Neoliberal Double Extraction and Pseudo-Agency: A Cognitive Bandwidth Model of Working-Class Existential Avoidance

Abstract

This working paper introduces an interdisciplinary framework combining cognitive ergonomics,behavioral economics, and existential philosophy to explain the persistent cognitive exhaustion and existential passivity of the modern working class. We challenge the traditional narrative that lower-risk, passive labor leaves workers with surplus mental capacity for self-determination. Instead, we propose the Double Extraction Model: a mechanism wherein workers suffer a primary depletionof executive cognitive bandwidth through low-autonomy daytime labor and emotional suppression, followed by a secondary depletion driven by the neoliberal imperative for perpetual self-optimization. To defend against the ego-wounding reality of their structural dependency, individuals adopt "Pseudo-Agency"—a psychological defense mechanism of performing high-agency anxieties without execution. Ultimately, this complete cognitive drain leaves the prefrontal cortex incapable of confronting existential reality, forcing reliance on religious fatalism or low-costdopaminergic numbing.