Word: secularize
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...made every effort to standardize life and co-opt Islamic culture. The abrupt end of Moscow's power has left a yawning political and spiritual vacuum. Since most of the region's Muslims have predominantly Turkic ethnic roots, the tug is between two versions of the Islamic state: the secular, Westernized Turkey and the radical, anti-Western Iran...
With so many suitors, the newly independent states have been wary of making geopolitical commitments. Askar Akayev, President of Kyrgyzstan, wants his country to be "politically like Switzerland, but in the heart of Asia." Foreign Minister Abdu Kuliyev believes Turkmenistan should be "neither Islamic nor Soviet but a secular, democratic state." President Nursultan * Nazarbayev thinks Kazakhstan, which stretches from the Volga region of Russia to the western borders of China, should be a bridge between Europe and Asia. Says he: "We want to enter the democratic world like any other state...
...others, the secular songs that we performed represented something new (and "fresh" or "dope," if you will). The lyrics were often as meaningless as anything that you would hear on Kiss 108 or WZOU, but it didn't seem to matter. The most important thing was they were fun. Imagine that--something at Harvard that Makes you happy...
...daily lives, we believe in a great many small secular millenniums; one of them is success. Romance is a kind of millennium too, and we cling to it with amazing fidelity, despite sexual freedom and divorce -- the triumph, as Dr. Johnson said about second marriages, of hope over experience...
...elections also inspire some millennial attitudes; despite our cynicism about our politicians, we can't quite resist the sneaking hope that the next occupant of the White House will set everything to rights. There is a similar feeling about our great secular crusades -- for civil rights, for the environment. We believe that these problems can be solved for good; and while we do achieve tremendous improvements, we keep being surprised if they are neither complete nor permanent...