The forces of the cycle are the objective currents of a late phase: the thinning of forms, the leveling of rank, the pull toward the average. Traditional order once held those currents inside a structure that could still form a man. That structure has given way. The differentiated man remains oriented inside the phase the cycle has reached. The size of the current is no reason to make the phase a personal war.
The age turns the current into a cast of villains so the man has someone to fight. A circle offers belonging and names an enemy the circle can hate together. A role with a title attached pretends the cycle can be reversed by the men who hold the title. Chatter spends the hours assigning blame, and the assigning replaces the stand. Each offer spends the force that was meant to keep the measure.
Young men meet this as the hunger to be seen opposing something. A job that rewards only output will pay him to produce reaction and call the reaction a stance. Softness says a standard kept while the current runs is rigidity, and proposes he loosen until the phase feels friendlier. The phase will not grow milder because he has found a face for it. The demand to remain oriented does not shrink because the current is larger than any antagonist he can name.
Keep the measure through the next week without appointing an enemy. Finish the work to the standard, and leave the extra denunciation unsent. Speak once about what the phase does to a man, and stop when the room wants a villain. Decline the role whose gift is a war the cycle will not fight on his terms. The man who can do these things while the phase continues is oriented where the cycle placed him.