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...they pulled out, leaving the barely experienced Chinese on their own. Their departure coincided with the conclusion of Mao's Great Leap Forward, which was intended to initiate the masses into the discipline and skills required in an industrial society. The consequence: a huge stumble backward that hurt China's developing industries. After a few years of respite, Mao's second self-inflicted economic catastrophe, the Cultural Revolution of 1966-69, saw many of China's industrial managers humiliated and intimidated by the wild-eyed Red Guards. More recently, the so-called Gang of Four, which...
...ultra-Zionist sent waves of concern, and even fear, throughout much of the world. The Arab press, led by Cairo, bitterly denounced him as a dangerous annexationist dreaming of a Greater Israel. Even Jimmy Carter hinted that he was concerned that Begin's election might "be a step backward toward the achievement of peace." In Israel itself, some of Begin's defeated Labor opponents warned grimly that his right-wing Likud coalition "will force us into another...
According to unreliable sources, the first man's first words were, "Madam, I'm Adam." Since then, language has been like that palindrome: the optimists can read its messages forward, the pessimists backward. In 1977 American English gave both groups plenty of opportunity. The air was saturated with recent coinages ("reverse discrimination," "mainstreaming," "ten-four, good buddy"). Some phrases enriched the nation's tongue; many impoverished it with jargon and meaningless terms. For words are like prescription lenses; they obscure what they do not make clear. This year the Washington Star had no trouble finding examples that...
Thus both sides can take-or lose-heart. In the hallowed jargon of yesterday, herewith the bottom line: "Are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?" That, too, can be read backward and forward...
There is one gesture of Obi-Wan's, however, that he still regrets. When the planet Alderaan blows up, Obi-Wan reels backward and clutches his forehead, an unpardonable cliché in Guinness's opinion. "I still go hot and cold when I think of that scene," he confesses. During those awkward moments, he has at least one consolation: his 2¼% of the film's profits...