Word: ism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Unfortunately, it would seem that the "-ism" closest to my current state of mind would be existentialism. I think about how I didn't exist before I was born. I try not to think about how I won't exist after I die. And how that won't change no matter what I do while I'm alive. Oftentimes, a lot of the passions and endeavors of others seem useless to me. Maybe that's why I'm so sympathetic to consultants and investments bankers--they're no more useless than anybody else. I guess if I wanted...
...decided that I could really use an "-ism." An "-ism" is something that was defined for me a long time ago by my high school European history teacher. Nationalism, Socialism, Communism--"-isms" were things that could make a bunch of disgruntled peasants forget their gripes about the government and focus their energies on their hate for other countries, he explained. "-Isms" were things that people didn't mind going to war for. Meanwhile, in the back of the classroom, my neighbor claimed that he could really get this country going by dispersing the seeds of "j-ism" to the population...
...need an "-ism". An "-ity" would do just as well. Any sufficiently righteous movement will suffice, as long as it doesn't land me in jail. Actually, check that. The right "-ism" will be worth going to jail for. The right "-ism" will be all I need to be happy. I want to want to pour my heart into something, to lay everything I care about on the line. I want to run out into the pouring rain half-naked and scream at the sky. I want to stop asking my boss if I can use the bathroom, and take...
...Whenever my kids go out to the suburbs, they take pride...in being tough city kids," she adds. "They feel like private schools have a snob-ism they don't want any part...
...concern is not the beautiful naked people embracing but the fact that they are doing so in public as entertainment. Civilized people make passionate love, but they do it in a bedroom, not in front of a movie camera. Let's not go any further into peep show-ism. JOHN KENRICK ELLIS Sierra Madre, Calif...