Word: mindless
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Elliot Abrams '69, currently assistant Secretary of State for human rights, remembers the campus radicalism as "mindless, anti-intellectual...it made me wary of these people in national politics; I gravitated further to the right." Abrams says he is not surprised that his classmates, who "screamed that they were the best generation and were going to change the world, end up in corporate law firms." It was a big fraud, he says of the activism back then, and involved a great deal of adolescence. This is why, he adds, the leftists in the Class of '69 have abandoned their former...
THERE'S ONLY ONE THING WORSE than intense ideological conservatism mindless ideological conservatism. A case in point is Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger '38's Pentagon, which is rapidly gaining a name for itself not only as an advocate of unrelenting military build up, but also as an institution with no compunction about fuding the numbers to keep its already over swollen budget swelling...
...byproduct of this subtle attempt to pacify the American public by sheltering it from the harsh realities of life has producing a disturbing, though by no means novel, phenomenon: Americans prefer banal fantasies and mindless mush to unpleasant docudramas or serious theater. Consequently, when film and television producers make the rare attempt to simulate reality, they generally wind up depicting unconvincing, one-dimensional characters, creating predictable, non controversial situations, and producing stories like One Day at a Time or Happy Days...
...Buddy System leaves little to the audience's imagination. We know before Wheaton ever meets his ideal father that Dreyfuss will play Daddy Warbucks and take the kid under his wing, and that Sarandon will become his new playmate. The plot ostensibly thickens when Dreyfuss's old girlfriend--a mindless blonde who parrots '60s cliches--returns. But the audience has little doubt that everything will somehow work out when the three are seen happily planting tomatoes in the garden...
Television taboos are made to be broken. Violating them is a venerated tradition, a familiar ritual preceded by elaborate puffery: solemn sermons or titillating teasers aimed at increasing curiosity and ratings. Though often a mindless come-on rather than a thoughtful coming out, the "breakthrough" can sometimes mirror changing cultural mores and set the stage for bolder TV sequels...