Word: foolishness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Fellini is not overly sentimental or insistent on this point; he is mostly having too much fun with the giddy life of the voyage. Much of the amusement has to do with unfortunate encounters between the foolish passengers, who like to believe that they have transcended the instinctual life, and the lower animal kingdom. There is, for example, the seagull that invades the dining salon, flapping everyone into hysteria. Then there is the matter of the Emir's pet rhinoceros, languishing in the hold and giving off a most unpleasant stench. Seasick, any reasonable person might suppose; lovesick...
Such a policy is misguided on two counts. As the situation in El Salvador reveals, governments under siege have trouble maintaining open societies and often sacrifice civil liberties in turn for survival. In addition, it would be foolish to think that even if Nicaraguan policies did finally meet with U.S. approval the Contras would stop fighting. Most of these groups, peopled by members of Somoza's National Guards, do not seek the improvement of Nicaraguan society according to U.S. standards but control of that society itself. They will neither give their U.S. arms back to their donors or stop using...
...exiled Nigerian lawyer put it, "Far better to have a shabby democracy in which people have some say in the running of things than a shabby military regime in which they have none." The liberal Rand Daily Mail of Johannesburg feared that the coup would bring "foolish and shortsighted satisfaction" to those "who believe black African states are congenitally incapable of moderate, democratic, civilian rule." The coup also brought disappointment to those who believed that the restoration of Nigerian democracy had been a sign that Africa was coming of age. In 1979, Shehu Shagari said, "In this country there...
...take to drink, because he is a failure and fail all the more completely became he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly or inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts...
...longer you sit there, the more pathetic and foolish the shop seems, and you with it. The plants and gaudy red flowers on all the tables are plastic. The eyes of the older woman reader, with heavy make-up, arched eyebrows, gypsy rings and long red dress, dart about like those of a nervous crank, making sure the other readers don't take her customers. She offers such wisdom as, "you have a dog who loves you very much [the man is blind and has a seeing-eye dog next to him]. I see a woman coming into your life...