Willpower is often understood as a muscle of the mind that we can learn to flex. The perennial philosophical problems of weakness of the will and freedom of the will. But as science reminds us, everything has a cause, and this includes our will. These conclusions accord well with our phenomenological experiences. Most of what we do is governed by habits. We act as we come to do what a certain situation calls for. As a result there can be no such thing as self-determination. We can never have power over ourselves. The historical overview focuses on the crisis of willpower at the turn of the twentieth century. Factory labor, standing to attention, and the mechanization of life resulted in neurasthenia and other mental afflictions. Dreams of daredevilry, colonialism, and war were ways to break free and restore freedom of movement. The illusion of national self-determination.