Statics and Dynamics of Dissent

Abstract

The problem discussed herein is whether familiar static (unchanging) and dynamic (changing) influences on dissent can interact, resulting in quite unfamiliar effects on dissent and justifying a synthesis of separate static and dynamic theories. The argument is that such influences can interact even in conventional ways in a spatiotemporal matrix, altering one another's effects unexpectedly (given current theories) on all phases of dissent from initial motivation to eventual diffusion; a tentative theoretical synthesis is thus offered. Implications include greater anticipatory adaptation to dissent by governments, renewed optimism for broad-gauge and unified theory, and reinterpretation of organized complexity's import for dissent.