Word: cult
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...than other countries hides a deeper, stubborn idealism. Even among the intelligentsia, very few are willing to man the barricades of revolution when disillusioned, or even to pack up and leave. Even amid widespread grumbling and malcontent, we observe levels of flag-waving usually only seen in the personality cult of a dictator. And while we constantly revise our views of our own Founding Fathers, mourning their unfortunate vices (such as slave-holding), they are still almost deified in our schools and in our popular histories for their promotion of equality and liberty...
...Pakistan will continue on, limping and damaged. But the legacy of loss, from the first father to the last mother, has taken its emotional toll. The cult of martyrdom has taken over where voices fail to be heard. In Lyari, walls are plastered with posters of local boys who died protecting Bhutto when she made her triumphant return to Karachi on Oct. 18. The question for Pakistan is how it can find life without celebrating death...
...more and more of an act. This is one area in which the media and the voters really diverge. Political correspondents respect the professionalism of a well-run campaign and are quickly bored by complaints of artifice. Voters, meanwhile, still take offense and long for sincerity. This explains the cult of Harry Truman, which usually breaks out around October of election years. Among the current candidates, it explains John McCain, whose behavior as a prisoner of war brings him about as close as anyone can be to proving which side he would be on in a different kind of society...
Despite the flashes of glamour and star power provided by visitors like Oprah Winfrey (for Barack Obama), Bill Clinton (for his wife) and newly popular cult hero Chuck Norris (for Mike Huckabee), most Iowans came out not to celebrity-watch but to ensure that the candidates addressed the issues facing a troubled nation. They asked questions--often worthy of a doctoral defense--and refused to accept bumper-sticker answers...
...influential music site allmusic.com, and "the most blog worthy band on the planet" by Ken Micallef, music critic at Yahoo! Music. Last year rollingstone.com named them one of the best bands on MySpace - now established as a crucial forum for breaking acts. "They have all the makings of a cult act that could have a decent following in Asia," says Hasief Ardiasyah, associate editor of Rolling Stone Indonesia...