What Bitcoiners Can Learn From Hong Kongers — Lesson One
Hong Kongers have been in a protracted war with one of the most malign organizations in the world, The Chinese Commnunist Party (CCP), for over a decade. This fight peaked in 2019, and their creative and highly adaptable street protesting techniques have gone on to the change the world of hard resistance everywhere. Every frontline in the battle against authoritarianism has been influenced by Hong Konger’s struggles, whether it be Thailand, Myanmar, Belarus or the United States.
Bitcoiners may not be in a hard resistance fight with the fiat system, yet, but there are still many lessons that they can take from Hong Kong.
The Chinese Communist Party, just like the PetroDollar exists principally to reproduce itself. Both are vehemently backed by toxic, vested interests, who will stop at nothing to defend themselves, including mobilising the full, violent force of the State agaisnt perceived enemies.
Max Keiser has described Bitcoin as the Love Revolution, where the corrupt fiat system will be overthrown without firing a sinlge shot. I also believe this, but this doesn’t mean that there wont be many digital battlegrounds and cyber causualties until Bitcoin is crowned king. The State has already claimed its first prisoner, Ross Ulbricht. The cruelty and severity of Ross’s punishment demonstrates perfectly Lesson One from Hong Kong:
Choose horizontal, not vertical leadership.
When you come for The King, you better not miss
Satoshi Nakamoto, seeded the idea of horizontal leadership into Bitcoin from its inception. By stepping away from the project early, the tone was set that in Bitcoin, there are no kings, only Bitcoin. Today, this ethos still remains true, albeit it is sometimes lightly tested by a burgeoning group of social media influencers.
Conversely, the fiat money system was created by kings, for kings. Although the modern day kings of the fiat systems no longer wear crowns, their methods to protect themselves remain largely unchanged over the years. The world to them is vertical, those at the top control those at the bottom, and any threat can be neutralised early by taking out…
Yes, you’ve guessed it, the opposing, vertical leaders.
For them, nothing of consequence can be run horizontally without centralised control. They are utterly married to this notion. Recognising an efficient, decentralized and orderly opposition exists is simply impossible. There has to be single points of failure that can be surgically removed, thus destroying the system that threatens.
After the 2014 Occupy Movement, Hong Kongers quickly learnt that they did not want to be led by singular leaders. By 2019, the horizontal leadership of the protest movement was both mind bogglingly complex and beautifully simple. Protests adopted swarm tactics, with both objectives, start & finish times and locations being loosely agreed upon, and controlled by no one. The government flailed hopelessly to control the rash of protests. As they rumbled on, week after week, each protest added new life to the next, ending only with the onset of COVID.
Despite this, the top down government of Hong Kong did the only thing it knew how to do, it brought down a reign of vertical terror upon the democracy movement. Today, almost every democracy supporting politician and many well known, media personalities are either jailed or exiled.
The vertical attack upon the Hong Kong protest scene was both breathtaking and brutal.
But the movement is horizontal, so it remains to be seen whether it has been neutralised permanently.
What can Bitcoiners learn from all this?
As the movement grows exponentially, the potential for a vertical, State attack grows stronger. To counter this, don’t let up on growing horizontally.
Do your own research, become a master of the subject. Use this knowledge to influence those around you first and foremost.
Don’t put influencers on pedestals, and don’t seek fame for fame’s sake.
If you are chosen to lead, lead humbly.
As a thought leader, be aware, that in a mass extinction event, just like in Hong Kong, the State will come for you, and you will be either jailed without mercy or exiled. Know this is your burden to shoulder.
Most of all, remember, grow horizontally.
If you feel like you’re above the rest then you’re out of sync with the movement.
Next lesson — Why It’s Ok For The Cyber Hornets to Attack Bitcoiners.
Richard Scotford Bio — Richard is an independent journalist and writer who has covered many of Hong Kong’s protests. He lived in Hong Kong for 22 years. His new mission is to prevent Hong Kongers being trapped by the Digital Yuan by spreading the Pleb world view.
