Prince Harry Discusses Limitations of the 1st Amendment and Inherited “Genetic Pain”

The prince and the husband of Meghan Markle complained that his royal life was comparable to being a zoo animal and that some of the media suggested that he cannot be suffering because he is “privileged.”

Speaking to Dax Shepard of the “Armchair Experts” podcast, Prince Harry began by discussing podcaster, MMA commentator and comedian Joe Rogan’s recent comments regarding whether there was any value in healthy young people getting the vaccine. He stated that those with a platform have a responsibility to the public. 

He then voiced his belief that online algorithms create an “echo chamber of no pushback ... [which] perpetuates your bias and habits that you already have inside of you. Which is terrible.” He continued to state that those responsible for the creation of these algorithms are “all male and all white”.

The Prince described that he tries to understand why people feel the need to denigrate and “troll” him online and what must be going on in their lives to motivate them to do so.

He went on to explain his decision to share his “story which he described came from “a place of courage”, but lamented that the media was skeptical of his alleged suffering due to his privilege.

He stated that he believed “a lot of genetic pain and suffering [had been] passed on” to him from his father: 

“Suddenly I started to piece it together and go, ‘OK, so this is where he went to school, this is what happened, I know this about his life, I also know that is connected to his parents so that means he’s treated me the way he was treated, so how can I change that for my own kids?’ And here I am, I moved my whole family to the US; that wasn’t the plan but sometimes you’ve got to make decisions and put your family first and put your mental health first.”

The Prince likened his life to “a mixture between The Truman Show and being in a zoo,” the former being a 1998 film in which a man, played by Jim Carrey, unknowingly lives in a reality TV show world that revolves around him. Prince Harry then talked about his royal role:

“It’s the job right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early twenties and it was a case of ‘I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here.’ I don’t want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mum [Princess Diana], how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it’s going to happen again?”

“I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works, and I don’t want to be part of this.”

He went on to describe how he had been conflicted by being in a privileged position and how he should not be complaining, but instead simply doing things differently. He stated that this conflict had been reconciled by the realisation that helping other people also helped him, stating “healing other people heals me … Sure there is an element of selfishness there but if you are helping other people, who cares?”

The Prince then went on to describe what he saw as limitations in the 1st amendment:

“I don’t want to start going down the first amendment route, because that’s a huge subject I don’t understand because I’ve only been here for a short period of time. You can find a loophole in anything. You can capitalise and exploit what’s not said, rather than uphold what is said. We can do that with anything we want. If there is a commercial incentive, then great, or there’s an ideology or you want to spread hate. That’s how I see it.”