Word: cynically
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...even in the rarified atmosphere of Capital Hill reputation mongering, the most jaded cynic can't help but be bemused over the rollercoaster ride the reputations of three so-called giants of national security policy have taken over the past decade. The melodrama of Cap and George and Henry the K--reaching one of its most interesting chapters in recent months--goes to show once again just how transitory stature in Washington can be, how fleeting prevailing wisdom really is, and, perhaps most fascinating, how little general smarts, can matter in foreign and defense policy...
...brilliant surgeon, whose intelligence is not enough to save him. Samuel Carter seems to have it all--a beautiful wife, a bright little boy and a dazzling career--but he is a traveler in the dark." Unfortunately, both the bitterness and the self-righteousness of this 40-year-old cynic prove unbearable. Sam preaches his doctrine of atheism and the supremacy of intelligence with more offensive zeal than the loudest Moral Majority proselytizer. Told for so long about his brilliance, Sam comes to believe that he does, in fact, know the truth about everything...
...away with a script comprised heavily of maudlin reminiscences and bittersweet quarreling, plays like Mame and Same Time, Next Year generally manage to leave their audiences feeling tearful and rejuvenated. Something about the unbreakable bond that links old friends seems to draw a smile from even the crustiest cynic...
Once the Government has solved all these problems, a cynic might ask whether there was any purpose in having a Government at all. A decal of President Reagan reading a speech into a battery of microphones would serve just as well as a TV image of the real President reading a speech. Similar decals of Congress passing legislation or bureaucrats issuing regulations would create a reassuring illusion of Government not only hard at work but showing that it cares...
...Mary Kay Place), a lawyer, got tired of public-defending minority criminals who "were just so ... guilty "and went to work for a posh law firm whose "clients were raping only the land." Nick (William Hurt) went to Viet Nam and got his manhood blown off; now, the impotent cynic, he does and deals drugs...