Damien Echols argues that people underestimate their own power to change their lives through small daily choices. Whether you're rich or poor, doing sit-ups, reading, or stepping outside instead of scrolling breaks the feeling that nothing will improve. Personal agency, not external forces, determines what happens next.
Chapters
Right now in the world, it's just no matter what people are doing, no matter what their situation, how difficult it is, and no matter how much money they have in the bank, people can look out in the world and say, oh, my life sucks. It's never going to be better because of what I see around me. Yes. And we can overcome that, right? Yes, absolutely.
And it's one of those things where a lot of people don't even realize how much power they have over their own lives. You know, you'll hear people complain about things like in magic sometimes when you go, you know, towards Gnosticism and things like that, you'll hear people talk about, you know, oh, like the world is a prison system and we're being controlled by the archons. And all that may very well be true, but did the archons prevent you from getting out of bed and doing some sit-ups this morning? No. Or reading a book or going outside and enjoying the day instead of, you know, doom scrolling for 5 straight hours on your phone? We have tremendous ability to shape, not just shape our own realities, but shape our own worlds.