I read that trilogy decades ago. Can you refresh my memory on the basic solution idea? Sword-vs-shield is also unknown to me.
Hari Seldon tried to solve the interminable problem of power decadence by creating two Foundations. One was known and visible. The 2nd was a mythical threat to keep the 1st honest.
His 2nd Foundation was both mythical and actual. The myth was a form of what is now called "predictive programming". The actuality was a crude approximation of WEF. Technocrat meddlers
Upon reflection, a current interpretation is that various religious myths have for centuries been "predictive programming" (until Hollywood) devised by "Illuminati" actualizers.
I suppose I was too young to think such thoughts when I read those books. But I recently read some of the first Dune stuff. There Bene Gesserit does such things, spelled out.
Makes you wonder indeed. Christianity, a religion started by a Jew, has scripture saying Jews are better than them for example, and it made Jews' oppressors (romans) less aggressive.