Word: reflexivity
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...relief effort after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami last December, George W. Bush wondered if his two immediate predecessors in the White House might be willing to suit up and hit the road. He asked his chief of staff, "Do you think they'd work together?" The easy, reflex answer would have been no. George Herbert Walker Bush and William Jefferson Clinton came from different generations, from different social classes and from opposing political parties. Their 1992 face-off wasn't exactly tea and sympathy: Bush once called Clinton a "bozo," and Clinton usually referred to his rival...
...happens, they have arrived at the right time, as America stirs itself awake from the dreamy indifference with which the world's poor have forever been treated. In ordinary times, we give when it's easy: a gesture, a reflex, a salve to conscience. The entreaties come on late-night TV from well-meaning but long-discarded celebrities who cuddle with big-eyed children and appeal to pity and guilt. Maybe we send off a check, hope it will help someone somewhere stay alive for another day. That is not the model for the current crusaders or the message...
...actual events of power. Every sound, every gesture, every word was caught and cataloged in his quick mind. As the final seconds before broadcast time ticked off, Morris saw a sudden movement beneath the President's table. Reagan's left foot was tapping off the seconds, a reflex planted more than 50 years ago in the soul of a fledgling broadcaster. Morris cradled a tiny black notebook in his left hand and with a thin-line pen jotted down his observation. Later, he transcribed his notes to a file card that went into a growing mass of research on Reagan...
...such-and-such magazine." As King puts it: "Forty-year-old doctor? Great. Forty-year-old professor? Great. Forty-year-old TV star? Dinosaur." So Valerie's hyper-self-consciousness--she's constantly signaling "time out" to the cameras during uncomfortable moments--is like an animal's defense reflex. Her image is her life. The reality crew manipulates too: the producer makes her repeat a line, suggesting, "I just think your reality could be a little more excited...
Many cadets' first reflex, he says, is to hold a pistol to the farmer's head. McKinney challenges them: Well, are you willing to pull the trigger, then? And wouldn't that endanger the lives of some of your men if the farmer's tribe wanted revenge? If he still refuses and you don't pull the trigger now, will you have lost credibility with your team...