It is a term many of us have been conditioned to forget or not taught to use.
Agency is our power, not just as an individual but also as a collective.
There are many forms agency can take.
You can use your agency when making a medical decision to accept or reject a treatment plan, or you can even use it to get a second or third opinion.
Mothers use their agency every day in ensuring they represent their child's interests.
As our parent's age and need more support, we often see ourselves using our personal agency to advocate for their needs.
Agency is a long-forgotten value, in Councils it has joined the likes of "Civic Pride" and has been relegated to the dustbin. More widely in society, we are constantly told to defer our agency: trust the Government. Trust the Health Department. Trust the "experts". All of this, despite ample and recurring evidence of how often they get things wrong, and how they may not have the wider Community's collective interests at heart.
Government and Councils are full of humans, who can make mistakes.
Our councils have become highly bureaucratic, often unable to see their mistakes. They have become much more political in their nature, and this cultural shift has consequences. Politics is a tough game. If you look at State and Federal Government, numbers matter. Polls claim scalps and enough votes can change political fortunes in minutes. Numbers matter, always.
That is agency in its purest political form: NUMBERS.
With the loss of much local media, Councils have ensured that we (the community) have long forgotten our agency and it's our power.
For many of reading this, you might feel like they (the Council) just always win and trample the wishes of local communities, and in many respects, you would not be wrong.
You see, Councils have deluded us into thinking our agency doesn't work, doesn't matter, and can be safely ignored.
Let me assure you it cannot. In the world of much negative press, Communities DO WIN.
We DO see communities win - it may be overturning, changing, amending, or being heard, but it DOES happen. It just needs to happen a lot more. It can only happen a lot more when more people use their agency.
It won't rain hope, people need to create hope via their own actions. We cannot "wait" for others to do it. We must be the change we seek.
If you are reading this, it's likely you have seen the many examples of problems in our Councils. Our job at Council Watch is clearly communication and awareness, but to what end?
We will always keep exposing the stupidity and hypocrisy in our local Councils. It is what we are known for, and it will only intensify, for good reason.
Our job is to connect people like you, people that see these things and want improvement, to ways to make this system of Councils CHANGE.
It would be nice to wave a magic wand, but that is unlikely.
So, what will make Councils improve, listen, and reflect communities better?
YOU, understanding your agency, and using it.
YOUR COMMUNITY, understanding its agency, and using it as well too.
Agency is like democracy; it is there but it only works if we participate.
I speak with many Councillors who WISH more residents would get involved on issues.
So, what can you do?
Recognise that the system of local government can only temporarily win against real agency. But this is folly for them, it is but castles made of sand. Change can and will happen.
Communities almost always win in the long term. All social change has proven that.
Whether it was rights for women, people of colour, or equality in any shape or form, change comes when people use their agency. One person starts it, others join, and in the end, we have grown so much we exert the change we asked for. The sheer pressure is the shifting we long for.
How do you use your agency?
Show up
Get involved
Help
Give feedback
Many of our Councils get poor engagement and feedback, because they have conditioned us to think agency doesn't work. And you probably think it too, since you have been ignored and dismissed by Councils or any other form of government or authority. The problem is that we have been fragmented for too long, drowning in Brave New World's soma, seeking only feel-good ways to disconnect with reality via the TV, streaming, videogames, or other means.
But we cannot lay down and be defeatists, or pretend issues do not exist and that we just have to grit our teeth until someone else does something. Our communities must rally for what they want and need.
So as elections approach, may I ask everyone to:
Show up
Support good candidates who are COMMUNITY minded
Help educate people
Spread the word about better outcomes
Get people involved
If none of these suits you, that is fine as well.
We just ask that you do something - anything - to change the status quo of our politics, especially at the Council level.
But one thing we will urge you to do in the strongest possible terms: do NEVER forget the power of your agency.
“Progress relies on human agency…
Things get better because we make them better.”
- Susan Rice, Fmr U.S. Ambassador
Quick Poll
How likely are you to use your agency more - by getting involved?
Not likely at all
A bit more
A lot more
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