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Alice Lesnick's picture

dissatisfaction with or marking self

Submitted by Alice Lesnick (guest) on Mon, 08/17/2009 - 12:34pm.

Paul writes (above):
"I work from the presumption that there is no such thing as "perfection" and so to be dissatisfied with something is not to mark it as distinctively unworthy but rather to notice things about it that one feels some inclination to change."

What about when to be dissatisfied with something is to mark myself as unworthy? Or when to note another person's dissatisfaction is to mark him as unworthy? I'm not sure if this is covered by the term "angst" in the text above, but I think it still needs bringing forward. In many symbolic economies and performances of power, to manifest dissatisfaction is to be one-down, not to belong in the center, or at the top. Ben's story of his talented, able friend not getting a job could be read in these terms. I don't want to read in this way, but there it is.

And: what about when, apart from power considerations, the dissatisfaction ought to turn inward, the things needing to be changed are within?

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