Word: belief
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Whether used for good or ill, courage has never been in large supply in any society. Today's troubled feeling that it used to be far more common stems from the relatively recent Western belief that individualism equals virtue. The notion is contrary to the older (and Eastern) conviction that virtue lies in seeking balance with the community on earth and with the universe beyond. Especially in America, where individual courage once tamed the wilderness, pessimists now see an antlike mass society. There is no West to be wild in; the only terra incognita is under water. The plains...
...effort must be suppressed. Thirty newspapers, including Lau's Daily News, have either been suspended or permanently shuttered for publishing statements regarded as "unpatriotic." Songs that dwell longingly on peace are banned. The police sometimes rip flower decals off autos and motor scooters in the belief that these are symbols of a peace movement. Says one intellectual angrily: "Thieu thinks the army is everything. But you can't have a world without intellectuals, any more than you can have a world without women. They both make trouble, but you need them...
...influence of Buddhism on the intellectuals remains strong. It holds that temporal life is only an "ocean of sorrows" and that the intellectual should avoid involvement in it. As a result, attentisme (waiting) is a popular posture. It is a detached resignation at least partly rooted in the belief that the nation's destiny is controlled by outside forces-the French after World War II, the Americans and the North Vietnamese in the present conflict-and that the individual is powerless to bring about change. It also reflects despair over the lack of alternatives and deep disenchantment with both...
...pressure to perform well in business looms ever larger as a reason why the life expectancy of males in the U.S. is only 66.7 years-five years less than in Sweden, and appreciably less than in such countries as Japan, Czechoslovakia and Israel. Contrary to popular belief, the U.S. ranks low in longevity-24th among countries that keep statistics. The male life expectancy rate has not risen significantly in the U.S. since the 1940s...
...remarkable creation within this workmanlike and well-modulated narrative is the character of Pierce. Steadfastly carrying a belief in the heroic pattern of life "like a shiny coin in his pocket," he represents a Hemingway-esque hero as seen through a Fitzgerald lens. His relationship with Ben is something far more complex than a simple boy-meets-boy story. As Pierce's wife observes to Ben just before the denouement: "What a curious pair you are, you two. I used to think the relationships between women were complicated, but they're nothing to what goes on between...