Word: sheerly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...question remains why Americans put up with the perversion of the democratic ideal, who or whatever is responsible for that perversion. For Boorstin, the answer is sheer inertia. Not living up to the ideal was simply easier than living up to it. Americans had more important things to do than to worry about abstract notions like democracy. It was the moment's profit and not the ideal that counted...
...that human nature is educable, one would do well to keep the lessons of the American democratic experiences, as Boorstin draws them, in mind. We have taken something beautiful and turned it into a hamburger stand for sheer lack of determination to do otherwise. We have forgotten what democracy was supposed to be about, forgotten that it is a means to a self-realized humanity, and accepted an ugly parody of it in its place...
Another example. Industrial leaders begin, as though it is a difficult perception, to see that the assembly line has a diminishing utility because, over time, it drives people quite mad, causing them either to work badly because of sheer boredom or because of active hatred. Either way, the line becomes a target for industrial sabotage of an order previously known only in places being occupied by a tyrant enemy...
NEIL YOUNG'S debut as a film director is surprisingly boring. Not surprisingly bad--I expected it to be as self-indulgent and philsophically vacuous as it was. But for sheer inarticulateness, Young's premier effort is simply outstanding...
...food most responsible for death by choking is steak, according to a study by the office of New York's chief medical examiner; it accounts for some 90% of the fatalities. Other killers are lobster tail, hard-boiled eggs, clams, sausage, turkey and even bread. The sheer volume of the fatal mouthful is often breathtakingly large: the average chunk of food extracted from the windpipe of victims, Eller and Haugen say, is about the size of a cigarette pack; in one case, they report, the piece was over 7 in. long. The temptation to swallow such unmanageable amounts seems...