Word: reactional
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...from the standard repertoire, like the Beethoven symphonies, offer dozens of ways to lapse into ceremonious inauthenticity. The audience, aware that they are listening to a top orchestra under a celebrated conductor performing the masterworks of one of the greatest composers, strains to rise to the occasion with a reaction of appropriate greatness. When the quality of the composition and the technique of the performer are beyond dispute, the audience’s response is a foregone conclusion, and the concert becomes a set of protocols rather than a genuine performance...
...Rather, we stood our ground in favor of our national interest and earned the respect, if not the admiration, of our tentative audiences. There are lots of lessons to be drawn from this on how to engage hostile audiences, but instead, there seems to be a knee-jerk reaction to blame policies as an easy way to explain away the more complex problem...
...That much is clear in the run-up to the bipartisan health care summit that President Obama is scheduled to host on Thursday - and in the reaction to the compromise plan he put out to start the week. For better or worse, there now seems to be room only for partisan posturing, jockeying, optics and framing. If Democrats win this game, they may still be able to pass health reform. If Republicans prevail, they will hand Obama a stunning defeat that could set the tone for the 2010 midterm elections. (See pictures of the health care debate...
Even for those who hate the idea of racial preferences, such stipulations can be a useful barometer for finding a person with shared values. Says Bostonian Karen Schoneman: "I tend to have a negative reaction toward a man who indicates race preferences, whether it excludes me as a white woman or not." When she sees evidence online of what she regards as narrow-mindedness, she skips right to the next profile. One click closer, maybe, to postracial eHarmony...
...clear that the thunderous reaction to this Obama-as-failure thesis represents the current mood of the conservative rank and file, talk-radio hosts and Republican candidates throughout the land, and that they are likely to keep up the theme straight through the midterms - both because it is a powerful rallying cry and because they genuinely believe it. But surprisingly, facing such a united, unshakeable, on-message opposition isn't even Obama's biggest challenge right...