Word: trivializes
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...reason, says Goffman, is that he offends the hidden code of behavior to which all "normal" people subscribe. The man oblivious to the rain is guilty not just of a trivial impropriety, but of the greater sin of social unpredictability. No one can guess with any assurance what ceremony he will next profane. No one can be sure of his respect of public order, without which society would regress to the jungle. Goffman is still exploring the patterns of behavior at social gatherings, which he believes have all the systematic qualities of a language. He is also at work...
...self-deprecation is engaging, but the problem it covers over is by no means trivial. At least as many of Harvard's disorders are caused by failure of the Faculty to use powers informally delegated to them as by any inadequacies of the Corporation. It is perhaps inevitable that almost never as many as half the eligible voters show up for a Faculty meeting, and that most of the work is done by the far smaller group that serves on ad hoc and standing committees. Still, students can legitimately be dismayed at events like the December Faculty meeting at which...
...these days, filled with the clamor over ROTC and over the larger issue of student power in the University, I run the risk of seeming trivial in broaching the subject that I do. Yet I think that the Harvard-Radcliffe bus is an issue which holds large enough practical significance for a large enough number of us that it should not be allowed to die without at least some arguments in its favor...
...South Viet Nam seated at one, and North Viet Nam and the N.L.F. at the other, to prevent the guerrillas from getting a whole side of a table to themselves. It might have seemed absurd, but in the past, conferences on grave issues have foundered over such trivial "modalities" (see box). And as Hanoi Spokesman Xuan Thuy noted, "Whether it is important or not, it must be resolved. You cannot sit down at a conference without a table...
Klein will need to summon all his strength as a newsman and as an editor to make his new job work. For his protestations of probity last week will undoubtedly be replayed to him the moment the new Administration gets caught in even the most trivial shading, inflation or seeming suppression of the facts...