I’ve been noticing this sort of comment a lot in discussions of cryptocurrencies.
Take for instance the following response to the Ray Dillinger’s email:
Internet also became a disaster. We're very far from original ideas: Uncensored, decentralized ideals are forgotten.
I remember, in the beginning, governments were really afraid of people's reactions, even to make small regulations. Today, we don't even discuss before accepting any regulation about Internet. Infrastructure is almost completely controlled/owned by governments or cartels. [1]
That is so far beyond reality that it’s hard to believe this person was there “at the beginning”. The Internet, after all, started as a DARPA project...
1. https://www.metzdowd.com/pipermail/cryptography/2020-Decembe...
Going back to the monolith question, the other day someone at the public utility helped me fix a mistake with my bill. That individual was not irrelevant to my experience with government power.