Word: socialism
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Vain, imperious, shy, a social throwback to the Old South, drowning like some failed Pleistocene fish in the swirling currents of democracy, Patrick Henry Bruce cannot have been an easy man to know. He refused to discuss his work, except with like-minded people; since he was sure that there was nobody like him in the art world, not one firsthand remark about his methods or aims has survived. In fits of depression, he destroyed part of his output; much of what he did not burn has been lost, and about half of his surviving late work was altered...
...controversy over specific ecclesiastical policies may overshadow the overarching theme of John Paul's pontificate thus far: the Christian belief in social justice, based on the absolute value of each human life, on which there is little dispute in the American church. Such a philosophy underlies not only the Pope's stance on abortion but his attack, often in the same speeches, on racial discrimination, economic disparities, war, terrorism and "national security" as an excuse for oppression. Though a supposed contradiction between the "liberal" and "conservative" aspects of John Paul perplexed some observers last week, there...
...Pope and his church are out of step with contemporary Americans, including many Roman Catholics, in dealing with sexuality. In the U.S. generally, sexual pleasure has lately come to be regarded as a matter of personal gratification unconnected with social responsibility or, of course, with sin. Even among U.S. Catholics the trend is toward the belief that any individual act whatever is acceptable if it can be thought to foster love or self-esteem and enrich the life of the participants. The position of the Roman Catholic Church is that self-gratification alone is morally dangerous and that sex must...
...successor Pius XII in 1951 approved the "rhythm method" of birth control. Pius XII also stated that "medical, eugenic, economic and social" motives could justify couples in limiting the size of their families. Nine years later the approval for marketing birth control pills raised the hope that such biochemical controls would be regarded as "natural" by the church. Pope John XXIII appointed a special commission to examine the matter. Its confidential, but later leaked, majority report to Paul VI in 1966 warned against avoiding childbearing for selfish reasons. Going beyond Pius XII's position, however, the report called...
Edison also saw inventions in a social and commercial context. He drew up lists of inventions that the world needed, or at least would buy, and set out to produce them. In the case of electric light, gas was already lighting homes, and electric arc lights were illuminating streets and stores-though much too brilliantly, and expensively, for general use. The need, Edison saw, was for some other form of electric illumination that would provide a steadier and, above all, cheaper glow than...