Posts Tagged ‘relative deprivation’
One Theory
I don’t understand why issues like brash disregard for ethical protocols, such as a refusal to release tax returns or to divest financial holdings to avoid conflicts of interest, goes unresolved and then is allowed to fade from view. The issues were never addressed, but they seem to have disappeared from the national dialogue.
It’s as if time heals all wounds. If we stop talking about the evidence of potential for kleptocracy, things will actually be okay. Maybe there will be no ethical violations by billionaires in government.
It feels like the difference of perceptions to the issues unfolding before us in this country are vast. It is hard for people to merge varying possibilities, so they cling to one extreme or another. The political anger that led folks toward making their choice on election day, and the reactions to what has happened since, could be seen as a natural product of that.
A theory about that political anger caught my eye in an NPR article yesterday.
Relative deprivation.
Being deprived of something a person thinks they are entitled to.
That is one way to explain the anger of the moment.
I’m feeling a little deprived of a collective common sense lately. And decency. And diplomacy, but I’d settle for just the common sense, if that were even possible.
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Relative Something 