There’s a trick being played on all of us.
Not a grand conspiracy. Not a secret room with levers.
Just speed.
Everything now moves faster than judgment.
You wake up and before your feet hit the floor, something wants your reaction. A headline. A post. A clip. A hot take. You’re expected to respond before you’ve even had coffee.
That rhythm isn’t accidental.
Fast reaction feels like engagement.
But most of the time it’s just reflex.
And reflex is easy to steer.
The real shift over the last twenty years hasn’t been political. It hasn’t even been technological.
It’s been tempo.
We used to sit with things.
A newspaper came once a day. You read it. You thought about it. You argued at dinner. Then you slept on it.
Now the argument happens before the thinking.
We diagnose the system. We point out manipulation. We share articles explaining how attention is harvested and appetite is engineered.
And then we scroll.
That’s commentary.
Agency is something else.
Agency begins with interruption.
Not yelling louder.
Not crafting a better comeback.
Not performing outrage more skillfully.
Interruption means slowing the rhythm.
Waiting before replying.
Reading something that challenges you instead of something that confirms you.
Finishing the article before reacting to the headline.
Resisting the urge to perform an opinion before you’ve formed one.
Those are small acts. Almost invisible.
But small acts done daily reshape posture.
Here’s the hard truth: engineering works because we’re predictable.
Push a button, get a response.
Flash a threat, trigger fear.
Offer approval, trigger performance.
If appetite sets your pace, you’re programmable.
If principle sets your pace, you’re not.
Not perfect. Not immune. But not easily steered.
Older generations didn’t talk about this in academic language. They practiced it.
They didn’t explain every decision. They didn’t broadcast every reaction. They didn’t need to comment on everything in real time.
They just paused.
That pause is disappearing.
And with it, something essential: deliberation.
Discipline is not denying desire. It’s governing it.
That applies to spending. To voting. To speaking. To scrolling.
You don’t have to overthrow a system to weaken its grip.
You only have to refuse its tempo.
Read slower.
React later.
Think longer.
Decide once.
There’s a reason “behavioral interruption” matters more than “better argument.”
Arguments still move at the system’s speed.
Interruption changes the cadence.
You can’t engineer someone who won’t react on cue.
You can’t monetize someone who doesn’t click on impulse.
You can’t easily steer someone who forms judgment before broadcasting it.
That’s not dramatic. It’s steady.
And steady wins long games.
Restoring the citizen isn’t about rallies or slogans. It’s about habits.
Turning the phone face down during dinner.
Finishing a book that stretches you.
Voting even when it’s boring.
Saying nothing when everyone else is shouting.
Choosing participation over performance in at least one area of your life.
Those are recalibrations.
And recalibration doesn’t look exciting. It looks almost dull.
But dull is hard to manipulate.
Here’s the irony.
The system depends on us feeling powerless.
Because once you believe you’re programmable, you stop trying to govern yourself.
Fatalism is convenient for the machine.
But the fact that posture can change proves the opposite.
Tempo can change.
And when tempo changes, outcomes change.
You don’t need to fight every battle.
You need to control your rhythm.
Slow reaction.
Deliberate pause.
Defined choice.
Pause in action. Think twice. Do once.
That isn’t theory.
That’s muscle memory for citizenship.
And muscle memory returns faster than people think — once you start using it again.
The correction won’t be loud.
It won’t trend.
It won’t go viral.
It will look like ordinary people choosing not to move at the speed of appetite.
Quiet. Consistent. Unimpressed.
And over time, that steadiness bends eras.
Slow down before you speak.
That’s where agency begins.
micvicfaust@intelligent-people.org
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