Word: commonization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...more famous, and they get money to boot. (The only category of famous people of whom this is not yet true is journalists. David Brinkley took a big hit for becoming a spokesman for Archer Daniels Midland Co. But then pioneers often suffer when carving paths that soon become common and comfortable.) Similarly, rich folks who do ads buy themselves fame without spending their wealth. But most actual billionaires are probably as famous as they wish to be (given the special nuisances and even dangers that come from being famous for being wealthy). So the mystery of why they...
...Hiroshige's Fifty-Three Stations of the Tokaido are both travelogues and social listings, in which every sort of occupation, from pit sawing to innkeeping, gets its allotted description. This scrutiny of lower-class life would never have held so much interest to an earlier Japan. Manga, images of common life, are the direct ancestors of the modern Japanese comic strip...
...cleanest gasoline, one that made your engine run smoother. Union Camp spent millions of dollars trying to convince us that it had the cleanest paper, Great White, that made your copier run smoother. In the end, few consumers were willing to pay more for a particular brand of either common commodity--gasoline or plain white paper. Now both companies are succumbing to longtime rivals, Exxon and International Paper, in deals that were unthinkable just a short time ago. Suddenly, neither Mobil nor Union Camp could be assured of making money for shareholders any other way, so they just gave...
Perhaps it is because they are a majority. The majority gets a decisive say in what common areas look like: they want those areas to look like the festive interior of a suburban shopping mall, and so up goes the tree. Of course, this can't be the rationale. Harvard claims a commitment to diversity and pluralism. They claim a commitment to the protection of minorities. They even have an official policy regarding incidents of racial "insensitivity." It seems reasonable that a concern for insensitivity should extend into the religious realm as well. A majority inclination is surely not enough...
Therefore, the assumption must exist that Christmas decorations are entirely benign. Unfortunately, they are not. The presence of displays in House common areas implies the sanction of the entire House. When so many House areas are filled with the symbols of one particular faith, it carries a very clear message: the entire community is involved in a celebration. Those who don't share in that celebration thereby feel alienated from the community. No ill-intent need lie behind the motivation of those responsible for the decorations, the harm is done nonetheless. This sort of phenomenon is well known...