Word: self
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Cause th' decadence n' entropy in Shepard's West are as inevitable as passin' out after you drink eight Pabst Blue Ribbons in 15 minutes. Part of th' reason is that th' characters are all so damn self-destructive. Curse is about a family whose members have what one of them describes as "poison" in th' blood. They're alcoholic, they're violent, they're venal, they're ornery...
Worst of all, they fantasize too much. Ever th' pioneers, Shepard's characters always dream of movin' on t' somewhere else, like Mexico, Alaska or even Europe (ironic, huh?), as if movin' would make them into different people who maybe weren't so self-destructive. Th' members of th' family also dream that things would be better if they either sold their fallow avocado ranch or if they fixed it up. It doesn't hit 'em til th' end that their fantasies are impossible, that they're doomed...
This week Jackson seems headed for a self-propelled crash in his public quest for the vice-presidential nomination. Party leaders blanched when he started insisting on the slot, but Dukakis has played along coolly. The Governor invited Jackson over for a July 4th dinner and a fireworks-filled Boston Pops concert...
...Meese's self-proclaimed vindication suggests that the ethical conduct of the nation's chief law-enforcement official should be measured by an absurdly narrow criterion: managing not to be charged with a crime. In fact, says Humorist Mark Russell, Meese's "resignation statement set a new standard for Government service -- 'I am unindicted; therefore I succeeded.' " Ultimately, whether or not Meese succeeds in being vindicated will be left to the court of public opinion...
America's tongue-tied denial may be rooted in the way the destruction of Flight 655 brutally conflicts with the nation's self-image. Americans do not see themselves as trigger-happy gunslingers; that black-hat role was played by the Soviet Union in 1983 when it brazenly shot down a Korean airliner. Terrorists are supposed to be the ones who cause death in the air -- not the nation upholding the civilized rights of free passage in the Persian Gulf...