This article explores how Martin Luther King Jr. connects disappointment to political action, emphasizing hope and determination.
In this article, I elucidate Martin Luther King Jr.’s views on the value and function of democratic disappointment. First, disappointment is intrinsically valuable as a morally appropriate emotional response to frustrated desires and expectations. Second, it is instrumentally valuable as a necessary precondition for political action. I close by exploring King’s account of how to constructively channel disappointment into determined political action through song.
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Meena Krishnamurthy (2026) studied this question.
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