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.
House of Mirrors
Every empire needs a mirror that flatters it. Ours calls that mirror “the media.”
It promises truth, transparency, and the public’s right to know. But by Stafford Beer’s rule—the purpose of a system is what it does—we judge not by headlines but by outputs. And what the modern media system does is sell attention, not information. It shapes emotion, not understanding. Its real function is to manufacture consent for the order that feeds it.
The Attention Economy
Information has always had power; now it also has a price per click. The business model is simple: capture attention, convert it to data, sell that data to advertisers and politicians. Facts are secondary. Rage is revenue. Outrage travels faster than nuance, so the algorithms obey physics—amplify conflict, bury context.
The result isn’t an informed public but an addicted one. A populace scrolling between dopamine spikes, mistaking stimulation for knowledge.
Gatekeepers Gone Viral
We used to have a handful of newspapers and networks that filtered reality through editorial judgment. That gatekeeping often served elites, but it also slowed the spread of nonsense. The internet blew those gates apart. Now every citizen is both broadcaster and brand. Truth competes with performance. The loudest voice wins.
But even “free” platforms are owned by the same conglomerates that own the old media. The architecture of control just changed its interface. Power privatized the agora.
The Narrative Supply Chain
Watch where the money moves: defense contractors sponsor news hours, fossil-fuel giants underwrite climate coverage, pharmaceutical firms fund health segments. The storylines that threaten investors rarely make airtime. POSIWID again—if the consistent product is distraction and division, then distraction and division are the mission.
The Polarization Algorithm
Outrage is efficient. It keeps audiences engaged and predictable. Every like, share, and comment refines a psychological profile. The system doesn’t care what you believe, only that you believe intensely enough to stay online. Ideology is a metric, not a meaning.
The outcome is a society fluent in reaction but illiterate in reflection. We no longer debate ideas; we trade reflexes.
The Myth of the Fourth Estate
Journalists often enter the field to expose power. Many still do brave, vital work. But the institution they serve runs on the same fuel as the corporations they investigate. Ratings, sponsorship, access. Investigations that threaten advertisers are quietly shelved. Reporters burn out or sell out. The watchdog barks only when its owners approve.
The POSIWID Audit
Does media inform or manipulate? — Manipulates.
Does it unite or divide? — Divides.
Does it challenge power or depend on it? — Depends.
Does it expand understanding or commodify emotion? — Commodifies.
By outcome, media’s real purpose is not enlightenment but management—controlling the flow of meaning to maintain market stability.
The Human UNity Alternative — The Truth Commons
If the old media sells attention, the new must cultivate understanding.
The Truth Commons would be a decentralized information ecosystem owned by no corporation and controlled by transparent protocols.
Core principles:
Open verification. Every claim traceable to its source; bias declared up front.
Public stewardship. Citizens fund and govern it collectively—no ads, no shareholders.
Slow journalism. Depth over speed; context over clicks.
Civic literacy. Teaching people how to think about information, not what to think.
Algorithmic transparency. Code is public, adjustable, and answerable.
The goal isn’t neutrality—there’s no such thing—but honesty about perspective. Truth becomes a cooperative practice, not a corporate product.
Reclaiming Narrative
Humans live by stories. Whoever writes them writes reality. To reclaim meaning, we have to reclaim narrative itself—from PR departments, from partisan machines, from the algorithmic gods of engagement.
That begins locally: conversations over dinner tables, community forums, independent presses, podcasts that resist hysteria. Truth rebuilds from the ground up, one honest voice at a time.
Closing the Loop
The purpose of the current media system is what it does: monetize division and anesthetize dissent. The purpose of The Truth Commons is what it must do: reconnect knowledge with responsibility and restore meaning as a shared resource.
A civilization that cannot tell itself the truth cannot steer. Human UNity demands that we learn to speak again—not louder, but clearer.
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