Word: smugness
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...same men who marched down the Hill only four months ago, but they are coming back to a different world. Inflation has changed to recession; the unassailable Eisenhower is under heavy assault; big talk of economy has changed to big talk of defense spending; and the air of smug superiority has yielded to the very real threat of Russian technological leadership. Before it met, the new session had a nickname: "The Sputnik Congress." And it had a too obvious political motivation: laying out party lines for the congressional elections next November...
Actually, passive as he may seem in comparison with his predecessors, today's student is anything but smug. Says Daniel Aaron, professor of English at Smith: "If young people behaved after World War II exactly as they did before it, there would really be something wrong with them." The student now simply faces a different kind of world. It demands that he be brighter, more conscientious, more in earnest than his predecessors. If he refuses to play the rebel, it is probably because he feels he must cover too much ground to prepare himself for the future. Perhaps...
...nonowners of a washer, TV set, refrigerator, etc., my family and I are free souls and glad of it. I suspect other struggling young college couples may join us in feeling decidedly smug towards the poor gadget-ridden middle class. I am beginning to firmly believe that poverty is bliss...
...special session of Congress or early in its next session is mandatory. An overall coordination of scientific and military effort in rocket research is imperative. And, necessary for the attainment of the other objectives, a general realization of the state of American science and a discarding of former smug self-satisfaction are musts. With these revisions in our outlook and actions, the United States stands to gain perhaps more than it lost after the Sputnik launching...
Canada's powerful Liberals, 168-strong in Parliament v. the 50 seats of their Progressive Conservative challengers, went to elections with smug confidence. Just before the vote last week they canceled an advertising campaign, to save needless expense. But with the first returns, an astonishing trend set in. From half a dozen eastern constituencies that were long firmly Liberal came the flash: "Tories Leading." The Tory surge grew as it moved west. Quickly the last seat of the overwhelming Liberal majority fell, and the Liberals' 22-year rule over Canada came to an end. When final returns were...