Last week's premium newsletter issues:

• Gazdeck, Failures & White Wolf Medicine

• Solana, "just showing up" & the embodied mind

• What bookmarks teach us about ourselves

• Sharing is caring

• Digital nomadism, spiritual tourism & remote-working

Interesting links shared at work:

• Gumroad: no meetings, deadlines, or full-time employees

• Transparent salaries at Buffer

• How Rippling CEO built a $6.5billion customer-obsessed business

Earlier in the week, I spoke about what saving bookmarks can teach us about our habits and interests.

In examining my bookmarks over the past 7 days, I discovered that a lot of what I read was related to the history of religions, true decentralization of popular blockchains, and abortion politics (due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade).

So in today’s weekly review, I will bring everything together to discuss what Roe v. Wade taught me about the importance of:

1. Decentralization

2. Understanding literal definitions vs cultural meaning

3. Behavior in shifting culture

Let’s go.

Roe v. Wade

Now, this topic is going to be a hot one for sure. So please know [upfront] that my stance on all this is that: I support the right for women to choose what happens to their bodies.

As someone who grew up with a lot of strong women around, this is a no-brainer.

However, since I'm generally inclined to try and see both sides to every situation, I use the site AllSides to read cases for and against. You'll find a comparison of left vs right news for Roe v. Wade here.

Before I heard the news about “Roe v. Wade” being overturned in the US, I knew little to nothing about it and its “controversial” ruling back in 1973. So I took it upon myself to get educated.

For those who aren’t familiar, back in 1973, the US Supreme Court made a landmark decision that the US Constitution covers a pregnant woman’s right to have an abortion. This decision struck down many localized abortion laws in individual states, which had a much larger impact on what role the federal government should have on religious and moral issues.

The History

The Roe v. Wade case was brought forth by Norma McCorvey, who used the pseudonym “Jane Roe”. In 1969, she became pregnant with her third child, and wanted an abortion but couldn’t get one due to the laws in Texas at the time. To add some nuance, Texas made it illegal to abort except when necessary to save the mother’s life.

A lawsuit was filed to the federal court on the basis that Texas’s abortion laws were unconstitutional. Roe won the case in 1973, based on the argument that a woman’s right to abortion falls under one’s fundamental “right to privacy” under the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.

However, the Court also held that the right to abortion was not “absolute” and must be balanced against the government’s interests in protecting women’s health and prenatal life. Thus the trimester table was born to govern all future abortion regulations. The Court also classified the right to abortion as “fundamental,” which made it one of the most controversial in US history.

As a result, anti-abortion politicians and activists sought to overrule the decision for decades. The decision was considered by some in the legal community as a form of judicial activism, which is a judicial philosophy that the courts can and should go beyond the applicable law to consider the broader societal impacts of its decisions.

Thus came the broader issue of Roe v. Wade beyond just women and their abortion rights.

Decentralization

As we know, politics are deeply intertwined with people’s personal beliefs and views. To think it not would be naive. Justice systems do their best to stay impartial but, in reality, it is hard to. So people are given a chance to present their cases, and judges and juries make decisions on the facts presented. Some get it right, some wrong.

In the case of Roe v. Wade, what I found most interesting was the discovery of this “decentralization” aspect. Very fitting for my involvement in the blockchain space.

In reading more about the case, I learned that the broader issue was that of the power of the federal government over individual states. Although Roe v. Wade was a huge win for women, it was a huge “loss” for what some perceived as an entrenchment of power from the federal government over individual states.

The issue of decentralization in government is equally as important in blockchains, which all come back to power. The Roe v. Wade case begged the question, "how decentralized is power actually in the United States?" Which is a similar question being asked about modern blockchain projects. The company Trail of Bits published a research report about the "unintended centralities in distributed ledgers," arguing that popular blockchains aren't as decentralized as you may think. It seems like this same "reality" is reflected at a macro level, politically.

The United States is still a relatively young empire. One littered with as many issues as any other superpower from the past. However, to date, it has been one of the most successful experiments in "uniting" as many states as it has. Solidified through the signing of the US Constitution by its various founders.

Keeping power decentralized is a tenet of US culture, but it has led to various interpretations (and contentions) around the value, virtue, and word: “freedom”.

Until next week, remember: through patience & persistence, it will come.

George

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