Agency Matters More Than Privilege

We've been playing rigged games for centuries.

The rules are rapidly changing.

Systems have always constrained people's opportunities. The missing component was leverage.

Historically, leverage required gatekeepers:

→ Capital (banks and wealthy families)

→ Distribution (publishers and broadcasters)

→ Credentials (elite institutions)

→ Production (factory owners)

These gatekeepers enforced conformity to their rules; today's tools reward authenticity.

Radical leverage is the escape key:

→ Smartphones provide cheap access to computing

→ Internet platforms enable mass distribution

→ Digital tools turn individual skills into scalable products

→ AI enables one person to do the work of many

How value gets created has changed:

→ Creating wealth is the focus instead of status

→ Your unique interests become your edge

→ Failure costs less, enabling rapid iteration

→ Specialized knowledge freely spreads

But leverage alone isn't enough.

The critical factor, regardless of privilege, is high agency.

High agency individuals:

→ Challenge "it can't be done"

→ Create solutions, not just highlight problems

→ Focus on possibilities, not difficulties

→ Treat obstacles like puzzles, not barriers

They share three key traits:

→ Clear thinking (seeing reality without filters)

→ Bias to action (testing ideas instead of debating them)

→ Disagreeability (questioning societal norms)

Does privilege help? Of course.

The luxury of opting out of "the system" requires baseline safety and resources many don't have.

However, the narrative that "you need privilege to escape" which kept many trapped, is losing relevance.

Today, lack of agency is often the bigger barrier.

Systems that once completely blocked paths now merely slow them down.

For many people there exists a viable path that simply wasn't possible before.

Not everyone, but many more than ever before.

The question isn't whether everyone has equal opportunity to escape the system.

The question is whether more people have viable pathways to leverage than ever before.

They do. That changes everything.