Word: absurd
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...case on its merits. The first time I saw this line I thought I had misread it. What seems to be considered the desideratum is that the faculty never be presented with a case that must be dealt with on its merits. Since that is absurd, one notes that "political" cases are specified. Very well, but one man's "politics" are another's "academics" and a third's "ethics." Is the question of ROTC on campus a "political" or an "academic" issue? And how are issues presented as moral matters to be handled...
...during Nixon's first press conference in three months. Said he: "There are those who want instant integration and those who want segregation forever. I believe we need to have a middle course. . . But what is the midpoint between Now and Forever? In mathematical terms, it is an absurd conception-dividing infinity in half yields infinity. Richard Nixon might consider Zeno's paradox: In perpetually moving half the distance between one's present position and an ultimate goal, one is condemned to never reach that goal...
Womack based his argument against the Project on two points. First, he said, "projects like this attract a horde of people, most of them with absurd ideas for research." More importantly, he said, "I suspect that the people getting most use out of the Project will be the Defense Department, and at this moment in American politics. I don't trust Defense to make the use of it that I would like...
NEWSMEN, especially press photographers, have this absurd fascination with being on the scene of a great news event. They begin to be interested in only those things that fit the press's arbitrary formula for "news." They can't help themselves. If anything is going to happen, they want to be there to record it; but it has to be something they expect, or have seen before. so they know its importance when it starts happening...
This does not mean that we should pretend that the end of the world is not coming or that we should ignore it. Rather, with the end of the world somewhere in mind, we should avoid doing absurd things just because we hope that they will be "remembered by mankind." Mankind will not be in a position to remember anything. We should not slave all our lives at dull jobs just to pile up enough cash so "our children will have everything...