Word: secularization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...what if this recession isn't an ordinary recession? There is a widespread belief among economists that a secular shift in global spending patterns is under way. U.S. consumers, the usual drivers of economic growth, are reducing their outlays and may do so for years to come as they pay down debt. Under this "new normal" scenario, some of today's spare capacity may never come back into action because total demand will remain depressed indefinitely. Factories in some crowded sectors will have to be permanently closed or retooled to make different products...
Therein lies the predicament for the regime. It has cast the street demonstrations as a supposedly Western-led, secular velvet revolution. But Shi'ites, who are the overwhelming majority of Iranian Muslims, believe that only an Imam's surviving lineage can accurately interpret his ideology. So to have so many Khomeinis jump ship set off alarms for the ruling hard-liners...
...rate, as writers over the centuries have realized, “genius” is ultimately a great consolation in itself. Just as the notion of a religious god continues to haunt much secular Western literature and art, the idea of genius—no matter how bankrupt—continues to make itself felt in the modern creative process. It reassures us that not everyone is destined to be merely a bit player, a secondary source, a “Fink-type.” Julia Kristeva put it best: genius is a “therapeutic invention that...
...When the earthmovers arrived at Bernauerstrasse, a Lutheran pastor called Manfred Fischer confronted them, arms outstretched. His intervention saved the substantial chunk of the Wall along the Wedding-Mitte border that today forms the core of the Berlin Wall memorial. Plans have been drawn up to add a secular shrine to the victims of the Wall with their portraits embedded in a "window of memory." The list of 136 victims includes eight G.D.R. border guards: two deserters shot by their comrades and six killed by West German police protecting escapees. To exclude them, says Klausmeier, would ignore the extent...
...island where communism is the de facto state religion, it was a refreshing shock on both sides of the Florida Straits to see the hallowed Revolution Plaza packed not for a 10-hour Fidel speech but for something as joyously secular as a pop concert. As Granma itself noted afterward, there was "no political manipulation of cultural expression ... just a vote for human understanding." And while that's to the Castros' credit, the truth is that the long-term effects of that sort of nondogmatic fiesta don't always favor systems like Cuba's. Says Daniel Erikson, a senior associate...