Word: wrenchingly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When these same construction workers try to bury a monkey wrench in some peacenik's head, they're trying to expel some frustrated sexual energy, and it comes out in pure class hatred. They see an affluent generation of college kids who never had to make any money on their own, and whose education, in fact, the workers themselves are paying for. They see these kids screaming about how hard life is, and the workers are furious. As far as they can tell, they certainly wouldn't be where they are now if they had had a chance...
CHEKHOV, however, included such self-knowledge among the frustrations of men. He is not able, like Johnson, to wrench some fragile optimism from a faith in man's reason. Like Johnson, he does not moralize about starving the passions. There is enormous passion in his people, but it neither wells up from life or issues outward to life; it wears them out in a world of private conceptions. Yet this may be exhibited to other people in only a misstep, a repeated word, a comment on snow or line, an anecdote, a crazy position of the fingers. The frightful thing...
Challenge to Boosterism. The need to balance population growth against its social cost will wrench the thinking of bankers, storekeepers and politicians. Slower growth for Houston, Akron or Miami? The idea violates all the tenets of local boosterism. A tremendous amount of entrepreneurial effort is harnessed to the expectation of an ever-expanding population, with more customers for business. Yet in some circumstances, the best way to keep localities attractive would be to restrain population growth. Another way would be to alter local tax policies. Since most communities depend chiefly on real estate taxes for their revenues, their leaders often...