## Metadata - Author: [[James Kanagasooriam]] - Full Title:: Agency Could Be the Next Big Idea - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://politicalwhiteboard.substack.com/p/agency-could-be-the-next-big-idea?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true - Read date:: [[2026-05-03]] ## Highlights > *Can you tell me any good news? Literally anything?* Is the question I hear most often in the UK. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpezsj0zya8z2xsbramp3em)) Ufff… lo de inmigración aquí…lacks data > The first part of the equation - making Brits richer on a per capita basis again - is about better parameters in which good social contexts happen more frequently (more people own their own homes, higher pay, lower, and more skilled immigration levels, nicer streets, better public services, stable families). ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpf1gpbqgt8w5n3h1sx38qe)) > [Cate Hall](https://usefulfictions.substack.com/p/how-to-be-more-agentic) is a pretty [extraordinary character](https://pathlesspath.com/cate-hall/) (ex #1 world female Poker player, ex addict, ex supreme court advocate who overcame addicition) ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpf3w2p07x0prygzp8k0vvw)) > described agency along the following lines: > *“The ability to see and act on the degrees of freedom that anyone has… manifest determination to make things happen”* > In a polling context I’ve taken it to mean “how much freedom of choice and control do you feel you have over the way your life turns out?”. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpf6ygeecpxcszpvcx377m0)) > I’ve found over the last decade how so much culture is agency-denying and agency-suppressing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpffzczg89w9vxh160jc143)) > Cate Hall takes the view that agency reduction is about dopmaine addiction. My personal view is that the idea of [Intersectionality](https://equality-diversity.ed.ac.uk/students/intersectionality#:~:text=Intersectionality%20is%20a%20term%20coined,with%20one%20another%20and%20overlap.) has proved a pitch-perfect way to conceive of the world in which privilege is an ordinal rather than categorial variable allowing western democracies to decay into an unedifying race to self-define as “left behind”. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpfqw9crabcvj2qw9mpn288)) Solo si es comparativo en vez de absoluto (estar en la mierda) > we have more people than ever who feel they are at the bottom than before - which like the concept of an average, is definitionally impossible. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpfrnwpmdc2ff9vd72a6mp5)) > Everyone can now find a dimension in which they are the underdog, and their personal life story is overcoming great obstacles to achieve against the odds. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpfvnpk121yepyy3dtv5mzx)) > If everyone is left behind then nobody is. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpfvwrs5rf8e1d4rktpfa0p)) > Literally anyone can self-define as victim rather than victor. My hypothesis is that by reducing the role of personal agency in self identity, people are becoming unhappier, less optimistic, less trusting and less capable. We also end up ignoring the people who really, really need help. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpq4abbstbyxtwh4s1spagd)) > the most important “dependent” variables of life for happiness and success are the ‘OATs’ – people with a combined sense of Optimism, high Agency behaviour and Trust in others. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpqm5y1vb0s6qpxnq60k1eq)) > 35% agree with the zero-sum belief that ‘people can only get rich at the expense of others’, but that rises to 51% among young men. We know that zero-sum thinking is tied to GDP growth in childhood ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpqn7a63ybgg1kpxqecs5v5)) > This dynamic parallels the increased division between young men and women’s voting intentions across the West in [recent years](https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998), with males increasingly opting for radical right parties. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpqnqf7tgw6fszsmgtm222e)) > 44% of the public say they tend to get stressed out easily ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqpqtjaca4xebpq21rf2s1n4)) ## New highlights added [[2026-05-04]] >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq5batydkn4rnp688ch3q83)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq5bavkth8ee12db8p5m05c)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqra7bj0nkgcy30kxftpkm8)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqra7c7ejpbwpsj6ntbdwp0)) > Almost half (45%) take the low-trust view that they are ‘much more dedicated and moral in my relations with other people compared with their treatment of me’, climbing to 59% among men under 45. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq56jc6dw5gdxe7earp5jqb)) > young people carry these thoughts as they age, overall societal happiness could collapse over the next few decades. It is essential for the country’s future happiness that we find a way to prevent anxious young Brits turning into a generation of unhappy middle-aged people. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq7bzq4yghp2yg4mwbb1r7b)) > The idea that people are in control of their lives, have choice, are optimistic, happy, and trust others are all belief sets that walk in lockstep with each other. You can see that the ‘left-behind’ score sits completely opposite this section. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqr2cv8ksgfnm5taqrstzkg)) > we also see non-voters and those who are ‘not at all interested’ in politics clearly overlapping with the unhappy, pessimistic and low agency quadrant. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqr62zx1j0zr61kvms5pzty)) ## New highlights added [[2026-05-04]] >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq5batydkn4rnp688ch3q83)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq5bavkth8ee12db8p5m05c)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqra7bj0nkgcy30kxftpkm8)) >  ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqra7c7ejpbwpsj6ntbdwp0)) > Almost half (45%) take the low-trust view that they are ‘much more dedicated and moral in my relations with other people compared with their treatment of me’, climbing to 59% among men under 45. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq56jc6dw5gdxe7earp5jqb)) > young people carry these thoughts as they age, overall societal happiness could collapse over the next few decades. It is essential for the country’s future happiness that we find a way to prevent anxious young Brits turning into a generation of unhappy middle-aged people. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqq7bzq4yghp2yg4mwbb1r7b)) > The idea that people are in control of their lives, have choice, are optimistic, happy, and trust others are all belief sets that walk in lockstep with each other. You can see that the ‘left-behind’ score sits completely opposite this section. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqr2cv8ksgfnm5taqrstzkg)) > we also see non-voters and those who are ‘not at all interested’ in politics clearly overlapping with the unhappy, pessimistic and low agency quadrant. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqqr62zx1j0zr61kvms5pzty)) ## New highlights added [[2026-05-04]] > Turns out when you ask this question of the British public on a scale of 0-10 they come out at 6.29/10 in agreement. So roughly 20-30% (depending on your cut off point) of the UK public basically think they are without agency. Sobering. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01kqrz7z46e4z8h7tjrd6rc7ch))