Happy Saturday everyone! This post is going to be pretty lengthy so I may as well divide it into three main sections that you can skip around to if uninterested in the others. Firstly I am going to ramble a bit regarding how I found myself reading "An Age Like This" — George Orwell's essays, journalism, and personal letters from 1920-1940. Secondly, I will discuss how his involvement in war seemed to change his approach to creative work. Thirdly, I am going to discuss the current situation on the STEEM blockchain and draw some parallels to the foregoing.

It seems to have become a tradition for me to do a lot of reading in January. Last year, I believe I was reading a lot of Philip K. Dick novels, mostly obscure ones I hadn't yet read. My tendency with reading is to find an author I enjoy and gradually devour their whole catalog. This year, however, I took a bit of a different approach. When I go to the public library in my hometown, now, I sort of peruse the shelves randomly and force myself to read things I might not otherwise.


In fact, I find a peculiar sort of pleasure in reading books I even detest! It allows me to ascertain why I dislike this sort of writing; what is it that makes these characters, the plot, the style of prose, etc. so especially unpalatable to me? This is my fiction-writing preparation, my hibernation before I inevitably, finally, totally start writing those books I've always been meaning to.

Last time I stocked up on reading material, I decided to stray from the fiction section to the opposite side of the lane. I read a difficult (for me) but extremely fascinating book on India's role in the second World War. I picked up a somewhat shorter tome on the life and times of Chaucer (which I've just started) and for some unknown reason, I also grabbed a hefty volume of the personal letters, essays, and journalism of George Orwell, Vol. 1. This is despite the fact that I had no particular interest in Orwell, and besides knowing him to be the author of the ubiquitous '1984' (which I don't believe I've even read, though discussed in high school English class) I can't say I knew anything about him whatsoever.

In that odd synchronistic way life has of connecting by obscure threads things otherwise disconnected-seeming, I found that Orwell also had a connection to India. He, along with his parents, were involved in British colonial activities there. Born in 1903, he skipped university study, instead joining the Indian Imperial Police in Burma in 1922. After serving for several years, however, he found it not at all to his tastes and returned to England hoping to become a professional writer in 1927.

Reading someone's personal letters, especially a celebrity figure, has the unmistakable effect of humanizing them. Suddenly, you find yourself interested in the most mundane details of their day-to-day life; one becomes able to empathize with their struggles and celebrate their successes. In such a way I found myself pulled into Orwell's world. It helps that the book includes articles of his written about his times in Burma, his later stint among tramps as a hop-picker, etc. It also helps that he is an excellent writer, deeply humanitarian, with a great sense of humor.

In fact, I enjoyed these earlier writings the most. They feel innocent, heartfelt — though perhaps also containing the somewhat aimless, arrogant quality of youth. In 1937, however, he was to have an experience that definitively altered the course of his life: he departed in early January to the front line of civil war in Spain at Alcubierre on the side of the socialists. There, he gained a political fervor of an intensity not before evident in his writing. He was shot through the throat by a Fascist sniper, miraculously sustaining little serious damage except the temporary paralysis of the nerves of part of his vocal cords.

During his convalescence, the tides of the civil war continued to shift. Soon after his recovery in mid-June of 1937, the Spanish Government declared membership in the POUM (Worker's Party of Marxist Unification) to which he belonged illegal. However, after being on the run for two days from the Communist Police, he managed to escape from Spain on June 23rd along with his wife. On his return to England, he was on a definite crusade to correct what he saw as the highly propagandized errors in reporting the war existing in the English press. Essentially, information was highly biased towards support of the Spanish government, out of fear that any admission of the government's weakness would undermine the people's faith in Spain's stability.

The experience of having publishers refuse to work with him on a book regarding his experiences in Spain and others refusing to print his articles in the newspaper only fueled his political fervor. In his book reviews after this time, everything seems to manically circle back around to politics. He states that all art is essentially propaganda; that it is impossible to write apolitically. In his critical dissection of writer's works, he hones in on what he perceives to be their moral implications, or lack thereof.

At the same time, in his personal letters, there is a trace of lament to be alive in such tumultuous times; it is clear that he shared somewhat in the immortal artist's yearning that "I only wish to have a quiet, peaceful life in which to create and focus on my work." Other times, he seemed to positively delight in the secondary effects of war on collective consciousness, indicting the populace during times of prosperity as aimlessly indulgent and existentially despairing out of the boredom of luxury.

In any case, it is clear that the trauma of his participation in bloodshed in Spain's Civil War fundamentally altered his approach to creative work. The vortex of global conflict that was then beginning to gather steam had pulled him inextricably into its powerful currents. He had an awakening, of sorts, of a deeply moral sense of his responsibility to speak his version of truth through whatever he wrote, and viciously indicted those he saw as aloof from current events as irresponsible, even insane. Much of his critical writing is difficult for me to read as someone fortunate enough to have been largely insulated from the horrors of war. For like many he upbraids, I too, dispositionally prefer to be non-confrontational and uninvolved in political drama of any kind.

It would seem rather absurd to compare the global crisis of a world war to the recent drama on our digital blockchain, but there are many similarities of kind, if not degree. There is a threat that promises to make our (virtual) home unlivable, nonfunctional. Voting in twenty sock-puppet witnesses with a corporate stake which was pledged to non-governance and colluding with centralized exchanges to use private customer's funds to bolster that action was, in a sense, an act of war against the Steem community. Then, to spin this as "securing the chain from an attack by malicious hackers" is a definite piece of misleading propaganda.

The recent events can also be interpreted as a display of the complacency and lack of foresight that often exists during times of relative peace—it would have been logical to require exchanges to perform the decline_voting_rights operation in order to trade the token to begin with, which would have prevented the current takeover. There is also the very valid question of the wisdom of Soft Fork 22.2: it could have only denied voting rights without locking funds, which perhaps would have allowed things to not escalate so quickly. Was the motives of witnesses partly subconsciously motivated by a fear of losing their (perhaps meagre, but still) livelihood?

However, judging by communications by Justin Sun when he believes no one is looking (in Chinese on different chat servers) it is questionable whether he would have ever taken the time to engage with Steem much without such an action, as he views Steem as "beneath him" and relatively unimportant in comparison with the mighty Tron blockchain. Only until his funds were locked did he deign it worth his time to take a break from his continuous shilling of Tron to meet with witnesses along with his representative Roy.

As always, I am hesitant to make value judgements about any party's involvement, and dislike taking sides. However, my loyalty lies with whoever I can ascertain will defend and develop Steem with the greatest integrity and judiciousness. For now, I believe that to be the former consensus witnesses along with community figures that have been around for most of the past four years. Therefore I had no problem taking a stand by joining the conversation in Twitter, putting pressure on Sun and the exchanges, and powering up as much as I can to remove the sock-puppet accounts from influence.

It is possible to take concrete action without dehumanizing or disliking anyone. At the same time, it is important to recognize wolves in sheeps' clothing by attempting to glean people's true motives behind a pious display. My perception is that Justin Sun cares about Steem only insofar as profit-taking is concerned, knows little to nothing about the value of the underlying technology, and will continue to see it only in terms of potential added value to the Tron ecosystem. Overall, there is nothing basically wrong with this, but it is important to realize and be able to see through the relentless spin-doctor marketing he continually engages in.

Although the concept of decentralization is great, I believe STEEM will progress best with a hybrid approach which includes strong leadership at the helm. That leadership would function best if focused on concrete developmental steps, making good on announced timelines of feature releases, consistent marketing, on-boarding of new users, creating promotional programs, etc. In this case it would inspire the confidence of our community that what we are building can play a substantial role in the future of monetized social media platforms. There is loads of talent in all areas here in the Steem community, but a rudder to steer the ship is somewhat lacking. I am not at all sure Sun is the one to embody this, though I began with a totally open mind as to what he could potentially contribute. I am, however, unwilling to bow down and let principles be violated in the name of expediency and would prefer total decentralization to corruption at the helm.

Note: you may also want to check out my recent post about remaining calm in the midst of chaos. I think it is also important to remind everyone reading to go vote for actual human witnesses while we are in this state of affairs and put any differences aside to ensure the smooth operation of the chain. If you are unsure who to vote for you can proxy @d-pend or I will reproduce the list of witnesses here as well— _{@blocktrades @good-karma @roelandp @yabapmatt @anyx @someguy123 @ausbitbank @gtg @themarkymark @aggroed @steempress @thecryptodrive @cervantes @drakos @therealwolf @followbtcnews @lukestokes.mhth @steempeak @abit @ocd.witness @emrebeyler @curie @stoodkev @jesta @actifit @netuoso @liondani @arcange @pharesim @timcliff}