Philosophically, maybe this would be worth discussing further.
In both situations, one can be (and probably is, often) a lemming. Human's are relatively terrible at making good long-term survival decisions - otherwise most of us wouldn't ever consider overly-processed foods and other such vices, even if they were a last resort.
I can see immediate pro/con's of either. Human's are tribal, and solve almost all conflict through varying escalating attempts at compromise, ultimately culminating in violence as the final decision maker; ergo, systems of control culminate in a monopoly on violence. We are, usually, products of our environment and experiences - with a dash of chaos ("luck", "chance", or whatever) mixed in as we traverse this timeline.
The No-Such-Agency man is probably akin to a linear JRPG of (mostly) artificial rules and barriers ("the system", management), with target accomplishments you can level-up to attain better stats which dictate the difficulty you navigate life. Be a good goy, follow the rules, show you obey the plan; get ever-increasing promotion, expanded responsibility, and compensation.
Conversely, the modern neo-serf proletariat class, as a whole the 99.99%, play a game where they try to live the best life they can, using the grand chess-board of the modern technologically connected world, while doing everything to avoid being noticed by the systems of control whenever possible.
In the end, both suffer under the (current, at least as far as I understand reality) inevitability of death, making their choices of association and conformity all but irrelevant unless they are of some prominent note - and even then, under varying, ever-swinging pendulum of social and moral tribal decision making, governed by whatever systems of control and aggregate worship of the time.
In short, time is the only currency you really have in life, and how you use it is what defines you in history.
Time isn't the only currency. Faculties and Opportunities are equally important, and you may have noticed, that nowadays a lot is done to "regulate" aka. scale back the faculties and opportunities people have, unless they're exercised according to the interests of the system. For example, let's assume you're interested in chemistry, you'll need quite a few basic chemicals, which, if you ask for them, will at least put you on a watchlist of the DHS. Stuff like this devalues time, if you view it as a currency.
I also fail to see what this has to do with me having a strong interest in paranoid mathematics.
I also fail to see what this has to do with me having a strong interest in paranoid mathematics.
True, on this we agree. I had anticipated differently.
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