I've Just Written Your Biography - Would You Mind Taking a Moment to Fact-Check It, Please?
Part 3: Building Your Own Power Station. So you've escaped both traps. You're neither incontinent nor constipated. Now what?
You Generate Your Own Power Now.
The incontinent draw energy from outrage. Tribal validation. Performing emotions for likes and shares. Cut them off and they collapse.
The constipated draw energy from belonging. Defending the tribe. Never having to think for themselves. Cut them off and they panic.
Both plugged into external sources. Both dependent.
You? You generate your own power now.
This is what Rogers called becoming a “fully functioning person” - someone whose locus of evaluation is internal, not external. You’re self-sustaining because you’ve shifted from seeking validation to generating your own sense of worth.
The Three S’s - stillness, silence, solitude - that’s your charging station. Find your time. Whenever the world leaves you alone. Early morning before anyone wakes. Late night after everyone sleeps. Lunch break in your car. A walk before dawn. Doesn’t matter when. Matters that you create the conditions where your mind works without interference.
That’s when you’re not just thinking clearly. You’re generating energy.
Every time you catch yourself before reacting - choosing where your energy goes.
Every time you observe manipulation without taking the bait - conserving power.
Every time you question loyalty instead of defending blindly - unplugging from external control.
All that energy you spent on reaction and performance? Yours now.
My 88 articles on Bristol City Council? Not built from anger or loyalty. Built from self-generated energy focused on observation. I don’t need the council to make me angry. Don’t need a party to validate my perspective. Don’t need readers to agree.
I plug myself in. Charge myself up. Do the work.
But Here’s What Changes.
You can’t blame anyone anymore. When you recognise you choose your responses - fuck-ups are on you. That’s heavier than it looks.
The traps were comfortable. Always having company. Always knowing what to think. Clarity means sitting in uncertainty. Being wrong. Questioning everything.
But you gain something Rogers called “congruence” - when who you are matches who you present yourself as being. No performance. No masks. Just you.
You can’t go back. Once you see the manipulation, you can’t unknow it.
So why do it? Because what you gain is worth what you give up.
The Bigger Picture.
You haven’t just escaped personal dysfunction. You’ve escaped mass programming.
When millions of people simultaneously say “I can’t” and “this makes me feel” - entire populations become manipulable. Whole demographics moving in predictable patterns. Pull the lever, get the reaction.
Social contagion spreads. When everyone’s using helpless language, it reinforces itself. The anxiety becomes ambient. The helplessness becomes normal. Normal is invisible.
Institutions gain control through voluntary surrender. “We’ll protect you from what makes you anxious.” People say yes. Gratefully.
Mass helplessness creates the two traps. Anxious populations split into incontinent (outrage performance) or constipated (tribal safety) as coping mechanisms.
Economic exploitation follows. Helpless populations consume more. Products to soothe anxiety. Tribal markers. Outrage entertainment. The attention economy depends on it.
Democratic participation erodes. People without agency don’t participate meaningfully. They just react to whoever triggers them.
This is what you’ve escaped.
Your escape threatens the system. If people see you’ve escaped, they might try too. Your self-sustaining existence proves the traps are optional. That agency is possible.
Dangerous stuff.
What This Looks Like.
Early morning. Everyone’s still asleep. You’re in stillness, silence, solitude. Your mind is working. Seeing patterns. Making connections. This isn’t meditation. This is power generation.
Wednesday afternoon. The local council publishes their latest housing report. The incontinent are performing outrage on Twitter. The constipated are defending their tribe. You’re reading the actual numbers. Checking them against previous reports. Following the money. Is this practical? Is this logical? What’s the likely outcome? No emotional reaction. No tribal filter. Just observation.
Thursday evening. Someone at the pub tells you you’ve changed. The old you would’ve defended yourself. Tried to win them back. But you’re not drawing power from their approval anymore. So you smile, finish your pint, and let them think what they think.
Friday morning. You publish an article contradicting both narratives. Both tribes are angry. Both want you to pick a side. You don’t need either tribe’s validation. You saw what you saw. Reported what’s there. The energy came from you.
That’s what self-sustaining enables.
You see patterns others miss because you’re not filtering through reaction or loyalty.
You change your mind without crisis because being accurate matters more than being right.
You tell uncomfortable truths because truth matters more than comfort.
You operate independently because you’re not captured.
You think clearly in chaos because you’ve created the conditions where clarity is possible.
That’s the payoff. That’s why it’s worth it.
You’re free. Actually free.
Staying Plugged In.
The hardest part? Staying escaped.
Catch the language. Every “I can’t” is a leak. Every “this makes me feel” is surrendering control. Stop. Rephrase. Reclaim agency.
Notice the pull. Both traps are always calling. The incontinent trap offers comfort through outrage. The constipated trap offers comfort through tribe. When you feel the pull - you’re low on charge. Time for the Three S’s.
Protect your charging time. The world will demand you be available, responsive, always on. Resist. Your early mornings, your silent walks, your solitary thinking time - these aren’t optional. They’re not self-indulgent. They’re fuel.
Choose your battles. Self-sustaining doesn’t mean engaging with everything. You observe most things without engaging. Save energy for what matters. For work only you can do because only you see what’s there.
Find the others. They’re rare. People generating their own power. Seeing their own patterns. Doing their own work. You’ll recognise each other through the work itself. Through the clarity. That recognition is worth more than all the tribal belonging.
This is how you stay self-sustaining. Not by being perfect. By recognising your power comes from you now.
Where This Leads.
I left school at fifteen. Some test once suggested I have a high IQ, but that’s just a number on paper. What matters is paying attention.
And here’s what I’ve noticed: people who escape both traps and stay escaped all do one thing differently.
They stop asking permission.
Not from authority. Not from tribes. Not from anyone.
They recognise that asking “is this okay?” is just another way of staying dependent. And once you’re generating your own power, you don’t need permission.
You just do the work. Observe what’s there. Ask your three questions. Act based on what you see, not based on who validates it.
That’s where this leads. Not to some mountaintop where you sit in blissful isolation. But to a place where you’re so self-sustaining that you just do the work. Whatever work needs doing. Whatever truth needs telling.
Without asking permission. Without seeking validation. Without needing approval.
Just doing it. Because you can. Because you see it. Because you’re free.
A note before we finish:
This approach isn’t for everyone. If you’re dealing with trauma, severe anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges, please seek professional support. What I’m describing here is a methodology for thinking clearly and reclaiming agency - not a substitute for therapy or treatment when that’s what’s needed.
This is where the series ends. Or begins. Depending on how you look at it.
You’ve got the method. You understand the traps. You know the consequences and the payoff.
Now you just do the work. In stillness. In silence. In solitude. Generating your own power. Being self-sustaining. Staying free.
The choice has always been yours.
But now you know what you’re choosing.
My brain still travels at a billion miles an hour. But now I know what to do with that. I plug myself in. Charge myself up. And use all that energy to see clearly.
You can too.
And you can’t unknow that.
END OF SERIES.
References:
Rogers, C. R. (1959). A theory of therapy, personality and interpersonal relationships, as developed in the client-centred framework. In S. Koch (Ed.), Psychology: A study of a science. Vol. 3: Formulations of the person and the social context (pp. 184-256). New York: McGraw Hill.
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Rogers, C. R. (1963). The actualising tendency in relation to “motives” and to consciousness. In M. R. Jones (Ed.), Nebraska symposium on motivation (pp. 1-24). Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Author Bio: I’m John Langley (The Almighty Gob), an independent blogger and satirical commentator who operates thealmightygob.com and publishes on Substack. I specialise in Bristol City Council accountability and UK institutional dysfunction analysis, having published 88+ investigative articles documenting governance failures through Freedom of Information requests and council meeting analysis. I apply a consistent analytical framework of three questions: “Is it practical? Is it logical? What’s the likely outcome?”