Word: crass
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Mechanical World. All this, says Bush, who is recognized as the father of the modern analogue computer, is a crass misconception. In the current issue of FORTUNE, Bush explains that so exaggerated a faith in the powers of science is a residue of a naive 18th century belief in absolute "laws of na ture, based on observation and measurement." In this view, man himself is "merely an automaton, his fancied choice of acts an illusion," and the universe a great mechanical contraption ticking away according to a "neat set of equations." Thus, by observation, man "would be able to understand...
...about the nastiest accusation ever leveled against Adams, an urbane and skeptical politician who, for all his impatience with his contemporaries, respected their right to differ with him-most notably in his gallant defense of British soldiers after the Boston Massacre. Robespierre, by contrast, labored under a crabbed, crass perversion of Enlightenment philosophy that allowed no room for disagreement or human foible. Those who did not share that vision were packed off to the guillotine; some 17,000 were beheaded during the Terror. By equating Virtue with Terror, Robespierre set a comforting precedent for every subsequent despot from Stalin...
...honest. Lyndon Johnson is a man of crass aspirations. He is President because he panders to our ignoble inclinations to be self-seeking and to shrink from hard duty...
...tributes to John F. Kennedy's memory poured forth, ranging from official orations to folk songs, from churchly ritual to crass commercialism, from public breast beating to silent prayer. It was the anniversary of the assassination, and those who knew his quick, sensitive, critical mind could not help but speculate on how he would have commented on the observance...
...true that the members of the Great and General Court showed crass stupidity in voting themselves retroactive pay raises after an earlier referendum for a smaller increase lost, but it is unlikely Massachusetts will get a better class of men for its legislators until it pays a better wage. The passage of the referendum simply denying a pay raise for the second time sweeps the question of what to do about the woefully underpaid ($5200 per year) legislature under the rug. Simultaneously, however, voters approved a pay hike for Boston policemen, boosting their starting salary to $6900. Neither salary...