world (as long as they have an internet connection), to access a safeguard against inflation. A way to own an asset that cannot be tempered  with, there will only be 21 million of them (this will NEVER change).

An asset you can carry in your pocket and take it anywhere you go. That allows you to establish economical transactions with anyone across the globe, knows no boundaries and cannot be stopped.

If there was a way for the government to adopt this new technology, we could see a beautiful transition into the new era. Unfortunately, this would mean the loss of a huge deal of power and control to them. So they’ll probably only do it when there is no other choice. But we (as individuals) can start doing the transition now, so we are ready, when the chips fall.

Usually a transition from an era to the next would take hundreds of years but, due to how fast our technology is speeding up the rates of change, we are more likely than not to see it all unfold in a single life span.

Be ready, the world in which we will live looks very different than the one which we inhabit today. Pay attention! Be aware! And have a great day.

You can also watch a video of me explaining this ideas or listen to the Podcast version of it 🙂