For someone like me who once was up in arms against the Soviet union there is so much to say about things like these, so much has changed through the decades...

Back in the eighties there was of course a lot of freedom on a daily basis, no one ever had a bank account cancelled, and we could have almost whatever opinion we wanted, and talk about it!

Getting a job was down to trust, you could even just walk around, get a deal on doing a few days as a trial, that was often all.

Also setting up and running a business was easy, I remember taking over accounts as a student for running the darkroom, almost no paperwork, no questions asked about anything we did!

Yet now there are so many opportunities, even globally, and directly to anyone online, as is happening here, right now.

Back then everything was bound to your name, your reputation, your local community, this is now almost gone in the West. Of course saner parts of the world is still like this, and now that comes with all the opportunities online added.

But I also see that the hypnotizing, all encompassing environment online shapes everything, that almost no one is immune to how the big corporations, algorithms and now AI keeps us all trapped...

Combine that with financialization, money printing, and wealth extraction from almost every living being and we've got a situation that cannot last.

For those who dare venture outside of this "digital gulag" there are also opportunities like never before, like here on Hive!

Thanks for writing this, it fits well in with the things I am working on every day myself too :-)