Word: countertrends
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This ideological and cultural blending strikes some observers as too much of a good thing. Writing in the Atlantic, Rutgers political scientist Benjamin Barber laments what he calls "McWorld." He also identifies the countertrend, the re-emergence of nationalism in its ugliest, most divisive and violent form...
...sure, nobody expects the dissolution to go that far. Last week, indeed, saw the beginning of a countertrend toward formation of some kind of new union, spurred by somber warnings against self-destructive splintering of authority. Mikhail Gorbachev threatened to resign as Soviet President if some sort of union is not preserved, and Sobchak called a complete dissolution of the union "suicidal." Delegations of the giant Russian republic and Ukraine pledged to work out at least military and economic cooperation and invited the other republics to participate. At week's end a Russian delegation got the signatures of the leaders...
Through better diets and increased exercise, most Americans can look forward to longer lives. Last week, however, the National Center for Health Statistics reported a disturbing countertrend. From 1984 to 1986, the average life expectancy of whites rose from 75.3 to a record 75.4 years. But for blacks during that same period it declined, going from 69.7 to 69.4 years. A major cause: a stark increase in accidental deaths and homicides. While there are 5.6 murders among each 100,000 whites, there are a harrowing 32.4 homicides for each 100,000 blacks, up 15%. Among black males the rate...
...course, contrary to common sense to assume that any trend will keep on advancing until it triumphs all along the line. A trend postulates a countertrend, a force to be overcome, and if that latter has any raison d'etre to begin with, it will eventually reassert itself, and turn things around. The Hegelian triad of thesis-antithesis-synthesis has much to recommend it as a scheme of change...
...every trend there is a puzzling offsetting countertrend. If some national polls show the President now leading by an eyelash, many state polls show Rea gan ahead by small margins among the people most likely to vote. If Anderson backers in most states are drifting toward Carter, those in Michigan are mainly moderate Republicans who are moving to Reagan, preserving the Californian's narrow lead in that all-important state...