Word: moralizes
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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What these acolytes are really seeking is moral purity, says Glassner. Proper eating and exercise, he writes, have become "moral acts." Such is the paranoia about staying well that, in his view, Americans have reverted to "some of the least appealing beliefs found in so-called primitive societies." Illness, for example, is viewed not as a natural process but the result of immoral action. Explains Glassner: "We suspect the illness was the person's own fault: he or she should have exercised or eaten properly...
...basic requirement in this line of work is authority: moral certitude, calm omnicompetence in the face of murderous excess and, if you can manage it, a touch of mature irony about the Sisyphean nature of law enforcement and order restoration. Like that other great fantasy form, the evening news, shoot-to-thrill movies require the services of an anchorman, someone who can ground implausible events in an attractive, recognizable reality...
...RISE AND FALL OF A MORAL MANAGER...
Social psychologists use the term "cognitive dissonance" for the anxiety caused when facts conflict with deeply held beliefs. Americans appear to have responded to the cognitive dissonance triggered by the Iranian airbus disaster by stifling both moral responsibility and collective grief. A Washington Post- ABC News poll found that 74% of those surveyed believe that Iran is more to blame than the U.S. for the destruction of Flight 655. Certainly this reaction was compounded by the role that Iran plays in American demonology. Nine years of demonstrators in Tehran chanting "Death to America!" have fueled an emotional climate where...
...begrudging apologies. Because the U.S. did not intend for those people to be killed, many Americans seem to be saying, it is thus not at fault that they were. If so, Independence Day Weekend 1988 may be remembered as that moment when Americans declared their independence from the moral consequences of misadventure...