Word: reflexivity
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...that moment of seemingly hypnotized attention most men know and dread. It is a moment in which they are out of control as individuals-not merely outside the law, but out of biological order. Something stirs, an ancient reflex, as if they are dragged back through history to a starting point in evolution. The mob is a pack, its prey the female. Her difference is the instigator, her frailty the goad. Rape what you cannot have. Plunder what you can never know. Mystery equals fear equals rage equals death. It is she who stands for all life's threats...
Challenged by Penn's Riley in several one-on-one reflex action rallies. Scott seemed to elevate himself to a much higher level of play. Whereas one would expect Sands, an All-American, to have to nurture the freshman through the match and carry the pair, it was Scott who contributed the unexpected punch he attacked fiercely and went for frequent wide-alley slams, catching his opponents off guard...
...mouth. A student had lately been killed by a young mugger for saying exactly the same thing, but in that case, apparently, the suggestion came out as a kind of derisive irony. His own words, he knew with shame, had held no irony. They were, in fact, a reflex, an example of sheer, dumb middle-class helpfulness. He found himself actually blushing at the thought of having spoken them...
...coat had a special change pocket cut laterally into the button flap. It was small, but large enough for a tiny, hammerless handgun he owned and sometimes, to his wife's horror, threatened to license and carry. In an instant, he moved his hand and, in a theatrical reflex, leveled a pointing finger at the retreating shapes. With the gun in hand, he knew, knew, he would have fired. Aiming for the legs. But he certainly could have killed them both for their disdain...
...forebears took decades to develop. When the American Civil War was over, Walt Whitman lamented: "My enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead." With enemies like that, who needs friends! This is the danger of applying conscience to what ought to be conducted by naked reflex. It is benumbing to consider how many perfectly good enmities have been ruined by the imposition of gentleness, fatigue or common sense...