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Words are very important. Even more so with bitcoin, competing
constituencies craft specific words and phrases to evoke a predetermined
image or outcome.
With a little help from political wordsmith observer Bill Maher, let’s look at some popular examples of this practice in action.
Avoiding the negative
For a long time, assisted suicide as a positive right with legal protections had a difficult time gaining acceptance. Once it was phrased as aid in dying, several US states passed legislation protecting the practice.
Gay marriage
is another. Political opponents deployed the phrase when they wanted to
convey the idea that the sanctity of marriage was under assault or its
meaning was being diluted. Once it became termed marriage equality, it was difficult to be against because it then sounded trendy, inclusive and friendly. Everyone is for equality.
Lastly, when we hear the phrase drilling for oil,
we imagine huge nameless corporations raping the wilderness to satiate
an out-of-control demand for fossil fuel. However, re-brand it as energy exploration and we visualize a futuristic and responsible effort to transform our planet’s energy needs.
Steering public perception
In
the evolving lexicon that is bitcoin, governments and the media
consistently deploy phrases to gain an advantage in steering public
perception. No secrets there. But, few of us can peer through the
facade.
Here are some of the easy ones:
Privacy has become anonymity.
Of course, people desire privacy and they rightly should take it for
granted, but the word anonymous implies that it is secrecy being used
for something nefarious.
Personal purchases have now become untraceable transactions.
Remember that first drug store item that you wanted to keep as a
personal purchase, so you made sure that no one saw you and that you
used cash.
Finality of payment has become irreversibility.
In the eyes of regulators, irreversibility has come to be associated
with criminal transactions because who else would see the need for a
transaction irreversible by a third party. Of course, this is ridiculous
because many transaction classes have a proper need for payment finality.
Interestingly,
this choice of wording permits opponents to cast bitcoin as anonymous,
untraceable, and irreversible – all fitting into the dark persona of the
notorious Guy Fawkes mask.
By the way, paper cash in your wallet today already possesses those attributes (analog equivalent rights), which is why we are witnessing a global war on cash or, as its proponents claim, a modern cashless society.
Moving
into the regulatory sphere – and no jurisdiction is exempt – the stakes
are higher, so predictably the labels have become more elevated.
Financial privacy has become money laundering. More than 30 years ago, money laundering did not exist because it is a made-up crime, as Doug Casey says, and the so-called thoughtcrime of finance.
Unfortunately, individuals seeking financial privacy have been cast as promoters of money laundering ever since.
Financial surveillance has been re-branded as patriotic anti-money laundering and know-your-customer guidelines. Realistically, it is still surveillance on a mass scale whatever you choose to call it.
Financial censorship has been re-positioned as an economic blockade, as in the international cases against WikiLeaks, Iran, and most recently Russia.
A positive spin
Every
day, more and more young people embrace bitcoin. This is an encouraging
demographic for the future of the cryptocurrency and they get it too.
For them, no government backing really means banks not required. Ignoring capital controls really means truly global with 24/7 availability. No third party for safety really means protection from financial surveillance. And, not centrally controlled really means easy person-to-person payments. Those are the things that matter most to that important demographic.
In economics, deflation is just another way of saying increased purchasing power.
In
money, legitimacy is defined by community acceptance not by government
decree. Triumphantly, bitcoin is money without government. If we don’t
defend ourselves in the word game, all that remains are the sheeple lest we be called domestic terrorists.
Please add your own important bitcoin words in the comments area below.
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