The Tower of Progress: A Short Story

Once upon a time, there was a fiscal policy that had good intentions, but did not follow good economic principles because it wrongly believed that the only way to keep the economy afloat was with... "helicopter money." So this fiat rained over the lands, causing a flood of money that covered the earth. Stimulus after stimulus was brought unto the people under the guise of providing financial safety, but the people were disillusioned by this promise of "appropriate fiscal policy" which really only incentivized bad practices and was beneficial to the few and not the many.

Fortunately, when the worst was behind them, the people were able to rally around a better approach to capital exchange. They all spoke one language: sound money.

With the words and beliefs of a better, freer future on the tips of their tongue, the people decided to build from a clean slate. They moved away from the old ideas submerged under the heavy weight of inflated, centralized fiat and settled on a roadmap constructed of stronger fundamentals.

They said to one another, "Come, let us build a consensus protocol that has reliable infrastructure and provides scalability with real world usage" - the technology served them as bricks, the community served them as mortar.

And they said, "Come, let us build a better society, where the financial system is decentralized and uninhibited by people or practices- where, economically, the sky is the limit; else we shall be once again restricted in our ability to freely exchange in a permissionless way. Let us build a tower of progress: an enormous economic pursuit that would provide the network necessary for a truly sound peer-to-peer electronic cash system."

The LORD* came down to look at the community and the financial system these men had built, and the LORD said, "If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach. Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another's speech."

The infrastructure was still there and still progressing. The people were still committed to the goal. But their universal language dissolved. People began to talk at eachother and not to eachother. The man who asked his friend to reconsider a certain implementation of code was now unintelligible. His friend was sure he was hearing incorrectly, but when he tried to respond to the man, it fell on deaf ears.

And thus, the collective enthusiasm of the people devolved into petty arguments.

Those working on outreach and PR believed those working on infrastructure where laying the blocks sloppily.
Those working on infrastructure believed those working on upkeep and stress testing were being overly pedantic and obstructing progress.
Those doing upkeep scolded the "raw material" gatherers for attempting to seek better materials when construction had already begun.
Those gathering the materials felt those in charge of interior design and new projects were diverting their efforts, and energy, to the wrong type of assignments.
Those implementing the design and projects felt the outreach/PR people were just lazy, preferring to talk instead of "doing real work" for the tower.

Most dishearteningly, even within their own areas of competence, communication between people had become an unbearable part of the process instead of a beneficial element of group effort, one that could provide better outcomes for the end goal.

Thus the LORD scattered them from their mission over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building their improved economic society- the tower of progress had been left uncompleted. In fact, it was no longer even considered a tower, but rather a monument that stood as a reminder of the right vision being abandoned for the wrong reasons.

Even when some tirelessly toiled on, too committed to their labor of love and determined to see the tower become "something", they knew deep down that it would never become the great tower of progress that it should have, and could have, been.

"That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth." -Genesis 11:9

"History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends." - Mark Twain

*LORD = Leaders Of Retrogressive Destruction (a literary concept that could reflect: other crypto projects trying to sabotage, maliciously incentivized companies/groups, or even the egos of the people themselves...)

Cheers,
Mono

The source that this story was shamelessly stolen from:

Genesis 7:10,12
10 And on the seventh day the waters of the Flood came upon the earth.
12 The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Genesis 11:1-9
1 Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words.
2 And as they migrated from the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them hard.”—Brick served them as stone, and bitumen served them as mortar.—
4 And they said, “Come, let us build us a city, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.”
5 The LORD came down to look at the city and tower that man had built,
6 and the LORD said, “If, as one people with one language for all, this is how they have begun to act, then nothing that they may propose to do will be out of their reach.
7 Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech.”
8 Thus the LORD scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city.
9 That is why it was called Babel, because there the LORD confounded the speech of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.