Word: perilous
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Despite their peril, South Koreans still hope as well as fear. At Kaesong, a border city which North Koreans often raid (they killed 30 people there last fortnight), I visited the lovely garden of a wealthy Korean. The owner had moved to Seoul months ago, fearing Communists would nab him. But his gardens are perfectly kept. The head gardener, surprised by my surprise at this, explained: "He hopes to come back. What is any garden but an expression of faith in the future...
...spirit is not superficial. He has one abiding interest in life--music. That is why he is so impatient with musicians who discuss with him the positions he might get. That is why recently, when he heard indirectly that an orchestra he was guest conducting was in financial peril, he returned his salary. These are superficial examples to be sure, but they illustrate an essential part of his personality...
...that, DiMaggio's right heel had not healed to his satisfaction after last fall's operation for a bone spur. Said DiMag last week: "There's no use kidding anybody, my heel still hurts." Without the big guy, the Yankees would be in peril of the second division; even with him, they would be lucky to stay ahead of 86-year-old Connie Mack's young, ambitious Philadelphia Athletics...
First is the notion that "soil cannot be stretched," that each acre has a certain production capacity (Vogt calls it "biotic potential") which cannot be boosted without dire peril. This is the same fallacy that expresses itself in the old saying, "There are only so many slices in the cake." Some businessmen say this when they decide that their markets cannot be expanded and, therefore, should be divided among them in quotas set by their cartel. Some labor unions decide that there are only so many jobs to be divided, and therefore oppose labor-saving devices...
Such super-isolationism, with hints of the old "yellow peril," is one of the ugliest Implications of Neo-Malthusianism. The world is already overpopulated, the argument goes. Some areas, like the U.S., are luckier than others, but even the U.S. will soon run out of food. Therefore it should not help foreigners. Let them starve now, before they increase their numbers (with our help) and overwhelm...