Word: disdain
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...every ex-schoolboy has probably forgotten, Thorstein Veblen coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption" after examining the untaxed sachems of the Gilded Age, their mansions, yachts, gargantuan dinner parties and cyclopean stickpins. In The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) Veblen did not hide his disdain for such display. He belonged to an era of sociology before it married computer science, bred statistics and headed for the neutral horizons of market research...
Indifference is an impressive but somewhat risky ploy. Rarely do public figures command the easy Gallic disdain of French President Valéry Discard d'Estaing. When Le Canard Enchaîné reported that Giscard had accepted $250,000 worth of diamonds as gifts from the Central African Republic's butcherous Emperor Bokassa, Giscard's reaction was roughly, "So what?" Of course, the French have a tradition of Non, je ne regrette rien. Across the channel, the Duke of Wellington once displayed something of that spirit when an old mistress (a Frenchwoman) threatened to publish...
...acts the way Black people expect her to, but she feels the force of their folklore and their spirit. An African woman she sees in a Paris supermarket, with "eyes so beautiful they burned the lashes around them," haunts Jadine for months when she spits at her with disdain. The spirits of the past strike hardest with the discovery of an untamed, uneducated filthy young man named Son who has been hiding in the Street's house for days. At first he is an ugly rastaman, a "nigger in the woodpile" whose lack of breeding and cleanliness offend...
...premise that Harvard can avoid being involved in the military is simply not true, though some people would like to say that it is." Kark adds. "There is a fundamental disdain among a large number of academics for the military. But the military will not go away," he says...
When Sir Freddie Laker inaugurated his no-frills, low-fare transatlantic flights in 1977, Europe's flagship airlines viewed the enterprising Englishman with a mixture of disdain-and apprehension. Now that Laker has proved the profitability of catering to frugal flyers, some of the once haughty carriers are imitating his stripped-down style. Beginning this week, British Airways and Air France will eliminate first-class seats from all their nights within Europe. The two airlines will offer first-class service only on intercontinental trips. KLM Airlines has already eliminated the first-class section on flights between Amsterdam and London...