That other strain

The venerable traditions search for truth. That is the standard model. In contradistinction to the standard model there is another strain of ideological promotion, which is less lofty in its intent. That other strain shapes how we get the news and how the major institutions represent themselves to the general public. The intent of that other, ideological strain is to distort the truth rather than to seek it out and represent it faithfully. 

This tension between the shallow and the deep, the short-term and the long-term, the immediate and the ultimate is the tension between the interests of the appetites versus the interests of stewardship, which brings us right up against the biblical teachings. The biblical teachings forces us to encounter the advantage of political/economic systems that comprehend a covenant with the humble folk that is non-material as opposed to the standard relationship between the divine powers and the ruling elite, which tends to the material. 

The democratic systems mistakenly think the material systems and institutions need to focus on the interests of the common folk whereas in fact what needs to be part of civil society is not the systems of material interests but the institutions of non-material considerations and relationships. The biblical teachings insert non-material considerations into the institutions that would ordinarily subscribe to the other, ideological strain that would distort the truth rather than seek it out and present it faithfully.