Word: monolithism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...progress is evolutionary. A series of brief scenes establishes the life cycle of the australopithicine before its division into what became both ape and man--they eat grass, are victimized by carnivores, huddle together defensively. One morning they awake to find in their midst a tall, thin, black rectangular monolith, its base embedded in the ground, towering monumentally above them, plainly not a natural formation. They touch it and we note at that moment that the moon and sun are in orbital conjunction...
...moon, American scientists discover an identical black monolith, apparently buried over four million years before, completely inert save for the constant emission of a powerful radio signal directed toward Jupiter. The scientists examine it (touching it tentatively as the apes did) at a moment when the earth and sun are in conjunctive orbit. They conclude that some form of life on Jupiter may have placed the monolith there and, fourteen months later, an expedition is sent to Jupiter to investigate...
...major progressions have been made: an evolutionary progression in the discovery of the tool, and a technological progression inherent in the trip to Jupiter. The discovery of the monolith has preceded each advance, and with it the conjunction of the sun and moons of a given planet, as well as the presence of ape or human at a stage of development where they are ready to make the significant progression. The monolith, then, begins to represent something of a deity; for our own purposes, we will assume that, given the three conditions, the inert monolith actually teaches or inspires...
...vainly trying to bring about a Communist summit, chiefly in order to embarrass and isolate the renegade Chinese. Now that they have finally got their way, they have few illusions about what will be achieved. In fact, the meeting demonstrates the parlous disrepair into which the once proud Communist monolith has fallen...
Fulbright charged that while the universities could "have formed an effective counterweight" to the defense establishment, they have not. Instead the leading ones "have instead joined the monolith, adding greatly to its power and influence...