I could give this post many different titles, and readers’ thinking would immediately focus on that issue, rather than the common denominator of ‘agency’ in each of those issues.

This is something very relevant to the situation we find ourselves in now

(https://youtu.be/arkYYF8aeNM?si=Gm9qBdRK8mRKTRn9)

On the lighter side, if Jeff Dunham was here, Walter would probably crack a joke about farting in bed.

When it comes to looking at ‘agency’ everyone has been here, it seems, except perhaps us; I can neither recall thinking along these lines nor seeing any reference or suggestion about it.

Psychology – agency for men is the tendency to define yourself by what makes you an individual. People high in agency are focused on their individual accomplishments and what separates them from others. Women have a tendency toward communion, while men have a tendency toward agency.

That’s a familiar discussion in gender politics and jokes about multi-tasking but agency in general reflects the concept that people make their own decisions and are responsible for their own actions. Some sociological theories are accused of being deterministic, suggesting that human behaviour is inevitable and predictable.

Interpretivists however stress that people have agency and can choose. Perhaps our language is more familiar with this expressed as ‘free will’.

Our familiarity is perhaps because New Zealand has essentially developed as a Christian society:

Agency is the ability and privilege God gives us to choose and to act for ourselves. Agency is essential in the plan of salvation.
Without agency, we would not be able to learn or progress or follow the Savior.

Perhaps in our modern era the discussion has been shifted from religion to ideology. It’s something that occurs in Marxist thinking also:

In the Marxist conception, “agency” refers to the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices, based on their will, whereas “structure” refers to those factors (such as social class, but also religion, gender, ethnicity, subculture, etc.)

If you didn’t smell the rat there read that last paragraph again.

(We saw this quite dramatically in the post pandemic discussion that arose during our recent election – that was picked up by overseas media as well as our own)

Quoting then Prime minister Chris Hipkins:

In terms of the vaccine mandates, I acknowledge that it was a challenging time for people but they ultimately made their own choices.

‘There was no compulsory vaccination, people made their own choices.

An agency, in broad terms, is any relationship between two parties in which one, the agent, represents the other, the principal, in day-to-day transactions. The principal or principals have hired the agent to perform a service on their behalf. Principals delegate decision-making authority to agents.

Then you might say to yourself, now I see why we don’t discuss this in terms of agency – what a kettle of fish that is – a business or organisation providing a particular service on behalf of another business, person, or group – commercialise the vote and raid the common fund, the post feminist nightmare comes to life today just as it did in Rome.

Agency is in our lives every day with individuals and groups joining a social movement.
There was some considerable hostility over the Grannybasher Court Case this last week when the defendant was discharged without conviction and an instant online protest defying the court order for name suppression.
Entering a relationship by choosing a spouse or partner is apparently defined affective individualism in terms of agency or free will.
Your choice of what to eat and …

Voting in free and fair elections: with the struggle for democracy we are currently seeing on the global stage, and particularly in the major elections this year in the US and EU there are many issues, policies and battles that at their essence can be linked back to agency.

In New Zealand in particular, it’s at the heart of what is generally referred to as the Freedom Movement.

This freedom movement isn’t new and 20 years ago ran alongside what was loosely called the Men’s Movement. If there was a men’s movement (the current freedom movement muddles along in a similar fashion, where there is no apparent leader) and as the men’s movement faded away and lost its connectivity it descended into a them and us situation. The unwashed have now grown to the extent of not only realising but to a point of protest that was portrayed as a rebellion against authority in order not to discuss or address that grievance.

(We saw a larger scale version of this with the two-tier society during covid, once again pounched on by British Media.)

This link has the video of then prime minister Jacinda Ardern being interviewed at the time.

On the other side of this attack on agency are our own freedom fighters, the cookers and conspiracy theorists, as they are so often referred to who are essentially running a long term and multi facet protest over agency.

They pop up around the …

– Therapeutics legislation
– The World Health Organisation’s legal instruments: The Pandemic Treaty and International Health Regulations, which are seen as an attack on sovereignty and human rights (agency) respectively
– Indigenous rights, He puapua and 3-Waters
– Free speech and censorship is a big one but not so well understood to the extent that is it expressed well by many people defending it.

How, over the years this has been communicated in so many different ways, forming so many different pictures in people’s minds, causing misunderstandings and confusion to the extent we see now.

Discussions these days often lack the ability to present an accurate picture let along appreciate the other’s presentation.

Notice though how the psychological definition provided online has redefined agency allowing various groups to be included or excluded depending on the direction of a discussion:

Autonomy can be defined as “freedom from external control or influence;
Independence” refers to us having the freedom to choose what we do and how we do it.
Agency, on the other hand, refers to our power to act in the world.

In a general conclusion, ‘Agency’ one might say is what the media industry sold out on, what our education system stole from the next generation, and the very foundation of, Lest We Forget.