I’m bestselling indie writer Teague de La Plaine. This is my weekly newsletter, where I talk about writing and self-publishing in addition to my own life. I keep the newsletter free, because I prefer you spend your money on my books.
As I build the worlds for my sci-fi stories, I’ve found myself studying the real systems that shape this one—government, economy, religion, the military, education, and media. What began as research for future civilizations has turned into an audit of our own. This series of essays is part of that exploration: a search for what our systems actually do, and how we might start designing better ones—here, now, before fiction catches up with fact.
This is the final entry in this series and ends out my posts for the year. Enjoy the holidays and let’s all look forward to starting the next year with a renewed sense of purpose and a commitment to working together across all borders and divides.
The Future
A civilization can believe anything about itself until it runs the numbers. Stafford Beer gave us the simplest audit in human history: the purpose of a system is what it does. No slogans, no mission statements—just outcomes.
When we run that audit across our world, the results are plain.
The Ledger of Purpose
System: What It Says It Does / What It Actually Does → True Purpose
Government: Represents the people / Concentrates power for elites → Stability of hierarchy
Economy: Creates prosperity / Concentrates wealth, depletes planet → Capital accumulation
Religion: Saves souls / Controls behavior, hoards assets → Moral management
Military: Defends freedom / Secures resources, sustains empire → Force projection
Education: Enlightens citizens / Sorts by class, trains obedience → Social reproduction
Media: Informs the public / Sells attention, shapes consent → Perception control
Six pillars, one pattern: concentration. Wealth, authority, and narrative all flow upward while responsibility flows down. The machine runs smoothly because its gears interlock; each system validates the others. Government legalizes extraction, economy rewards it, religion blesses it, military enforces it, education justifies it, and media narrates it.
That alignment is not conspiracy. It’s design.
The Sunk Cost of Civilization
Every participant, from president to paycheck earner, is invested in keeping the illusion alive. The alternative feels like chaos, so we defend the familiar even when it’s killing us. Empires aren’t maintained by villains; they’re maintained by habits—meetings, budgets, doctrines. Evil bureaucratizes itself.
But honesty is a solvent. Once you see a system for what it does, you can stop expecting it to do what it says. That clarity is the first act of liberation.
The Human UNity Rewrite
Human UNity begins where critique ends—with redesign. Each failing system has a functional successor already sketched in the previous essays:
Legacy System → Human UNity Successor: Primary Outcome
Government → Polisyn (Distributed, participatory governance): Accountability
Economy → Cosmonomics (Regenerative, post-scarcity exchange): Sustainability
Religion → La Vojo (Experiential ethics and awe): Connection
Military → Steward Corps (Planetary preservation and crisis response): Security through care
Education → Sapienics (Lifelong mentorship and mastery): Wisdom
Media → Truth Commons (Transparent information ecosystem): Shared understanding
Each new system is measured not by promise but by pattern. If it distributes power, restores ecology, and deepens empathy, it’s working. If it starts concentrating again, scrap it. Civilization becomes a living experiment, not a monument.
From Empire to Ecosystem
The old order treated the planet as property. The next must treat it as partner. Governance becomes coordination, economy becomes ecology, and defense becomes stewardship. Even spirituality returns to its root meaning—to breathe together.
The transition will hurt. Power never abdicates; it decays. But collapse and renewal are twins. When one structure fails, another has room to grow. Our task is to design the replacement before the rubble cools.
The Warrior’s Closing Reflection
After twenty-four years inside the machine, I know this much: obedience builds strength, but purpose gives it aim. The discipline that once served empire can serve life instead. The courage that once faced an enemy can face extinction. The chain of command can become a chain of care.
Systems are not destiny. They’re habits written in infrastructure. We can rewrite them. We can make their outputs match our values. It begins by asking, relentlessly: What is this system doing—and who is it doing it for?
The Audit’s Final Line
If a civilization consistently produces inequality, confusion, and ecological ruin, then those are not its failures; they are its functions.
Human UNity demands new functions: cooperation, clarity, regeneration. Systems that serve life instead of extracting from it. Structures that make it impossible to lie about purpose.
Because the purpose of a civilization, like any system, is what it does.
Now it’s time for ours to do better.
If you’ve read all my books and shared them with all your friends, you can still upgrade to a paid subscription if you’d like to support me even more.