To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.
A revolution without a prior reformation would collapse or become a totalitarian tyranny. A reformation means that masses of our people have reached the point of disillusionment with past ways and values. They don't know what will work but they do know that the prevailing system is self-defeating, frustrating, and hopeless. They won't act for change but won't strongly oppose those who do. The time is then ripe for revolution
It's ideal really. They will come up with a plan. No one will like it. Everyone will feel they have been treated unfairly, but will be happy that their neighbors feel the same. And that is the nature of compromise. Now let's go eat an awful lot.
It seemed like this was one big Prozac nation, one big mess of malaise. Perhaps the next time half a million people gather for a protest march on the White House green it will not be for abortion rights or gay liberation, but because we're all so bummed out.
When even those who should be happy by any reasonable measure are also not happy, there's got to be a serious systemic problem in humanity's culture.
One whisper, added to a thousand others, becomes a roar of discontent
There is a kind of perverse unity forming among us, born, I think, of the discontent of all classes of people with the endless frustration of life.
This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much all of the time.
When many people individually get what they want, the result may be something they collectively dislike.
