The Classic "Iron Triangle" in COVID-World Becomes the "Titanium Rectangle"

The traditional "Iron Triangle" of years past and even today...

Those who follow politics are quite familiar with the concept of Iron Triangles.  Three separate entities lobby and work together for self-benefit under the guise of serving taxpaying citizens--although specific outcomes may or may not actually benefit citizens served.  Outcomes always benefit the three parts of the triangle and those entities that support the desired outcome (the true constituency).

Interestingly, I wrote about this concept in an Op-ed in the PNJ in 2014 as I co-founded the Florida Coalition of School Board Members and as we were successful in getting advocacy funding legislation modernized to give individual board members more power and choice.  We did end up disrupting a cozy Florida Iron Triangle in 2016.

Are Iron Triangles good, though?- you might ask.  Not necessarily if you're not one of the three entities at the corners of the triangle.  A good answer to that question would be to answer with an open statement.  They just are.....

Fast forward to today--and the classic "Iron Triangle" in COVID world appears to have morphed into a comfortable "Titanium Rectangle."  Of course I'm no political science scholar or professor--but I read, observe and think.

Here's how today's Titanium Rectangle works.  There are four entities on the rectangle.  Big Pharma, Media and Big Tech, Politicians (policymakers and budget/finance authorities) and the Hospital Industrial Complex (FDA, Regulatory Agencies, Hospitals, Research Institutions, Drug Retailers and Wholesalers)  It all starts with money and power.  Big Pharma spends money, big money, on each corner of the four-sided rectangle.  For this, it weilds incredible influence, second only to the politicians, policymakers, and budget personnel who, collectively, control even larger budgets and hold more power via the authority of lawmaking, taxation, and appropriation-- but who's power is attenuated and limited by individual members' positions, elections, fundraising, and station on the rungs of power for the various political organizations under which they serve (national, state, and local-level).  Media and Big Tech have vested interests in each of the other three corner occupants--as significant revenue flows to their media, print and internet interests by each of the other entitites on the rectangle, and so their interest is in support of the mainstream thought of the others, and in squelching those who are opposed or who hold dissenting viewpoints (which maximizes revenue, influence, and power for the media and big tech).  The FDA, Research Institutions, and Hospital Industrial Complex represent the legitimizing and implementing arm of the other three corners--as they both provide the research and data that drives policy and spending.  They also implement operational protocols and collect and interpret data in real time--which gives them incredible power of legitimacy.

As you can clearly see--all four corners have incredible, yet attenuated power.  All four working together can do anything and everything they want.

Dissenting views = cancelled

Dissenting opinions = vilified and marginalized

Alternative thought = stifled and systematically silenced

Non-mainstream therapies/medications = stigmatized

Competing theories = destroyed and debunked

When it all works, all four corners reap the benefit$.  And the citizens they serve?

Jury is out.........