Word: progressive
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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IRONICALLY just these observations allow the reader to understand what Matthiessen means and how he can come by his beliefs and his escapes. The Himalayan world he depicts is the enactment of his religion. Seen through Western eyes the Himalayan people calmly progress through prayers and days alike, buffetted by little and infrequently alarmed. Their life isn't meaningless, but neither is its meaning marked. It just is, which is precisely Matthiessen's point...
...protagonists do not: his witty cynicism turns to bromides and offending overstatement, as in the remark "despite the exhaust fumes, I could make out the scent of flowers in the gently fluttering breeze." For this we have Lem to blame: in his eagerness to emphasize the irony behind scientific progress that has backfired, he commits the sin of self-indulgence...
Islam is frequently stereotyped as unmitigatedly harsh in its code of law, intolerant of other religions, repressive toward women and incompatible with progress. Salem Azzam, Saudi secretary-general of the Islamic Council of Europe, feels that the present resurgence is considered "retrograde and reactionary" because Westerners confuse what is happening in Islam with a revival of Christian fundamentalism. "Not only is this a baseless and arrogant assumption," says Azzam, but it is tantamount to "a return to colonialism?indirect but of a more profound type." Defenders of the faith further argue that Islam is not monolithic, that it is compatible...
Islam and Progress. Muslim scholars insist that nothing in Islam is incompatible with technological advance or industrial development. In the days of the caliphs, Islam led the world in scientific and intellectual discoveries. What Muslims object to are the evils associated with modernization: the breakdown of the family structure, the lowering of moral standards, the appeal of easygoing secular lifestyles. At the same time, Muslims are demanding the best of the West: schools, hospitals, technology, agricultural and water development techniques. Harvesting the fruits of modernization without absorbing some of its side-effects may prove to be impossible. But Sheik Mahmoud...
...must join together in a great national effort to use American technology to give us energy security in the years ahead." Decontrol is a necessary first step to the creation of an effective energy policy, and the other steps proposed by the President can bring substantial additional progress...