Truth and order are uneasy partners

Human networks need truth to respond to reality. They also need shared stories to coordinate large numbers of people.

These needs do not always agree.

Institutions may protect an organising story because questioning it threatens order. Critics may pursue a truth without understanding the social structure held together by the belief.

Healthy societies need mechanisms that can absorb correction without collapsing cooperation. That is difficult, slow work.

The choice is rarely between pure truth and pure fiction. It is about building systems in which reality can keep interrupting the stories we need to live together.