"frustration aggression theories use psychological theories of individual behavior to explain civil strife, including revolutions, insurgencies, strikes, riots, and coups. these theories suggest that people become aggressive when they feel frustrated by something or someone who is blocking them from fulfilling a strong desire. and important subset of these theories suggests that this frustration and aggression can be caused by relative deprivation, which arises when people perceive a widening gap between the level of satisfaction they have achieved ( often defined in economic terms )and the level they believe they deserve. deprivation therefore is relative to some subjective standard of equity or fairness, and the size of that perceived gap obviously depends on the beliefs about economic justice held by individuals." thomas homer-dixon "environment, scarcity, and violence"_____________(bear with me...there are only forty or so page left in the book to read...it will be over soon )...perceived is one of the more operant words here i'm thinking...those "beliefs about economic justice" are mostly informed by advertizing from a consumerist culture that expects ( because it is the foundation of the system ) people to purchase more material goods than they can afford, thus being "good citizens" who create new money by going into debt...which further depletes their ability to " consume more " ( because there are limits even to sub-prime debt and the cost are astronomical..."easy monthly payments" my ass...one of the blessings of aging is that advertisers [except for cemetery plots] don't target me because they are fairly well aware that i will say "no thanks" [ or, possibly, "fuck you" ] to any sort of new cycle of debt ) and adds to their frustrations...there is a lot of perceived and very real economic inequality going on around this country these days as cohorts of small, well funded coalitions move into the government to engineer more upward redistributions of wealth to themselves and their constituents...it is obvious...so overt you have to wonder why there isn't more violence and social unrest...the tea party thinks we're stupid...not so...stunned perhaps...but the political theft is so blatant no one could miss it...the flames are fed oxygen by the "news as entertainment and manipulation" bunch at fox and cnbc who insist on lurid new programming because it sells advertizing and everyone's out for a buck...people may be "branded" by what news they watch ( or other programming for that matter ) but that doesn't make them less manipulated...only insensitive to voices other than those in complete agreement with them..i, for one, call that stupid as well as manipulated...causality is non-linear...no one knows what's going to happen exactly..all we have are "informed" extrapolations of what "Might" happen..the airwaves are alive with allegations...the only certainty is that if we don't stop listening to the nightly news or the political blather from the government and start listening to each other all this is just going to get worse...merry christmas...happy holidays..."false and commercial festival"...whatever suits your fancy.
