Word: victorian
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...however, Thatcher will concentrate on what she sees as her main task: transforming the nation's economy and attitude toward work. She is fond of calling for a return to "Victorian values," by which she means the virtues of thrift and self-reliance, hard work and sense of duty. (In an inspired bit of parody, the liberal New Statesman illustrated a special issue on the subject with a photomontage of Thatcher as Queen Victoria.) As Peregrine Worsthorne, associate editor of the conservative Sunday Telegraph, puts it, Thatcher "is as ignorantly contemptuous of the so-called values of the idle rich...
America has been through it all before. In the '20s another generation shaken by war, disillusioned with authority and fueled by easy affluence conducted its sexual revolution. The flapper symbolized a sharp break with prewar Victorian morals. In one poll of 2,200 women, taken during the '20s, more than half said they regularly masturbated. By the end of the decade, a prominent gynecologist said, "sexual experience in some form has been known by 100%" of his unmarried patients. The divorce rate soared, and according to one estimate, up to 1 million illegal abortions took place each year during...
...must confront the same problem: a dating culture conspicuous by its absence. The concept of taking someone out to dinner and a movie has been replaced by the nebulous notion of the hook-up. Harvard students are getting more action on Friday nights with total strangers than many loving Victorian couples did in the course of 50-year marriages. This is not optimal. But what other options does our generation have...
...watching mass-culture clips in a darkened theater. One of my favorite videos, made by Jonas Odell, accompanied a song called “Ali in the Jungle (version 2)” by a British band called The Hours. The completely animated video adopts the excessive, faux-Victorian, theatrical aesthetic embodied most prominently in the U.S. by The Arcade Fire—think old-timey machines, flickering projector light, and skeletons in top hats. The song is shameless in its attempts to inspire, with soaring lyrics like “Everybody gets knocked down / How quick are you gonna...
...quite a triumph of logistics. The organizers just hadn't reckoned with the outpouring of exuberance of overseas Americans given an opportunity to cast off the taint of the Bush years. Democrats Abroad U.K. had booked Porchester Hall, a grand Victorian edifice built for public functions, which ought to have been roomy enough. Pop star Elton John celebrated his birthday there with a few hundred of his closest friends in 1994, and the complex has regularly accommodated large-scale awards ceremonies and posh parties. The Dems had arranged volunteers to man the registration desks, and more to serve refreshments. (Even...