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🔔 Forget Russia & Ukraine, There's Tension Everywhere

utrust

This was going to be an article about web3.0 and the reality of the freedom it promises. We might come back to it. But first...

WTAF IS TRUDEAU THINKING?

By now, surely everyone's aware that he's not a skilled politician. But it's still amazing that he went there.

In case you're not aware, his solution to the freedom convoy/ truckers protesting the vaccine mandate is this 👇

Deputy PM/Finance Minister Freeland elaborated, just in case there was any doubt over the implications...

 This is literal madness.

Canada's Deputy Prime Minister says, under the Emergencies Act, banks can immediately freeze or suspend bank accounts without a court order and be protected from civil liability.

Is this still a free country? pic.twitter.com/IzAALIxzbB— Greg Price (@greg_price11) February 14, 2022 

... Authorising Canadian financial institutions to temporarily cease providing financial services where the institution suspects that the account is being used to further the illegal blockades and occupations.

This order covers both personal and corporate accounts. 

As of today, a bank or other financial service provider will be able to immediately freeze or suspend an account without a court order. In doing so, they will be protected against civil liability for actions taken in good faith.

Sure, the truckers are breaking laws and should be punished, but what kind of precedent does this set for future government interventions?!

Suspected of breaking the law: Your personal and/or business accounts can be frozen with no due process.

How this was viewed as the best choice is anyone's guess... 👇

 The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met. 1/3— Canadian Civil Liberties Association (@cancivlib) February 15, 2022 

The reactions so far have basically fallen into two camps:

😲 Canada is now Cuba/China/Controlled by the WEF (& Schwab has a bust of Lenin in his office you know).

🙌 Excellent work Justin. Thank-you for putting a halt to all the insurgent illegal actions.

Political point-scorers had a field day...

 To put things in perspective-

India:

>Farmers’ protest lasted for 378 days

>11 rounds of talks/negotiations between GoI and farmers

Canada:

>Protests started on January 27th 2022

>ZERO negotiations

>National emergency invoked in less than a month

Which country is “liberal”? https://t.co/cHCsRildfg— Nandini Tandon (@NANDlNl) February 15, 2022 

 The intention of 🇨🇦PM Trudeau to freeze the bank accounts of citizens who oppose his insane measures without a court order and at his own discretion is deeply frightening and disgusting. Citizens of 🇨🇦❤️, oppose these authoritarian measures and withdraw your money from the banks.— Mislav Kolakusic MEP 🇭🇷🇪🇺 (@mislavkolakusic) February 15, 2022 

 Are these the people who like to give lessons to other countries about democracy and freedom?

This is one of the top ranking countries in the “democracy index”?

Your credibility on these topics is now worth 0.pic.twitter.com/wCjh9bXwDt— Nayib Bukele 🇸🇻 (@nayibbukele) February 15, 2022 

All good fun, but "Play stupid games, win stupid prizes"

See, it doesn't matter which camp you fall into, who you agree with, or even which extreme you lean towards. Nor does it matter whether you think the truckers are right or wrong to do what they did.

It's not about left or right, red or blue. None of that tribalism.

What we're seeing transcends all of that. There's a recurring pattern.

And Trudeau's not the first to completely miss the political metagame 👇

"You're SURE about this referendum plan?" "Good luck in the election"

He's unlikely to be the last either...

See, people often focus on these individual acts of defiance & try to explain them away... 👇

We've seen it with Brexit. We've seen it with Trump. And now we're even seeing it in Canada.

Of course, Culture Wars are nothing new. But politicians seem to have forgotten the rules of the game: If you don't connect with the people, things start to go wrong.

In other words, it's not a transactional relationship where governments just do stuff for votes.

The government's primary role is to maintain stability in society. To reconcile the extreme positions and constantly seek the balance between individual rights/freedoms and societal responsibilities.

And they're repeatedly failing to find that balance.

Imagine a world where all currencies are digital and state-controlled. Bring on the Central Bank Digital Currencies!

Really, there shouldn't be any 'need' for crypto in civilised societies, but it's not going away! Why is it in demand?

"Oh, it's just a speculative asset"

Nah, we had plenty of those already. It's because people don't trust their institutions...

This is a great read on that trust by Mark Manson 👇

Trust is the prerequisite to building anything good and meaningful in this world.

And when the institutions fail, the consequences are dire. Not only does the population lose trust in the institution, but whatever incentives the institution had in place to prevent bad actors also fall apart.

People see corporations dodging billions of dollars of taxes and think to themselves, “Fuck it, why should I have to pay taxes too?”

Or they see bankers receiving handouts and fat bonuses despite losing everyone else’s money so they figure, “Fuck it, I deserve a handout too.”

Or they see police roughing up their friends for no good reason, so, in the immortal words of Ice Cube,  “Fuck Tha Police.”

If trust builds a civilization, a lack of trust unravels it.

Trust is the basis of trade and free markets too...

This journal on the Father Of Economics is all about the role of trust and faith in the market system 👇

When trust is shaken, individuals pull back and the market system contracts. Where trust grows, individual energy and creativity are unleashed and the system grows.

In Adam Smith’s vision of humankind’s progress, trust is the central theme.

The Great Recession represents a classic case of a crisis of trust. Looking back to the work of Smith offers insight into the role of citizens and the State in creating a fruitful market environment based on trust, and the challenge of this process, given the human frailty of individuals (unfortunately, we are not angels) and the potential for State power to be captured and abused.

And if we take a look around the world, institutional trust is breaking down everywhere. Governments and authorities need to rebuild the social contract if they are to retain their roles.

Crypto technology will play a role in the future. From a social perspective, it will be fascinating to see if it will be within the government remit (some trust rebuilt), or outside of government hands (trustless, no recourse either way, government disintermediated).

Or maybe Trudeau was just long Bitcoin and this will soon be forgotten...

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