Bitcoin Is A Phoenix Rising
THE BITCOIN ESSAYS
Originally Published January 2023
3 Minute Read
v1.0
The archetypal Rising of the Phoenix is most potently seen in Christology surrounding the resurrection of the Messiah. Contemporary secular culture familiarizes itself through films such as The Hunger Games and fictitious messianic figures like Superman. The symbolic imagery and story arcs surrounding these character-narratives evoke inspiration in men, women, and children alike, providing a unifying victor-hero to ascribe glory, and perhaps even Glory.
The story of the Phoenix is often presented as patterned, parallel, and fractal. For Christians, the genesis of these derivative narratives traces to the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth. The stories often begin in a forgotten backwood of some imperially controlled, oppressed region of a once grand and beautiful world. The Phoenix almost always begins, lost in the sauce, yet with some inner sense of destiny for revolution. The stories tend to vector up from the ashes, catch fire, and ultimately rise through chaos to some form far beyond what even the most charismatic prophet would dare imagine.
‘Bitcoin Is A Phoenix Rising’. Bold claim. Perhaps too early to call. But lest my elven eyes fail me, I do believe we are somewhere now, lost in the fog of war, watching these sparking ashes take light. Tell me, what is more “backwood” than the forgotten corners of the internet, tucked away in cypherpunk mailing lists, chat rooms, and message boards? How many cool kids wanted to major in computer science? How many cheerleaders and sport jocks spent their wee morning hours experimenting with public-private key pair encryption via elliptic curve cryptography?
Consider, dear reader, what ashes we awoke to in the early innings of this great 21st Century. The tragedies of 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror. A dot com and telecom bust followed by ’08-09s subprime mortgage crisis and the subsequent bank bailouts. Would these count for ashes? What of the billions of innocent men, women, and children financially stranded around the globe with no access to modern banking rails? What of the millions of children dying of malnutrition and water-borne illness caught in the far reaches of the Cantillon Effect? What about them? Are those ashes?
Open your eyes, your heart, your mind. Consider the perspective of a youth in the developing world perpetually beaten down through monetary debasement and inflation. Consider the women strewn round the 10/40 window with no access to a bank account or basic property rights. What about them? For those, and those with eyes to see their plight, ‘Bitcoin Is A Phoenix Rising’. The ashes have sparked, oxygen is blowing fresh wind, fresh fire, and a revolution is now well under way. Wars are won in battle. Battles are won in single combat. Single combat is won in the quiet fortitude of one’s own heart, mind, and soul.
This is Jonathan David Kellogg – Writing for
That Bitcoin Blog.
These are The Bitcoin Essays.
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