As someone who has a background in evangelicalism, I recognize many parallels between belief in cryptocurrencies and faith in deities. Perhaps the link is no more apparent than the digital meme trades like Dogecoin (CCC:DOGE-USD). As a protected right in this land, people can be as faithful (or faithless) as they want. However, those that take the plunge should do so with moderation.
Your mind is a wonderful thing, a miracle of the divine or the apparent culmination of evolution, however you view it. Irrespective of its origins, the ability to formulate — without fear, without repression — one’s own opinion is a gift that we should all cherish. As Americans, we are blessed to live in a country where the only price we pay for “wrong” opinions are nasty comments on social media.
That said, it would behoove us to use this privilege to sharpen our wits and promote logical or even better, empirically based ideas for the sake of productivity and progress. Otherwise, if we merely give into the collective emotions of religious fervor, we forfeit the ability for cogent reasoning. So when I saw a tweet that Dogecoin was the number one trending ticker on StockTwits.com, I knew we were in trouble.
Predictably, the comment stream didn’t disappoint: Dogecoin to the moon, a bunch of dog gifs, references to Elon Musk and his latest publicity stunt. As well, there were the occasional flame wars, with back-and-forth bickering that I can’t quite publish here.
It’s all crazy but in a guilty-pleasure sort of way, admittedly entertaining. I can see how someone can get lured into the Dogecoin madness, in the same way that early evangelicals ditched the organ pipes for drum sets and electric guitars.
The question is, why?
Dogecoin and the Spirituality Trap
When I saw people on social media egging each other on to support Dogecoin, I couldn’t help but think about a psychological trick that evangelical men play on each other: the Holy Spirit trap. That’s not its official name but that’s what I personally call it. Anyways, let me explain.
Due to purity culture, single women in evangelical organizations carry tremendous “economic” value, for lack of a better phrase. Thus, single men compete aggressively for their attention. To whittle down the competition, though, clever men urge other kindhearted but naïve males to “hear” from the Holy Spirit to really determine if this daughter of the Lord is really from the Lord.
Now, here’s the kicker: no one to my knowledge has empirically proven through extensive independent peer review the existence of the Holy Spirit. In the end, most of us just see what we want to see and call it divine guidance.
However, by the time you’re done wrestling with the Lord as we evangelicals call it in our spiritual parlance, the one urging you to hear from the Holy Spirit already has a beeline to the lady that you were attempting to date (I mean, “court”).
If you’re not familiar with evangelicalism, you might dismiss the above as something that only happens in the church. Bull. The secular equivalent is the pump and dump.
As with any investment — legitimate, illegitimate or crypto — the biggest winners are the fewest. For instance, under evangelical principles, only one man and one woman can be married to each other. So, the Holy Spirit trap can be very effective for the eventual victor.
Likewise, those that feed into Dogecoin madness may have an agenda; essentially, to reap the benefits of collective fanaticism.
The Problem
To be fair, it’s very possible for the shrewdest investors to play the somewhat predictable nature of mass human psychology. If you have that gift, Dogecoin could be a great short-term trade for you.
However, if you’re the type that’s predisposed to religious-style thinking, I would be extremely careful with DOGE. You see, I took an early stab at this meme so I have a “DGAF” mentality, as the kids like to say. But if you’re buying Dogecoin at 14 cents a pop, please, you really should GAF.
The reason? Fanaticism benefits the few. By the looks of DOGE’s chart and the broader crypto space, there’s just not enough fanaticism for everyone to benefit, let alone a slight majority.
Therefore, with anything you hear on social media or the crypto community, you should automatically resort to skepticism. Take it from me: if you don’t have friends in church, you most certainly don’t have friends in whatever this is called.
On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto held a LONG position in DOGE. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare.
