Josh Rogan vs Spotify dilemma resolved?

 The latest ‘dilemma’ regarding Joe Rogan, Spotify, and Neil Young may be over.  But other social media platforms will likely be hounded to change their ways.  I was asked by a close friend and associate about ‘which side’ was I on?  Rogan or Spotify?   

We had a warm (not quite heated from my perspective) discussion regarding this dilemma around ‘mandates’.   A word that appears to be at the heart of the resistance to vaccines and masks.  I dominated that last few minutes of the discussion with the math of viral mutations and the inevitably (and rarely understood consequences) of pathogen evolution.   And the highlights of humanity's greatest of all achievements.  The global eradication of Smallpox.   That basically ended the discussion but I’m quite confident Rogan understandably remains the hero in my friends’ mind. 

My attempt to use science and math to engage the deeper analysis of the life, death, and economic consequences of popular individuals who assist in spreading misinformation (or incomplete information) to their followers, usually doesn’t work.   Smart and reputable individuals who are committed to providing any information that they believe may have validity that may assist others to make the right decision are admirable.  Not always useful given the confirmation bias our minds are cursed with.

After dwelling on the Rogan/Spotify dilemma at home while increasingly concerned about all the other urgent and consequence problems and threats we face as individuals, a nation, and the world - I recalled one of the first quotes that I took the effort to memorize.  It was from a book that the woman I was wooing was reading.  I was willing to do whatever I could to entice this young lady into bearing my future children.  Today, some might call that stalking...in 1975 as a biology major at CSU I considered it selective breeding.  But she said yes...and we are still together today...but I digress.

The name of the book, Magic Animal, by Philip Wylie (1969) woke in me an observation about human behavior.  After learning of the holocaust in grade school, the insanity of the Vietnam War in HS, and other harmful human addictions in college, I noticed our species didn’t quite have its act together.

I leaned toward the hippy movement but understood from my wrestling experiences the profound life-enriching values of discipline, fitness, and excelling at something of importance.  Initially, I chose education.  The teachers and coaches who inspired me in school and in sports remain priceless.  Information and context are power.  Tested and true information should be self-evident.  But today’s information comes at us, not in a firehose, but a tsunami, making it virtually impossible for anyone without a grounding in what’s important -to sort the wheat from the chaff.

 And that is assuming people are even looking for wheat and not the feel-good ‘happiness’ which appears to be one of our culture’s greatest values along with greed, confirming what we already believe, and living in increasingly troubled times without questioning unexamined assumptions.

A lot has changed technologically since 1969 when Mr. Wylie (the equivalent of today’s Jorden Peterson?) wrote “we are standing in a pit of vipers, swatting at bees”.   This brings me back to the Rogan/Spotify dilemma.  Since 1980 I’ve been studying national security issues seeking the root causes of threats and instability.  In the late 1990s, my job was convincing people in key US Congressional Districts that we needed global enforceable mandates (laws) to protect our national security from almost every threat. 

In 1999 Hazel Henderson, a genius female economist spoke about the recent Nobel Prize winner in economics Robert Mundell.  It was his genius that led me to a fundamental principle that many wise souls already understood (Gandhi, MLK, Einstein...).  The powerful concept is that everything in our world/known universe is interdependent.  By extending Mundell’s official ‘Mundell–Fleming economic model’ frequently called the "impossible trinity," "unholy trinity," "irreconcilable trinity," "inconsistent trinity" or the "Mundell–Fleming trilemma”, I pieced together a global trilemma. 

The reality is that the masses of humanity want three basic things.  Freedom to do as we wish.  Security to survive, reproduce, prosper, and thrive.  And independence.  The punch line is that we can only have two!   The gut-punch is that freedom is all we really have.  We are free to do anything we like, anytime we want, to anyone we want.  But we will never be free of the consequences.   

Security is iffy. The human body has over 100 trillion vulnerabilities.  Every cell and virus in our body can turn on us and terminate all of our freedoms in hours or days.  And any cell can be targeted by nature or an engineered biological weapon using genetic information using wind, water, or our global transportation/food supply systems for delivery.  And our cells are irreversibly connected to a vast number of natural and human-engineered systems and structures outside of our body or national government's control.  Systems and structures that we depend on for everything we and our cells need to survive and thrive. 

Unfortunately, government systems are based on the concept of independence. And those in power persist in ignoring this fundamental principle. Except once!  They globally eradicated humanity's greatest killer, smallpox.  The smallpox inoculation concept had been available for centuries. But it wasn’t until the Soviets suggested a global eradication campaign that the world and US leadership took on the task.  Some of the last individuals and families had to be forced to take the vaccination.

I can’t imagine anyone today opposing that mandate given that Smallpox had killed more humans in the first 70 years of the 20^th century, than all the wars, revolutions, genocides, and homicides combined...during 100 years of that same century.  Polio, another vaccine-preventable death/disability, is close to being eradicated.  Rotary International’s leadership with volunteers and funding dispersed to every nation in the world has ensured that every nation now, except two (Afghanistan and Pakistan) hasn’t had a case of polio in years.   It was dysfunctional governments all along that were unwilling or incapable of mandating universal Polio vaccinations that meant the rest of the world needed to continue their polio vaccination programs since the year 2000.  The year polio was originally targeted for global eradication.
If Polio (an RNA-based virus that has much higher mutation rates) had mutated over the last 20 years every nation would have needed to restart a new campaign.  Especially if the new mutation was worse than the original. 

What most people don’t calculate regarding Covid19 is that it (as bad as it was) was not as bad as it could have been.  And every day in every person infected  (be they hospitalized, exhibiting minimal symptoms, or no symptoms) continue to spread the virus thus enabling its natural mutation tendency.  There is only a 50/50 chance it will become a milder infection or a more lethal one.  Omicron had over 50 mutations on its spike protein. These enabled it to increase its attachment rate to our airways 70 times that of its predecessor.  That made it milder because it didn’t make it into our lungs.  But there is no guarantee that won’t happen.  Or something worse. 

Another factor that increases the mutation rate of any genetic material is exposure to other caustic elements.   And like the antibiotic resistance of bacteria that continues to accelerate due to mutations gained by our abuse (inconstant or overuse) of antibiotics a simple hospital or dental appointment could turn into a death sentence.  And people who are unvaccinated or using untested cures for Covid19 or may end up needing a hospital bed.  Along with others who are Covid free.   Then getting a bed, if one is available, only increases the chance of them getting an incurable hospital-acquired infection.  Perhaps just waiting in line for a bed.

So, we are all free to do as we please.  Even refuse a traffic mandate to stop at red lights, limit vehicle speed, or use a seatbelt.   But we are playing the odds.  Odds that police officer or camera won’t catch us.  We might know where they are and avoid them.  Be we never know where pathogens will catch us.   The best we can do is keep our immune systems healthy and do what we can to reduce the mutations of variants in every other person on the planet. 

And while we are at it.  Work like hell to change the governing systems that are now cemented into place with archaic laws that fail to keep pace with the exponential technological change over the last 40 years.  Functional change that is based on reliable, accurate, and tested information.  Cellphones, electrical power grids, new bridges... In a nutshell “the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God (the Golden Rule)”.   

Basing any government foundational on the delusional context of ‘political independence’ is simple and lethal insanity.  We keep using the same legal system (lacking liberty and justice for all) over and over again expecting a better result.  If you follow the accelerating chaos in the news, you must know by now that a better result isn’t coming. Not without transforming the laws that govern our personal, national, and global relations.  Justice and accountability must be global if we lack the wisdom and virtue to do the obvious.

We can endlessly debate the freedom/security dilemma of Rogan/Spotify, Russa/Ukraine, Peace through strength or disarmament, oil/solar, science/religion, capitalism/socialism...any dilemma.

But until we accept our global interdependence - and act on it with urgency, civilization as we all know it will not persist.   Connect the dots.  See the web of life.  Work for global justice (funding the 17 SDGs) or prepare for the consequences.