Okay, first of all: you said that very well. Thank you. I agree, and I like how you think about it.

But in this permissionless world, where anyone can do whatever they want (and this truly is one of the most beautiful things about Bitcoin), it is possible that a large group of people could work against their own incentives to achieve some external goal (eg. governments don't like a world with permissionless money).

Bitcoin should not have rules against this, but Bitcoiners could have traditions or a culture that lessens the damage such an actor could cause, because they could cause damage, no?

“But the Hebrew word, the word timshel—‘Thou mayest’— that gives a choice. It might be the most important word in the world. That says the way is open. That throws it right back on a man. For if ‘Thou mayest’—it is also true that ‘Thou mayest not.”

(honestly, I wrote all the above, and I was thinking, but if a thing can't survive by the strength of its incentives alone, can it survive at all? Because I think I'm implying that Bitcoin need or is somehow better if there is an external culture that supports it. Thoughts on this?)