Newer is not always better.
To trust, or not to trust? Which is your destiny?
Beliefs take shape over time and attention.
My Life Lens has been shaped by over 40 years of working in the computer industry in which Moore’s Law was the gospel that influenced our beliefs. Since working for IBM Canada in the later 1970s, I came to expect that every new generation of computer chips would be much faster and cheaper than the last, and that every new version of software would be likewise superior to the one it replaced. For the most past, this belief proved to be true and a seemingly neverending string of proofs solidified my faith in this principle.
Innovations, of course, have always occured in every sector of the “for profit” economy to attract and better serve consumers and other business customers. I can still picture a 1960s Cadillac in my mind’s eye, complete with gaudy fins and shaped like a large coffin on wheels. Certainly today’s luxury cars are vastly better and aesthetically appealing - a testament to ongoing product innovation.
How about the pharmaceutical industry?
Are the newest patented drugs necessarily better than older ones? Are older drug formulas, that are no longer under patent protection, no longer useful? Also, when a knowledgeable health professional suggests the use of an off-patent vdrug for a purpose that regulators have not approved, is this an irresponsible suggestion?
Willow is my 18-year-old cat.
Willow moves slowly, sleeps most of the day, and walks with a limp and a waddle. We can her our “comfort cat” because she seeks out the most comfortable places to rest her weary and arthritic bones.
Our local veterinarian recently suggested the injection of a new drug purposed for relieving the symptoms of arthritis in elderly cats. A list of its possible side effects is published for consumers to consider, but we were assured that the product is “safe and effective” based on feedback from customers since they began to sell it about a year ago. Too bad cats can’t talk to confirm the impressions of their human owners.
A friend who is a retired veterinarian used another product for many years with good success. It was designed and prescribed for dogs, but my friend had used it for cats with confidence in its safety and effectiveness. After signing a waiver, I told our local veterinarian clinic to inject Willow with this older, recommended product.
Public Health recommendations.
During the pandemic, a new mRNA-based technology was promoted for human populations with the message that they were “safe and effective”. Older, FDA-approved, off-patent products like Ivermectin (IVM), were not suggested or recommended by public health authorities for the spreading SARS Cov-2 virus. In fact, its use was heavily discouraged and even actively prevented.
IVM was FDA-approved long ago and has been used extensively for farm animals as well as to treat human illnesses with an impressive safety and effectiveness record. It has two disadvantages, however. First, it is no longer under patent protection and is very inexpensive to produce: therefore, there is very little corporate profit in its use. Second, it did not have FDA approval specifically to treat people suffering from virus infections.
In other words, none of the pharmaceutical giants can make a major profit from an off-patent product like ivermectin. Pharma lobbyists in Washington DC successfully convinced the Biden government and supporting legacy news agencies to belittle any citizen from trying to use it and, instead, to encourage them to accept the highly profitable, on-patent alternative product like Remdesivir which is new and has very little proof of safety or efficacy.
The crony-capitalist, public-private partnerships between Big Pharma, Big Media and Big Governments are so dominant and endemic in the modern era that few citizens recognize its existence and pernicious reality.
Willow is doing better, thanks for asking.
The old girl is more alert, nimble and seems happier than we have seen in a long while. My wife and I owe a big “thank you” to my friend, the retired veterinarian, for recommending the off-label use of a medication intended for dogs instead of the much newer product recommended by Willow’s vet. Its the same story as ivermectin and Remdesivir, and it's one with a happy ending for my old cat.
A precautionary tale.
I don’t like the direction that modern society is headed. As the world becomes increasingly information-rich, our citizens depend more and more on the advice of experts, specialists and designated authorities. We outsource our critical thinking to these strangers and hope that they will genuinely serve our best interests while serving their own in the process.
The problem is, it seems like there are wealthy and powerful people in the world who act behind the scenes like puppet masters exerting control over and many service and product providers in the public and private sectors of the economy. They exploit and control us to satisfy their own ends. It feels malevolent. Sometimes I fear the worst for the future of humanity.
Escape from dystopia.
I awoke this morning to a dream about a dystopian future. It inspired me to write the following words as if I were my future self after the year 2030 ….
As I tiptoe over the dying embers of our fragile society, I see a desperate vagabond who I vaguely recognize. He was once “a somebody” but it seems he lives in the shadows of anonymity.
I don’t pity this man. I just observe. I imagine that he may have found more safety and serenity in his current circumstances than in all that past limelight he had experienced. Perhaps he no longer needs the external recognition from others and has found himself in his own reflection.
Maybe he is not the vagabond that I perceive. Perhaps he is simply that “off grid” survivor to which many people like me aspired in 2023. Did he actually escape the “world gone mad” with uncertainty and fear?