Freedom for Sale

Dear Friends,

If most weeks on “Created in the Image of God” I invite you to reflection, this week—in urgent dialogue with recurring guest Mehrtash Olson—I urge you toward vigilance.

Mehrtash, whose research and teaching in the Bahá’í community on the independent investigation of truth have become more timely by the day, joined me again to help expose just how systemically our information environment is being managed. The stakes are no longer abstract. In the last generation, the alliance—at times open, more often just “good business”—between media conglomerates, government, and mega-corporations has grown not just in reach, but in subtlety and power. The result? A system that, whether by conspiracy or mere converging incentives, treats you and I—not as sacred individuals, but as 300 million “productive units” to be nudged, surveilled, and sold.

Mehrtash brings a unique lens to this dilemma.

He notes, “There are all sorts of filters applied to the information we receive. We have to understand that powerful vested interests are willing to bear the cost of shaping what we see, because they are creating an interpretation of the world that benefits them.”

This ongoing series, which I’m honored to co-host with him, is our attempt to shine a holy spotlight—spiritual, not merely sociological—on these forces and call forth real discernment in our community.

The New Establishment: Information as Leash, Not Light

As Mehrtash reminded us on air, we live in an era where “users” are commoditized and information is no longer a tool for your freedom, but a mechanism for surveillance capitalism. He cites Robert Epstein’s research: Google and other tech behemoths don’t just track you—they quietly shape what you even perceive as possible, rendering neutrality a myth. Whether it’s search results, YouTube recommendations, or trending news, you are always being pushed, not just watched.

The connections are often unseen.

“Hundreds of employees at Google, including the members of their Trust and Safety team, are former intelligence agents,” Mehrtash explained, “and Big Tech’s algorithms are curated with government and corporate interests always in play.”

These insights—brought week after week to our joint series—should be a wake-up call that what you see, even in a simple web search, is less about truth and more about what benefits those holding the levers of power.

Follow the Money: When Science and Outrage Are for Sale

Nowhere is this collusion more apparent than in the healthcare and media sphere—a point we’ve repeatedly discussed on the show.

I offered the example of how U.S. pharmaceutical advertising isn’t just about getting you to “ask your doctor.” The advertising machine, as Mehrtash and I unpacked, acts as a financial leash for the networks, ensuring that unfavorable stories about pharma interests never see the light of day. The opioid epidemic’s roots—corporate science, media collusion, government liability shields—demonstrate all too well the machinery in motion.

Mehrtash is clear: “Our problem is not lack of information, but too much information—and much of it unreliable. We must learn to discern.”

Whether it’s the medical-industrial complex shaping national health policy, or the interlocking directorates of government, big tech, and the press dictating what counts as “the facts,” the shared incentive is to keep you distracted, dependent, and divided.

As we reflected together, editors and programmers no longer see themselves as guardians of robust debate. Instead, to borrow from Mehrtash’s citations of Bahá’í guidance, the media have reversed their holy purpose: “The prime duty of the proprietors of newspapers is to obliterate misunderstandings between religions and races. But in reality, division and clickbait drive profit.”

Our programs have returned again and again to the reality that outrage is profitable.

Editorial decisions—across the spectrum—are not about unity, as Bahá’í and biblical truths demand, but about multiplying our divisions and making each “productive unit” a soldier for their side. Real reporting withers; performative partisanship thrives.

The Synergy of Enslavement: Why This Isn’t a “Conspiracy Theory”

Mehrtash and I have emphasized on multiple episodes: you do not need a shadowy cabal. What you have is systematized collusion by convergence of incentives.

Surveillance tech, pharma-fueled media, and policy-makers all act “logically” in their own interest. The net result is that our sacred duty to see with our own eyes is continually undermined, until, unless we resist, we are not free souls but managed “units” in a faceless machine.

The Gift of Divine Light: How Do We Find the Exit?

Mehrtash’s passion—which I share—is not just in waking you up to these mechanisms, but in drawing each of us toward God’s light. As we keep emphasizing, it was never God’s intent for sacred beings, made in His image, to be mere fodder for the agenda of advertisers, politicians, or algorithms.

The Bahá’í Writings, which Mehrtash so often brings to life on our show, counsel:

“By [justice’s] aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor…” – Bahá’u’lláh, Hidden Words

To reclaim your sovereignty:

Slow down: Don’t get played by the algorithm’s urgency
Seek out sources that challenge you: Don’t take any orthodoxy, left or right, for gospel
Examine incentive structures—who profits? Who is silenced?
Remember that God has entrusted you with discernment: You are not data, not a product, but a soul
Submit joyfully to what is just—not “whatever works,” but divine law that cherishes the individual and the community

A Call to Sober Hope—and Bold Reclaiming

Friends, Mehrtash and I are not content with mere critique.

We are building, with you, a movement—episode by episode—for spiritual and practical sovereignty.

As we pray at the end of each show: “You are created in the image of God. You were meant for more than submission to a machine. You are called to wisdom, discernment, resilience—and the kind of unity that only ever grows from honest, humble searching under God’s law.”

Our next episodes will continue to interrogate these connections; your questions and stories are our fuel.

Let’s make it impossible for the “system” to treat us as manageable units. Let’s exercise the holy freedom God set in motion from creation—and pass that light on.

I’d love to hear how you and your family are navigating the noise, the manipulation, and the wearying cycles of “productive unit” culture. Respond below, restack, or consider supporting our partnership with Mehrtash with a subscription—helping keep this dialogue not only honest, but free.

With hope and resolve,
—Wade Fransson

References & Further Listening:

Ongoing “Created in the Image of God” episodes with Mehrtash Olson
Barry Meier, Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic
Lukianoff, G. & Haidt, J., The Coddling of the American Mind
Robert Epstein, AIBRT and Senate testimony
Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words
Taibbi, Greenwald, Shellenberger—independent journalism
Recent episodes and resources at [SOOPMedia / Created in the Image of God]

Let’s write the next chapter—faces lifted, eyes open, sovereignty restored. See you next Sunday.