From dissatisfaction arises change.
- Restlessness is discontent and discontent is the first necessity of progress. Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure. [Thomas A. Edison]
- Freedom, “that terrible word inscribed on the chariot of the storm,” is the motivating principle of all revolutions. Without it, justice seems inconceivable to the rebel’s mind. [Albert Camus, The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt (1951), Part Three, “Historical Rebellion”.]
- When you are discontent, you always want more, more, more. Your desire can never be satisfied. But when you practice contentment, you can say to yourself, ‘Oh yes – I already have everything that I really need.’ [Dalai Lama]
Along with the desire for progress, discontent is a primary emotional force behind change. Major change is unsettling, so an unsettling emotion like discontent may be necessary to overcome inertia and resistance.
In politics, discontent is a prominent driver of change. It may be characterized “as a second dimension of American public opinion.” The authors of a paper from Harvard Business School argue: “Signs of discontent with global capitalism and national capitalisms abound. Unless we find ways to create better jobs and then improve those jobs further with empathic management and thoughtful mentoring, then we will be unable to create a more stable, purposeful political and economic system.” “. . . populism capitalizes on the cultivation of collective—but not individual—discontent.”
Real
True Narratives
Sophie Scholl was a young German political activist who opposed Hitler. The Reich executed her, along with her brother and a friend after they tried to distribute anti-Nazi leaflets.
- Inge Scholl, The White Rose: Munich, 1942-1943 (Wesleyan, 1983).
- Jud Newborn and Annette Dumbach, Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Sophie Scholl and the White Rose (Oneworld Publications, 2007).
Other narratives:
- Wendy Lesser, Music for Silenced Voices: Shostakovich and His Fifteen Quartets (Yale University Press, 2011): “The music is marked by extravagant willfulness, but also by an excruciating sense of futility; powerful assertions collapse in submission or despair; we are not always sure when the music is serious and when it is sarcastic. Dramatic principles of unity are widely violated.”
- Romain Gary, Promise At Dawn: A Memoir (Harper & Brothers, 1961): “Gary believed all people suffered from this need, to break their bonds asunder again and again.”
- Tim Mohr, Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall (Algonquin Books, 2018): seething in alienation, punk rock paved the way toward revolution, but what will survive?
- Matthew Rhodes-Purdy, Rachel Navarre & Stephen Utych, The Age of Discontent: Populism, Extremism, and Conspiracy Theories in Contemporary Democracies (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
- Jared A. Loggins & Andrew J. Douglas, Prophet of Discontent: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Critique of Racial Capitalism (University of Georgia Press, 2021).
- Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Revolution and its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
- Simon Waldman & Emre Caliskan, The New Turkey and Its Discontents (Oxford University Press, 2017).
- Edwyn Bevan, Thoughts on Indian Discontents (1929).
Technical and Analytical Readings
- James Davies, The Importance of Suffering: The Value and Meaning of Emotional Discontent (Routledge, 2013).
- Thomas S. Henricks, Anatomies of Modern Discontent: Visions from the Human Sciences (Routledge, 2022).
- Michael J. Sandel, Democracy's Discontent: A New Edition for Our Perilous Times (Harvard University Press, 2022).
- Anita L. Allen & Milton C. Regan Jr., eds., Debating Democracy's Discontent: Essays on American Politics, Law, and Public Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 1998).
- John L. Campbell, American Discontent: The Rise of Donald Trump and Decline of the Golden Age (Oxford University Press, 2018).
- Steven B. Smith, Modernity and Its Discontents: Making and Unmaking the Bourgeois from Machiavelli to Bellow (Yale University Press, 2016).
- Michelle Pannor Silver, Retirement and Its Discontents: Why We Won't Stop Working, Even If We Can (Columbia University Press, 2018).
- Matthew Titolo, Privatization and Its Discontents: Infrastructure, Law, and American Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
- Alan Brinkley, Liberalism and Its Discontents (Harvard University Press, 1998).
- Francis Fukuyama, Liberalism and Its Discontents (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022).
- Jean-Michel Pau, The Economics of Discontent: From Failing Elites to The Rise of Populism (Tomson, 2019).
- Jean Petrucelli, Sarah Schoen & Naomi Snider, eds., Patriarchy and Its Discontents, Psychoanalytic Perspectives (Routledge, 2023).
- Paul Hollander, ed., Discontents: Postmodern and Postcommunist (Routledge, 2001).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Bob Marley was the king and is the icon of Reggae music. “The relationship between reggae music and political radicalism has long been apparent in both Jamaica and abroad. Reggae is the only Third World musical form to become widely accepted in the West . . .” “Marley’s music grew out of both severe and constant economic impoverishment as well as political discontent with the government and its policies; and it is in this context that as well his music must be analysed and understood.” “. . . Marley had huge significance . . . among the dispossessed the world over.” “Marley’s timeless music has historically been a place of solace for people around the world, especially during times of civil unrest.” “His rich anthems of peace and struggle, hope and discontent, still reverberate globally and especially in his native Jamaica, a small nation whose rich culture its most famous son popularized on an international stage.” Books about Marley are by Timothy White, Roger Steffans, Chris Salewicz, James Henke, Richie Untenberger, Rita Marley, and Kwame Dawes. Here are links to his releases, some playlists, documentary films, interviews, and live performances. Other live performances include:
- Concert at Harvard Stadium, 1979
- Live at Santa Barbara, 1979
- “The Legend” concert, 1979
- Live in Paris, 1980
- Live in Oakland, CA, 1979
Other artists and albums, in a similar vein:
- Keith Hudson, “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood” (1973) (38’): “This is another welcome step in Basic Replay's reconsideration of the erratic (and mostly out-of-print) discography of 'The Dark Prince of Reggae.'”
- Lucky Dube was a South African reggae singer. His releases are linked here.
Other albums, in a similar vein:
- Keith Hudson, “Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood” (1974): “This is another welcome step in Basic Replay's reconsideration of the erratic (and mostly out-of-print) discography of 'The Dark Prince of Reggae.'”
Compositions:
- John Gay, The Beggar’s Opera (1728) (approx. 80-133’) (program and text) challenges conventions, especially those intersecting with corruption. “The point of this slight work, if it has one, seems to be that frolicsome gentlemen, by introducing chaos into society, have only themselves to blame if that chaos leads to their own downfall.” Performances are conducted by Britten, Dalla and Rogers [on BBC, act 1, act 2, act 3].
Music: songs and other short pieces
- U2 - "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (lyrics)
- Radiohead, "No Surprises" (lyrics)
- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "Ohio" (lyrics)
- André Prévost (composer), Scherzo for String Orchestra
Visual Arts
- Joan Miró, May 1968 (1973)
- Wassily Kandinsky, Red Spot II (1921)
- Wassily Kandinsky, White Stroke (1920)
- Marc Chagall, To Russia, with Asses and Others (1911)
Film and Stage
- Sophie Scholl, chronicling the final days of a young German woman, her brother and friend, who paid with their lives for telling the truth about the futility of the Third Reich’s midadventures
- Viridiana, Luis Buñuel’s masterful confrontation of “the piously insulated mind . . . (and) social conditions in Spain”, presented through the tale of a young and beautiful ex-nun whose uncle offers her his “charity”