Politics, Capitalism, and AI are Forging the ‘Age of Feeling Powerless’
When Capital, Politics, and AI Align Against You
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We live in a paradox: the most connected, informed, and technologically advanced civilisation in history, yet one that feels increasingly unable to steer its own fate. We have more tools to exert agency than any previous generation — more data, more computing power, more capacity for collective action — yet we experience less control over our lives than ever before.
This pervasive feeling of powerlessness is not a vague anxiety, but a deeply rational response to a three-pronged, self-reinforcing assault on our autonomy. Our political, economic, and technological systems are locked in a negative feedback loop that actively dismantles the possibility of individual sovereignty.
Here is the mechanics of the crisis: Capital’s insatiable demand for ROI on massive infrastructure investments transforms knowledge workers into cannon fodder; this economic pressure drives political gridlock by exacerbating inequality; and the resulting chaos creates institutional paralysis, offering citizens a frictionless path to abdicating their judgment to AI and the state.
A Deterministic Engine: Capital, Concrete, and Cognitive Labour
The psychological crisis of powerlessness is being fueled by an economic imperative rooted in debt — a force that cannot fail.
The Capital Black Hole and the Logic of Concrete
The investment required to fuel the AI revolution is not just massive; it is a fixed, non-negotiable financial commitment. Hyperscalers are committed to spending over $360 billion collectively on data centres and compute infrastructure alone, with some internal projections calling for buildouts north of $7 trillion by 2033. This commitment to the “logic of concrete” creates an absolute imperative for utilisation and profits.
This massive financial debt demands immediate monetisation, confirming the terrifying reality that Capitalism will find any means needed to increase AI take-up, including mass staff divestiture, because the business model of fixed cost AI infrastructure CANNOT FAIL.
The knowledge worker (KW) is the direct cannon fodder for this capitalist imperative.
Existential Threat
The flood of capital targets KWs, who face an existential threat to the routine cognitive tasks that define their careers. The economic incentive structure confirms that when AI capital is favoured (e.g., through subsidies or tax codes), unemployment will increase, and the quantity of human labour will decrease.
Abdication of Judgment
This displacement is compounded by AI Large Language Models, which, as my article The Sovereign AI Stance notes, are designed for convenience, offering a seductive path to “deferring ownership” and avoiding complexity. The compound effect of small handoffs “gradually erodes your decision-making muscle until you’ve lost the capacity to handle complexity”.
Modern Capitalism is an Alienating Engine
This capital bias exacerbates the pre-existing problems of modern work. Capitalism has become a “macro cultural factor” that has “forever altered the means by which personal agency manifests”. The gig economy — better analysed through the lens of The Precarity Economy* for its systemic stripping of autonomy — denies workers the “mastery experiences” necessary to build self-efficacy, the foundational belief in one’s capacity to act.
*The Precarity Economy (or precarity) describes a state of existence characterised by precarity — a condition of instability, insecurity, and vulnerability to sudden loss of employment, income, or basic social welfare. It is a term primarily used by sociologists and economists to define the structural conditions of modern work, which often result in a loss of personal autonomy and agency for the worker.
Political Paralysis and the Fractured Quilt
The political crisis is the institutional echo of the economic one. Rising income inequality drives polarisation, as evidenced by a large, positive and statistically significant effect, making legislative solutions difficult.
Stealth Authoritarianism and the Hollowing Out of the State
The core of the political decay, as described in my article The Making of Fake America, is the “slow, methodical hollowing out of its institutions,” a process political scientists call stealth authoritarianism. This process is designed to create paralysis among citizens.
The invisibility of this erosion — like a tree hollowing out from the inside — is its greatest weapon. It is achieved through:
- Weaponisation of the Rule of Law: Using the justice system to target political opponents and eliminate internal opposition, thereby destroying public faith in the law’s neutrality.
- The Information Crisis: The rise of consolidated, politically-aligned media and AI-driven disinformation ensures that truth is no longer a shared foundation but a partisan commodity.
America’s Left-Liberal Coalition is Fractured
The Democratic Party, the traditional engine of systemic change, remains unable to “weave a large enough quilt” to counter these trends. The coalition is structurally paralysed by a split that prevents necessary action. Research shows the party struggles between the “Old Establishment” who favour redistribution and the need to address the “predistribution” policies (stronger unions, jobs guarantees) that less-educated voters demand. This split is not just ideological theatre — it paralyses the party’s ability to deliver material relief to the working-class voters who feel capitalism’s precarity most acutely. It guarantees inaction, reinforcing the public’s rational sense that politics cannot save them.
The Constitutional Dilemma of the Armed Saviour
In this environment of disillusionment, the desperate hope that the US military might intervene to “save” the country is a rational despair.
The Oath and the Constitution
The military’s allegiance is indeed to the Constitution, not to any individual person or faction. This principle is the cornerstone of civilian control, a value deemed essential for American democracy.
The prospect of military intervention to “protect the upholding of the Constitution” in a scenario where the civilian government has abandoned its principles is the most dangerous paradox of modern democracy. The act of the military intervening, even to defend the Constitution, would be a catastrophic violation of civilian control. This would replace the constitutional republic with a system where power is determined by force rather than law. Once force replaces law as the arbiter of constitutional legitimacy, every future dispute — economic, social, political — becomes a contest of raw power rather than principle. The very thing citizens hoped would restore order would likely lead to permanent instability and a more complete form of powerlessness for the citizenry.
A Path Forward: Personal Sovereignty as the Core of Resilience
The true path forward requires building personal resilience from the ground up, allowing citizens to withstand institutional failure rather than relying on institutions to fix themselves. This stance of sovereignty is the only antidote to the abdication that the system demands.
The antidote to abdication is the individual adoption of the Sovereign Partnership Framework, outlined in The Sovereign AI Stance:
- Bravery: The quiet willingness to “own hard decisions” and choose the harder path that aligns with core values, rather than deferring to convenience.
- Discernment: The skill to weigh what is possible against what is “right enough to defend to your future self,” noticing what matters in the mess.
- Agency: The insistence that you, not the system, own the outcome, thereby building character through conscious choice.
This personal discernment is the necessary bridging mechanism to collective action. The personal decision to value truth and integrity over convenience is the only thing that can fuel the collective counter-playbook. When enough individuals refuse the easy handoff — when they keep their sovereignty ledger and hold themselves accountable to their stated values — they become ungovernable by systems designed for passive compliance. This is the fuel for collective resistance: not ideology, but practice.
The Final Reckoning: The Sovereign Act of Self-Definition
The ultimate victory is not a military one, but the collective, conscious decision of the citizenry to choose the human project over the frictionless path of the machine. The systemic assault on autonomy presents us with a binary choice: to be passively governed by the automatism of Capital and AI, or to become truly ungovernable by reasserting our core capacity for difficult and complex choices.
This choice must be made concrete with an unavoidable act of personal confrontation — a Sovereign Moment of Contradiction that defines the self in opposition to the system’s demands for convenience.
Take out a notebook, not for reflection, but for declaration. Trace the last difficult task or decision you outsourced to an AI model, a trusted advisor, or a political system. Now, confront the core question:
What is the specific act of complexity I will perform today to define myself as human?
The answers to this question become your standards — the things you will not veer away from. The action you choose is your material contract with the world about who you are, independent of the systems designed to process you.
- The Act of Definition: The standard you will not veer away from is the will to own the hardest choice.
- The Act of Manifestation: The specific complexity you choose is how you tell the world who you are — not through a statement, but through a practice of self-governance.
This Sovereign Moment is where resilience begins. By giving your complexity weight and your reasons legibility, you refuse to let your consciousness atrophy. You transform your personal decision-making into an act of political infrastructure, ensuring that the future is defined by our struggle for intention, not by technological or political automatism.
Practice a Refusal to Atrophy
The initial Sovereign Moment is a single act of courage, but the resulting change is a sustained practice of resistance.
The commitment you’ve declared in your notebook becomes the foundation of your personal sovereignty ledger. This ledger isn’t just a record of past decisions; it’s a living commitment device that prevents your core human capacity — your judgment — from atrophying.
- Continuous Veto: Every day, you face small, system-driven choices that invite abdication. The Sovereign Moment gives you a mental veto: you use your declared standard (the “act of complexity”) to consciously refuse the easy hand-off to the algorithm or the politically expedient choice.
- Building the Muscle: By consistently choosing complexity, you rebuild the decision-making muscle that the system is designed to erode. You are accumulating “mastery experiences” on a micro-level, strengthening the self-efficacy required for macro-level action.
The Infrastructure of Collective Power
This sustained personal practice is the essential bridge to the collective victory I mentioned earlier. It is the material consequence that counters the system’s inherent design:
- Becoming Ungovernable: Systems — whether political (stealth authoritarianism) or economic (algorithmic convenience) — depend on the passive compliance of the majority. When enough individuals adopt this practice of choosing complexity and owning their judgment, they cease to be reliable inputs for the system’s automation. They become, on an aggregate level, ungovernable by consent.
- Fueling the Counter-Playbook: The collective counter-playbook against the forces of powerlessness isn’t fueled by a political platform or an ideology; it’s fueled by trust and practice. When you know that others are also maintaining their sovereignty ledgers, this shared commitment — the collective decision to value integrity over convenience — forms the only stable foundation capable of challenging the deterministic power of capital and the state.
My article concludes here, leaving you with the dual understanding that your most profound act of resistance is personal self-definition and that this private act is the very infrastructure required for public, collective power.
About the Author: Greg Twemlow — © 2025 | All rights reserved. I write at the collision points of technology, education, and human agency, including:
Learning as Self-Authorship — Becoming the author of your learning, life, and legacy.
Creativity as a Sovereign Practice — Expressing what only you can bring into the world.
Agency in an Age of Intelligent Systems — Making decisive, value-aligned choices.
Remixing the World — Transforming existing ideas into new forms that inspire thoughtful examination.
Living in Alignment — Staying in tune with your values, ethics, and the people who matter.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
I. Core Thesis and Diagnosis
1. What is the central paradox the article explores? The article explores the paradox that humanity lives in the most connected and technologically advanced civilisation in history, yet feels increasingly unable to steer its own fate. We have more tools for agency than ever, but experience less control over our lives.
2. What is the “three-pronged assault” dismantling individual autonomy? The assault is a negative feedback loop involving our political, economic, and technological systems that actively dismantle the possibility of individual sovereignty.
3. What is the “mechanics of the crisis”? The crisis works as follows:
- Capital’s demand for ROI on massive infrastructure investments turns knowledge workers into cannon fodder.
- This economic pressure drives political gridlock by exacerbating inequality.
- The resulting chaos creates institutional paralysis, leading citizens to abdicate their judgment to AI and the state.
Logic of Concrete
The commitment to build over $7 trillion in AI infrastructure by 2033 creates a financial debt that cannot fail, forcing Capitalism to find any means (including mass staff divestiture) to increase AI utilisation.
Abdication of Judgment
AI Large Language Models are designed for convenience, offering a path to “deferring ownership” and avoiding complexity, which gradually erodes the user’s decision-making muscle.
II. Economic and Political Dynamics
4. What is the primary threat to the knowledge worker (KW)? KWs face an existential threat to the routine cognitive tasks that define their careers. The economic structure favours AI capital (e.g., through subsidies), which increases unemployment and decreases the quantity of human labour.
5. How is modern work alienating the individual? Modern work is largely seen through the lens of The Precarity Economy. This structural condition is characterised by instability, insecurity, and vulnerability to sudden loss of employment or income. It systematically denies workers the “mastery experiences” necessary to build self-efficacy, the foundational belief in one’s capacity to act.
6. What is “stealth authoritarianism”? It is a process political scientists use to describe the “slow, methodical hollowing out” of state institutions. It creates citizen paralysis through the weaponisation of the Rule of Law against opponents and the rise of AI-driven disinformation (the Information Crisis) that destroys public faith and shared truth.
7. Why is the Left-Liberal coalition “fractured”? The coalition is paralysed by a split between the “Old Establishment,” which favours redistribution policies, and the need to address “predistribution” policies (like stronger unions and job guarantees) demanded by less-educated voters. This split guarantees inaction, reinforcing the public’s rational sense that politics cannot save them.
III. The Path Forward: Sovereignty and Action
8. What is the “Constitutional Dilemma of the Armed Saviour”? The dilemma is the paradox that while citizens might desperately hope the U.S. military would intervene to “save” the country , the act of the military intervening (even to defend the Constitution) would be a catastrophic violation of civilian control. This would replace law with force as the arbiter of legitimacy, leading to permanent instability and a more complete form of powerlessness for the citizenry.
9. What is the antidote to the systemic demand for abdication? The antidote is the individual adoption of the Sovereign Partnership Framework. This stance requires building personal resilience to withstand institutional failure, based on three practices:
- Bravery: Owning hard decisions and choosing the harder path.
- Discernment: Weighing what is possible against what is “right enough to defend to your future self”.
- Agency: Insisting that you, not the system, own the outcome.
10. What is the “Sovereign Moment of Contradiction”? It is the unavoidable act of personal confrontation that defines the self in opposition to the system’s demands for convenience. The reader is asked to take out a notebook — not for reflection, but for declaration — and confront the core question:
“What is the specific act of complexity I will perform today to define myself as human?”
11. How does this personal act transform into collective power? By performing this act, the individual declares a standard they will not veer away from. When enough individuals adopt this sustained practice of choosing complexity, they refuse the easy handoff and collectively become ungovernable by systems designed for passive compliance. This shared commitment transforms personal decision-making into the political infrastructure required to challenge the deterministic power of capital and the state.
