George Orwell once wrote, "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face-forever." Not exactly a cheery thought, and one I don't agree with. While the forces pushing for centralization of power have been prevailing for decades, they haven't won a total victory yet. Technologies that empower the individual and that tend toward decentralization-including the Internet, encryption, 3D printing and cryptocurrencies-"offer a powerful ray of hope, and reasons to be optimistic about the future. So the tug of war between the collectivists and the rest of us continues. One thing that would tip the scales heavily in favor of the collectivists would be a victory in the War on Cash. Their goal is to eliminate the use of hand-to-hand currency, so that governments can document, control and tax everything. It also helps them impose negative interest rates.