This is sharp thinking, kudos to Felix for sending it on. Housing prices in the US (plus numerous other countries) were already akin to a Ponzi scheme in the runup to 2008. They were paper values sustained by myth, lending home-buyers an illusion of stock-market wealth, directly translatable into cash by home-equity loans. After the crash this configuration ALREADY gave rise to a neofascist wave in the US. We know this for a fact because the Tea Party originated in the media room of the Board of Trade in Chicago. But interestingly - because it affected so many people who never gave a thought to speculative profits - the housing crash also gave rise to a powerful socialist movement in this country.
Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto-garbage has primarily attracted speculators, especially of the small-wallet, middle-class type. The much-discussed NFT phenomenon represents a bid by the temporarily wealthy to lend themselves a cultural halo imbued with the aesthetic refinements of people like Elon Musk. Apparently it also represents a "great white hope" for many hackers and digital artists too -- but don't miss the ocean for the ship of fools. The neofascist wave has not yet fallen. Even bigger storms are brewing. I wonder, will all those former friends and allies with their heads currently in the ether snap back to something real when the lightning strikes? On Sun, Jan 9, 2022 at 12:11 PM Felix Stalder <[email protected]> wrote: > The unraveling of large Ponzi schemes is a hugely destructive affair, > all the more because such schemes thrive in societies were official > institutions are either weak or captured by criminal interests and > people are desperate. In the 1999 nettime reader, there is an account of > the Albanian pyramid scheme which brought the country to the brink of > collapse. > > SUBJECT: PYRAMID SCHEMES: > ALBANIA 1996–98 > FROM: GENC GREVA <[email protected]> > DATE: WED, 30 SEP 1998 11:22:29 -0400 > > https://www.nettime.org/nettime/DOCS/zkp5/pdf/markets.pdf > > Of course, the situation today with crypto-currencies is much more > extreme today, simply because of the size of the bubble that cannot but > burst at some point. Below is an excerpt of a recent article that tries > to think through the consequences for the US. And Europe is probably not > that much behind. > > > ------------------------------------ > > > The Ticking Bomb of Crypto Fascism > The crypto market’s inevitable crash will pull America’s politics in an > even scarier direction. > HAMILTON NOLAN JANUARY 4, 2022 > > https://inthesetimes.com/article/the-ticking-bomb-of-crypto-fascism > > <....> > > > The crash of crypto is bound to happen for the same reason that all > Ponzi schemes eventually crumble: There is not an infinite supply of new > people willing to pay ever-increasing prices for the stuff that you > currently own. The more interesting question is not whether many > small-time investors will lose a lot of money on their crypto > investments, but what will happen when they do? > > Here is what will happen when hundreds of thousands of younger investors > are smashed by the crypto crash: They will be radicalized. This will not > be experienced as simply a decline in prices, because crypto represents > much more than a simple investment to its most fervent adherents — it > represents a way out of the American trap. It represents the existence > of opportunity, the possibility of economic mobility, the validation of > the idea that you, a regular, hard working person without connections, > can go from the bottom to the top, thanks to nothing but your own savvy > choices. When that myth is shattered, disillusionment with the American > system will follow. Unfortunately, given the realities of the moment, > these newly disillusioned and radicalized and angry and broke people are > far more likely to turn to fascism than to socialism. > > Crypto, a portfolio of inherently worthless online tokens, is already > sustained almost entirely by myth. Its value proposition is so > inscrutable that when it melts down, almost any narrative could be > crafted to plausibly explain it. It was the Fed! The government! The > leftists who hate entrepreneurialism! It was the dark and devious forces > of the shadowy deep state! Anything will do. It will enforce the priors > of those who placed their faith in crypto as a good substitute for the > American dream — a crowd of Barstool Sports readers and tech > libertarians and the types of people who used to buy silver bars from > Alex Jones before they turned to Bitcoin. The crypto-evangelist > population skews heavily towards a sort of New Age libertarian, > anti-government right wing-ism, and when they see their financial dreams > evaporate, they will likely set their sights for revenge on the things > they already despise. The broad effect will lead to a large number of > newly angry, bitter, disillusioned, hopeless people who are too steeped > in the culture wars to turn towards working class solidarity, and > instead turn towards hate. > > > > -- > | |||||||||||||||||| http://felix.openflows.com | > | Open PGP | http://felix.openflows.com/pgp.txt | > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected] > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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