Tyranny succeeds by destroying individuals’ sense of agency. That’s the “author” part of authoritarianism – it leaves you feeling as if you are a character in someone else’s story. That’s the strategic point of so much this Administration does: it demonstrates, messages, insists it can and will do what it wants no matter what or how anyone else thinks, desires, needs or responds.
Despite marketing the MAGA’s change as “restoration,” this administration is hardly known for its adherence to Presidential customs and norms or the Constitution’s checks and balances. Trump’s second term has had an amazing number of firsts (mostly ‘going where the President should not go!’). These 10 months of Trump’s have been characterized by nothing so much as a constant tearing down and plowing under of anything and everything (even the East Wing of the White House). It’s continuous tumult and chaos. Every day, every decision feels unprecedented.
If a tyrant can undermine or take out our imagination, our determination, our hope, our sense of possibility, our ability to project contingencies for possible futures then his road is easier because we no longer have agency, in this case specifically the emotional and ‘internal, personal political’ (psycho-politco) resources to resist, fight back or head in another direction. That kind passivity leaves us unable to even picture an alternative. (Sounds like much of our national Democratic leadership these days!) We’re paralyzed. Sitting ducks.
The other day, I listened to an interview with the Harvard History Professor Jill Lepore. The interviewer offered that our grandparents actually endured much more change in their daily lives and in their lifetimes than we have (from the onset of the automobile to the intro of birth control…) Lepore responded that the issue isn’t the amount of change we face, but our relation to it. Are we actors in our dynamic environments or are we victims of change running us over like pedestrians hit by a bus?
Lepore suggested that citizens in our time, even before Trump, had become passive, waiting for change to happen to them instead of making change for themselves and the world. Her explanation seemed to be that in the 20th century, an era when progress was defined as incredible economic expansion, we were increasingly molded to be better and more efficiently acted upon as consumers.
In organizing with POWER, we focus on how to move individuals from feeling like passive victims – in any number of aspects (oppressions?) of their lives – to becoming powerful agents or leaders in public life. See the simple graphic used as the illustration for this post, The Bridge from victimhood to agency… with that troll underneath the bridge, who in so many ways tries to stop our crossing over.
That’s actually what organizing is about – identifying and resourcing citizens to act together politically to remake their world to better meet their needs. …Helping individuals to think of themselves as active participants in the construction of a civil society. Calling up citizen-leaders to call their politicians to accountability.
During this extended contest for power on the national stage (which in many ways everyday folks are being excluded from), at POWER, we’re working closer to home. When this national nightmare is over, we will need a strong body politic to rebuild. Locally it’s much easier for people to find common ground actually dealing in person with other human beings! (rather than as consumers of media with our right / left divide). It’s easier to feel you belong somewhere and to take people seriously in their particularity face to face instead of online or nationally / non-greographically.
I invite you to join us in our POWER work. It keeps me feeling a strong sense of agency in all areas of my life! We are work towards a revenue fight with city council and the mayor on the way to a campaign for the affordable housing this city needs (see Kathy’s article in this week’s E-pistle about the 11/15 press conference at Old First).
Still not sure? Still feeling stuck, more ‘acted upon’ than the hero of your own story?
Here’s some recommendations I’ve adapted from the leadership consultant Nick Wignall:
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More creation, less consumption. High agency folks are builders, makers, creators. More of a mindset than a set of activities, it’s orienting your life around adding rather than extracting value… giving back more than you take. Consumption per se is not bad. But for greater agency, switch your default from ‘consume-first’ to ‘create-first.’ In a world incentivized for consumption, it’s a radical act of agency to build rather than buy; to write, not just read; to speak (or sing!), not just listen; even to post rather than merely like.
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Assertive communication. If there are four types of communication – passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive and assertive – aim for assertive: maximally honest about your own wants and needs AND mutually respectful of others. Communicating assertively is clear, direct AND kind. It builds agency because it takes risks and fosters authenticity. It shows you and everyone else that you know you “are worth it.”
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Spend more time around high agency people. You might find the help you need in both identifying who high agency people are and how they are (our psychological lives are profoundly affected by our social lives!) …You might see how high agency folks’ sense of self can model for and affect yours. Maybe agency is infectious?
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Clarify your own values. Agency is about positively influencing yourself and the world around you. That begs the question: What exactly do you want to influence? And what exactly does ‘positive’ mean to you? You have to decide how you want to invest your agency, and there are always trade-offs. Values are ideals or principles that guide and motivate your choices. In organizing, we talk similarly about being clear about you own “self-interest.” Being clear about what you want / need not only provides clarity when choosing among competing goals; it also provides stronger intrinsic motivation to actually follow through with your choices.
Wignall suggests you Choose a recommendation or two. Ask yourself: “What would the 10% (a tithe!) version of this be?”
In other words, start experimenting a little bit with wherever you are most interested in trying in hopes of increasing your sense of agency. Try something out. Where’s it leave you? What can you learn? See how you can grow a step towards greater agency; feel less struck, better; move yourself to become a high agency person… to feel more like you are writing your own story. (If you are confused, need help or just want to talk about this more, I am around!)
In faith and courage,
Michael
