food for thought.

Found this in my reading for my class, CORG 5302: Theory and Practice of Social Movements for Community Organizing.  

Adequately touches upon my struggles with lack of internet, etc. despite being confronted with thousands of people who live in shacks just miles away.  Food for thought.  I'm hungry.

Relative Deprivation

The poor are not always the most rebellious people in a society; nor do people always protest during the worst of times.  Rather; people typically become angry an feel that their situation is unjust when there is a significant difference between the conditions of their lives and their expectations.  In other words, people judge the fairness of their social situation and of the society in which they live not against some absolute standard, but relative to the expectations that they’ve come to hold about themselves or their society.  Such relative deprivation may be found among quite comfortably-off and even privileged people.  Relative deprivation may also become widespread when a long period of prosperity is followed by an abrupt economic downturn (the J-curve theory).  When this happens, people cannot quickly or easily adjust their expectations to fit their new situation; instead, they may feel that something is badly wrong with the society in which they live.  
(Source:  The Social Movements Reader, edited by Goodwin, J. & Jasper, J.)