Word: avant
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...judgement of a tottering old political giant is not just a tallying up of the Richard Nixons who slipped through the system. There is a more subtle but equally incisive measure of the disintegrating state of affairs, an assessment of those who call themselves the system's avant-garde and regard themselves as the righteous guardians of social justice. There is an invidious callousness which pervades every layer of American society, including its left-swinging tips. It is an insensitivity spawned no doubt of power tipsyness, for the U.S. is a nation strong enough to keep its own wars thousands...
...workers, could have subsidies and increasing absolute shares of national income. In this way, hedonism, the villain of Bell's analysis, was defused as a political danger and displaced into the harmless arena of culture, which it has dominated since the late 19th century. The anti-capitalism of American avant-garde artists, writers, intellectuals and even Greenwich Village is a result of the individual's refusal to subordinate the myth of liberalism--the individual's total freedom--to the Protestant ethic of the unfree work-place...
Under these conditions, an avant-garde can hardly be said to exist. The most outrageous or destructive idea or art form becomes accepted overnight. "In fact," writes Bell, the chief characteristic of the Establishment "is its eagerness to repudiate its own existence." The condition of art is echoed in politics and the economy. Capitalists have lost faith in their enterprise and are listless about defending it. Capitalism's very success has created a paradox: hard work, discipline and organization make capitalism successful. But the goods it abundantly produces encourage a mindless pursuit of hedonism. Capitalism is thus deprived...
...basement gymnasium of a church. "We were a very aggressive bunch of broads doing God's work," she recalls. "Bit by bit we felt it was O.K. for audiences to enjoy us." In 1970 a man was added to the troupe, which was gaining a reputation in the avant-garde of dance. Impatient with foundation questionnaires, Tharp's replies were typically blunt: "I'm sorry, I write dances, not application forms. Send me the money. Love, Twyla...
When she was appointed president of avant-garde Bennington College three years ago, Gail Parker seemed a natural for the job. She was a refreshing 29, a feminist and a literature professor at Harvard. What was more, her husband Tom, 30, an assistant to a Harvard dean, would come along as Bennington's vice president. Last week the glow was gone from Bennington. President Parker was the object of a campus revolt and the center of a fight for control of the college. The faculty had taken an overwhelming vote of no confidence in her performance and decided...