turn leadsto aggression which collectively leads to political violence. As was discussedearlier, relative deprivation is defined as a perceived discrepancy betweenmen’s value expectations and their value capabilities. Since man seems to havean innate tendency to act aggressively when frustrated, it stands to reason thatrelative deprivation will eventually lead to collective action or politicalviolence, as was the case with the Detroit riots. Now, why did the violent riots erupt in Detroit? Beneath the complexityof human motivation, neurophysiologists have identified two great “appetitivesystems” that provide the motivating feelings against which everything thathappens to us is measured and judged. Stimulation of one of these systemsprovides our feelings of elation, satisfaction, and love. Stimulation of the otherleads to sensations of anxiety, terror, depression and rage (Gurr, Why MenRebel, p. 22). Most important, the choice of tactical or “realistic” violence as ainnovative response to tension is reinforced by the innate disposition toaggression created by the tensions. The frustration-aggression relationshipprovides the psychological dynamic for the proposed relationship betweenintensity of deprivation and the potential for collective violence (Gurr, WhyMen Rebel, p. 23).Values are the desired events, objects and conditions for which menstrive. A three-fold categorization that includes welfare values, power valuesand interpersonal values is used in this depiction (Gurr, Why Men Rebel, p.25). Welfare values are those that contribute directly to physical well-beingand self realization (Gurr, Why Men Rebel, p. 25). The blacks in Detroit hadthe perception (right or wrong, it doesn’t matter) that their welfare values werebeing jeopardized via discrimination by whites. Since welfare values includethe physical goods of life such as food, shelter, health services and physicalcomforts, blacks sensed th...
