2025 Will Be the Year of Micropower
Early thoughts on what power looks like today
?You have brains in your head, You have feet in your shoes, You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.? -- Dr. Seuss
Throughout history, great spiritual movements, religions and modern psychology have asserted that stress and suffering predominantly comes from wishing something is different than it is, or, a perceived lack of control.? Human beings feel more fulfilled and have less anxiety when they have the perception of control or agency in their life.? (I say perception because do any of us really have control over anything in life?) Thousands of books, poems and songs have been written to help people learn to worry less about lack of control by living in the moment, learning to surrender and letting go (see “Let it Be”, P. McCartney for one of the best).
According to a paper published by the NIH, “Belief in one’s ability to exert control over the environment and to produce desired results is essential for an individual’s well-being…we present evidence that suggests the desire for control is not something we acquire through learning, but rather, is innate, and thus likely biologically motivated. We are born to choose.”*
If lack of control is a happiness killer, then 2025 has the potential to be a massive buzzkill for many people.? Chaos and uncertainty will reign supreme in 2025 from politics to climate change, health and disinformation.? Meta’s decision this week to stop third party fact checking and loosen protections for the LGBT community and others is a major but unsurprising turning point.? All of the trusted institutions are faltering (debates over whether Meta was ever trusted are valid), the control valves are broken.? The cat is away and the mice are running the show.? So, what do we do (other than invest in a wine company to profit off the wine consumption we will all need)?
If 2017 was about protests, mobilizing and celebrity preaching, 2025 will be about micropower.? The power and influence that you can personally have in your community, at your job, in your family and online.? What will you do?? As podcaster and guru Rich Roll wrote this week after being evacuated from his home by the horrific wildfires in CA, “when life is suddenly upended…I’m further reminded of just how little control I can exert over most things beyond the choice of how to comport myself.? How to behave and respond in the face of them.”
In 2018, at the beginning of the last Trump presidency, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms published a highly regarded book called New Power.? In it they asserted that, “The "old power" was out of reach for the vast majority of people. But our ubiquitous connectivity makes possible a different kind of power. "New power" is made by many. It is open, participatory, and peer-driven. It works like a current, not a currency--and it is most forceful when it surges.”
That time has passed.? People are exhausted – tired of fighting each other and issues and depleted by digital overload and misinformation.? Depressed by loss of control over things they feel they should obviously control (i.e., their ability to get a job or pay for milk for their family, their body or who they love). ?People are now quietly turning to…but what can I do?? How can I wrestle control in my life and in my community??
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I understand that this all feels counterintuitive right now because the world seems to be embracing old-fashioned, autocratic, top-down leadership.? Various dominant groups are longing for a traditional view on masculinity and an aggressive strength that will “straighten out” their countries economically and culturally.? All this is happening but…we’ve got numbers.?
Micropower is a decision about how people want to live their lives and if they are ready to embrace their own power.? This is not about isolationism or about living an individualistic life, this is about embracing the human need to control and live with agency.? The time to act is now.? Where can you use your power today?
What does micropower look like to you?? Please send me your examples and stories…more to come on the topic so I would love to hear from you.?
*Born to Choose: The Origins and Value of the Need for Control Published in final edited form as:?Trends Cogn Sci. 2010 Oct;14(10):457–463