Word: benignity
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Mark Blitz of the Hudson Institute, an Indianapolis-based think-tank, argues that the persistence of conspiracy theories reflects a collective sense of impotency -- people feeling powerless before blind forces they cannot control. In its most benign form, this near paranoia confines itself to Elvis spotting. At worst it leads to convictions that the Jews -- or reactionary capitalists, or unreconstructed communists -- secretly control the world...
...heading toward a compromise on that issue -- was fueled mainly by pique at being passed over by Clinton for Secretary of State. But that misses the essence of Nunn, who sees himself not merely as a dispenser of funds or a legislative traffic cop but as a benign steward of the military...
More intriguing than the alterations, perhaps, is the man carrying them out. One of managing editor Jim Gaines' first steps after taking over TIME last February was hiring benign-looking Kurt Andersen, 38, editor of Spy magazine. If you haven't heard, Spy is the quintessence of witty and savage satire. It has not spared our proprietor, Time Warner, nor most other major American institutions. Have we unleashed a bomb thrower? Not to worry. Andersen, a man of very many talents, is a former writer in TIME's Nation section who wrote cover stores on Lee Iacocca, Jesse Helms...
...radio and TV garden show, tells his audiences to get rid of Kentucky bluegrass and seed their lawns with buffalo grass, a robust short-stemmed native needing only occasional mowing. Instead of finicky azaleas, Dromgoole recommends lantana, an attractive flowering shrub that, in central Texas at least, thrives on benign neglect...
...racial identity. We overloaded her toy box with black dolls. We carefully monitored the racial content of TV shows and videos, ruling out Song of the South and Dumbo, two classic Disney movies marred by demeaning black stereotypes. But we saw no harm in Pinocchio, which seemed as racially benign as Sesame Street or Barney, and a good deal more engaging. Yet now our daughter was saying she wanted to be white, to be like the puppet who becomes a real boy in the movie. How had she got that potentially soul-destroying idea and, even more important, what should...