Last night I was at a party for my brother's 50th which is why my sister is in Finland too. It was held at an events hall and there were about 80 friends to bring in the milestone.
There were quite a few of their business associates invited and quite a few who my brother didn't know. He is of course okay with this as it is the way they operate, every opportunity is one to take advantage of to network and give the potential to make a little more money.
What I found interesting was that when I was talking to people throughout the night, those I didn't know (there were many) were only interested in what I could do for them. Not help them, what connections I may have that they could take advantage of or if I can buy some service or another from them. It seems that the people invited were very similar to my brother's family, every opportunity. I am not like this at all and perhaps I should be. In my opinion, there are times and places where it is appropriate to sell yourself in such ways and a birthday celebration is not one.
There was a very good band that started playing about halfway through the night but, most people didn't hear them, they had already left. Once most people had 'worked the room' swapped some cards and got all they could from the opportunity, they left.
I find this behavior off putting in many ways and when it comes to people I do business with, I avoid them like the plague. What I have found over the years as those only looking out for themselves are also those who are the least willing to help others and add real value to anyone other themselves. But, they sell the idea well. The are are kind of like many of the shitcoins that market themselves well but are just a money grab that holds back the cryptocurrency markets.
In my little opinion, these are the people who hold back real value being increased and spread as they narrow their view to the very short-term and burn many bridges in their wake. I have known a few of the people that were there last night for a while and they talk big but, act, very, very small indeed. Many would fall into the category of scammers, even though they are 'prominent' in the community.
For many, prominence and reputation are attractive qualities and blind many people to the actual products they sell and whether they are valuable at all. It is a smoke and mirror situation that hurts those that buy-in to the lies, even though they may never know it. We seem to be continually chasing to get next to fame and fortune and even pay for it thinking that if we rub shoulders with celebrity, we too will enjoy the rewards. This is largely untrue.
At Steemit we can see this a lot where those with many followers attract more followers regardless of their content, their content regardless of quality gets support by a small circle of other big names who also benefit from this which in turn attracts more followers to the group. Nonsense gets voted to the moon and resteemed over and over even though the value is actually missing.
Last night, there was a Member of Parliament at the party, a person I have known in several situations and has never failed to be a snake in the grass who is all too willing to back stab those that have trusted him if he can climb a political rung. Some say this is politics.
To me, it seems that even though many want to build something different at Steemit, very few are actually doing anything different here than what happens in the arenas they are trying to avoid. Perhaps we should rethink how we interact here or we run a very big risk of becoming a replica of exactly what we have run from.
If a decentralized community acts like a centralized one, for all intents and purposes, nothing has changed. Just some quick thoughts as they arrive.
Taraz
[ a Steemit original ]