Word: instants
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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People are not becoming more evil but more perfect. The events and behavior you cite as evidence of questionable ethics simply reflect our increased awareness of evil through the technology of instant global communications. Any public lapse of morals is now known instantly and responded to with outrage and a demand for perfection. To me, this represents an improvement in our situation...
...Basil's Cathedral and the other famous buildings facing Red Square, and the figure of Rust, dressed in $45 red flying overalls, emerging from the cockpit. Newspaper editorials compared his exploits to those of Manfred von Richthofen, the legendary "Red Baron" of World War I. Rust's status as instant folk hero was further certified by the appearance in West Berlin of $8 T shirts with a drawing of the flyer's Cessna in its now famous background and the inscription INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, RED SQUARE. OPENING MAY 28, 1987. Indeed, so persistent was the hoopla surrounding the strange case...
...some watchers are dedicated nonactivists who enjoy birding largely for the companionship it brings. A birder can travel a thousand miles into the wilds of another state and find instant rapport with local birding fanatics, who are busy collecting new species, along with mosquito bites and ticks. "Camaraderie is what birding is all about," says Benton Basham, a Chattanooga, Tenn., anesthetist...
...current scandals are mostly linked by coincidence. Ethical introspection, after all, is at odds with the pragmatism of the national culture. It is not accidental that the country's favored metaphor is sports: a factual world of detailed rules and final scores, where armchair disputes can be resolved by instant replays. Questions of what constitutes right and wrong are far more troubling, but there comes a time in the life of a nation when they must be addressed, not avoided...
...heavyweights to join the festivities. "That's the most likely next big event," says Pollster Stanley Greenberg. "An established national figure who comes in reluctantly, someone who stands apart from the rush of present candidates, would change the game." Cuomo or New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley would attract instant attention, as would Georgia Senator Sam Nunn...