Word: self-doubt
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During a period of national turmoil and self-doubt, it is all the more imperative for protesters to put down their rocks and find their voices again. As a commentary on the Kent State tragedy, President Nixon's remark that "when dissent turns to violence it invites tragedy" is callously inadequate. His warning, however, carries the weight of history: in a general unleashing of violence, dissent is the first casualty. Today the nation is in considerable need of healing, as well as elevating, language; often in the past that need has been filled by protesters whose perspective on society...
Despite the vigorous self-confidence of Spock's new book, Decent and Indecent, self-doubt and despair creep in. In these moments Spock bemoans the futility of rearing well adjusted babies who will be incinerated by a sick society. Unspoken is his personal despair that Spock the activist can't wield the power of Spock the psychiatrist/pediatrician. He changed childbearing practices but can't stop...
Survival is the question. Most budding poets soon wilt and retire rather than risking sanity in a quixotic struggle to capture and liberate something in themselves. Those who continue probably have no choice. Ironically, that is the only way they can survive. Meanwhile, aspiring writers are stricken with self-doubt about writing. If, as Pound wrote, "The scientists are in terror/and the European mind stops," they wonder whether they shouldn't feel slightly embarrassed penning verse. Perhaps the class of 1910 could confidently strive for greatness, but the class of 1970 no longer knows what greatness...
...Sweat. Of the 18 Lerner-Previn songs, eight are Kate's, full of self-doubt, self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self-recollection. Previn has played a schmalzy Loewe to Lerner's Lerner. As for Hepburn's voice, Previn thinks she's got it. "There's been an enormous improvement just since I heard her last summer," he says. As Adler sees it, "She's like Rex Harrison, only she out-Rexes Rex: you never quite know when the singing stops and the talking begins." It's probably just as well; who else...
...with mediocrity, it is their strong historic penchant for critical self-reflection. Just before De Gaulle returned to power, an editorial in a small provincial newspaper complained about France's fascination with diminutives. "Everybody wants his petite maison, his petit jardin, his petite femme, and finally his petite retraite," it said. "At this rate we will surely end up as un petit peuple." Part of De Gaulle's magic lay in his ability to lift his countrymen from such petty aspirations -and from such deep self-doubt. Now both appear to be returning more distressingly than ever...