Word: pointless
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...pointless, then--and maybe even counterproductive--to refute their comments, as one might attempt to refute an argument. How does one debate an assertion that homosexuality is "shameful" and "vile"? Certainly not with logic--logic cannot refute epithets. The dialogue can only degenerate into a childish "is too-is not" sparring match. Debate devoid of reasoning cannot possibly enhance intellectual discussion at Harvard or contribute in any valuable way to John Stuart Mill's marketplace of ideas...
Eric Bogosian too makes large-scale denunciations which provoke initial skepticism and an unwillingness to give in to being targeted as the perpetrator, but ultimately win your empathy and your admission of guilt. Bogosian suggests that if we're only here for quick consumption, his work is pointless: "you can tell your grandchildren one day, yes Eric Bogosian came out and played a dirty filthy bum and I applauded...You just came in for the show, maybe even ate something in Harvard Square? Some ethnic food, maybe? Food never tastes better than when you get it from some third world...
...unsparing honesty. Tom, who talks freely and candidly to the camera before he cannot talk at all, swerves from petulance (left alone in the car while Mark does some household errands: "We were gonna go right home!") to nearly unbearable despair ("I feel so empty, and I feel so pointless, and I have so much trouble remembering anything good I've done...
...still last week as he returned to the practice that so often had seemed destined to land him in jail. "To go to jail is the ultimate slavery," he told TIME. "If I have lost my freedom, I have lost something more valuable than life. Therefore, continuing life becomes pointless. It's as simple as that." Dramatic self-negation would be a fitting exit for Death's Impresario. But last week Kevorkian made an uncharacteristically humble reappearance with suicide No. 16. By underplaying his hand, he may have found a way to avoid jail -- and prolong his controversial crusade...
...steeped in army rhetoric. But we were disappointed. Powell was one of the few heroic figures of the Reagan Bush era (and one of the few not indicted). As chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Powell could have done the right thing and helped President Clinton eradicate this pointless discrimination. Instead, Powell will go down in history as one more military leader who didn...