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Artists still largely depend on patronage but now are less beholden to institutions/expert tastemakers (museums, grants, commercial art buyers like movies) or potentially tyrannical cohesive crowds based on ideological aesthetics (Patreon style). Web3 loosens the grip of both.
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Web3 is Crowds3 too. We focus too much on authority figures and institutions. Crowds evolve too. Crowd1 = geographic scene in a city that could ostracize you Crowd2 = filter-bubble online crowd that can cancel you Crowd3 = skin-in-the-game crowd that doesn’t subsume individuals
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I suspect in the long run, the empowerment of individuals over metastasized bad crowds will be a bigger effect of Web3 than anti-authoritarian effects. Institutions and experts are *already* crippled by Crowd2s. Web3 empowers Crowd3s against Crowd2s and Crowd1s.
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The reason is both Crowd1 and Crowd2 are both social proof. You’re cool if ingroup decides you’re cool and can learn to trot out the right shibboleths (=communally shared private keys). Web3/Crowd3 forces you to add material proof (“tokens”). Higher cost but more independence.
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This is a *direct* (and if it works, crippling) attack on Crowd2 forms of collective authority where peer pressure can be super-intense and force you to conform. Web3 has a) materially embodied autonomous agency that takes violence to coerce from you b) nymity-agnostic norms
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Take a Web2/Crowd2 thing like Trumpie or Wokie mob. If you’re in an online/offline geography where either is dominant, the peer pressure to conform is extraordinary because the crowd controls a lot of the value you depend on.
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You are required to be a) non-anonymous to ingroup in proportion to value you depend on b) subsume your individuality within it c) toe the party line on group action on pain of social death d) surrender political agency to the groupmind.
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Tentative radical conclusion: Web3 actually solves the culture war (Crowd2 vs Crowd2 internet of beefs, institutions and experts are peripheral). People critical/hostile to it are likely those with a big stake in Crowd2 collective action/solidarity models.
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This is why, despite cosmetic suitability, Web3 models have *not* been eagerly adopted by Crowd2s. A TrumpDAO won’t work. A WokeDAO won’t work. Web3 requires you to exercise too much individual autonomous agency. Yes tech adoption difficulty is a factor but it’s not *that* hard.
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