Word: communalism
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Nevertheless, such behavior is not wholly without rationale. Although Alexis de Tocqueville once said that Americans had a special predilection for group association, modern advertisers today's news anchors emphasize the dangers implicit in communal trust. In a society riddled with menacing sound bites, the passenger two seats over could very well be a psychopathic killer, a child molester or even a teenager who just dumped her baby in the trash...
DIED. JAMES LEE BYARS, 65, whimsical artist who made a spectacle of himself by posing in his own fanciful exhibits; of cancer; in Cairo. A pink silk airplane with space for 100 passengers and a mile-long communal scarlet robe typified Byars' inscrutable style, which he once explained to TIME: "As soon as I open my mouth, I find myself in a state of alienation...
...democracy and capitalism. Its prevailing emotional standard, however, is simply to ensure that everyone is capable of making it alone. It's always been considered too corny, too rah-rah for Harvard to build a sense of community. We have no mascot, no real nickname, no football bonfires, no communal weeping for good old whatever. And while there are strong ties created among certain people within certain Houses, randomization causes only additional atomization and isolation...
Similarly, in Harvard's early days students would do almost anything to avoid finals. As early as 1791, students were engaging in pranks such as secretly mixing emetic into the communal breakfast pot in order to stave off exams...
Recreational pot, hashish, uppers, downers and hallucinogens were part of campus reality. Not everyone drugged but most drank something and cigarette smoking was an acceptable social activity. Adult-like sex was now quite available as well and there was much discussion about "free love," communal living, black separatist states and even revisiting the "back to Africa" vision of Paul Cuffe and Marcus Mosiah Garvey. I seemed to focus on being sure that I was making my own and not peer-pressured decisions about who I wanted...