Word: earnest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Purdy, 24, writes earnestly in For Common Things against a culture he sees as saturated with irony. "The point of irony," he writes in the opening pages, "is a quiet refusal to believe in the depth of relationships, the sincerity of motivation, or the truth of speech--especially earnest speech." For Purdy, our culture is entrenched in a Seinfeldian shtick, an "endless joke...not exactly at anyone's expense, but rather at the expense of the idea that anyone might take the whole affair seriously...
...students at Harvard--and even to the author himself--the arguments at the core of For Common Things lend support to local community efforts like the living wage campaign. These projects are "earnest," "responsible" and "honest"--a direct affront to the ironic spirit...
Purdy is correct in attributing a certain earnest motivation to those who are involved with grassroots organizations like the living wage campaign. But, in some sense, this is to be expected. In general, students who devote their time to student groups at Harvard do so earnestly and honestly. Whether I decide to direct a play, write for a publication or celebrate my cultural heritage, it is because I gain some intrinsic pleasure from the activity itself. I have, to use Purdy's words, identified with a project, relationship or aspiration. My extracurricular choice--whatever it might be--would rarely elicit...
...stark contrast to the anti-ironic stance in our exalted extracurricular realm, our views towards academic and House life are anything but earnest or genuine. As student groups and outside commitments have become the definitive standard by which to judge one's Harvard experience, academic pursuits have become marginalized. Many of us are more concerned with the practical value of a Harvard diploma than with our own personal intellectual development...
...save the paper and himself by breaking into the big city market. With brilliant personal salesmanship and no little bit of financial finagling, he finally won the backing he needed. On Aug. 19, 1896, he announced on the front page of his newly acquired newspaper that his "earnest aim was to give the news impartially, without fear or favor...