Word: pessimists
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Whether or not that is true, the congressional tug of war neatly spotlighted one of the Reagan Administration's chief dilemmas in El Salvador. Says Democratic Congressman Peter Kostmayer of Pennsylvania, a self-styled "realistic pessimist" who supports the option of negotiating with the guerrillas but recognizes that they must also lay down their arms: "It's really a two-front war. One front is in Washington, one in El Salvador. The Administration is losing on both fronts...
These images of trouble are ubiquitous in computerese. When the computer is doing nothing, it is described as catatonic; when it is working badly, it is said to be chomping or producing gubbish (a combination of garbage and rubbish); when it gets still worse, it is "pessimal," as any pessimist would know; when it gives off smoke, the program is considered fried; and when everything breaks down, that is called crashing. To complain about any of this is "to gritch...
...with the system in significant ways. I'm concerned that the direction we're going is putting with respect to nuclear weapons too much weight on the camel's back...and we haven't even mentioned proliferation, which of course is going to complicate it....So I'm a pessimist...
...means a pessimist, Oberg is nonetheless deeply concerned about the potentially lethal dangers he perceives at an international level. He points in particular to an accelerating arms race and the disparity between rich and poor nations. As a veteran diplomat, he believes above all in talking keeping the lines of communication open between conflicting groups. "What is important," says Oberg, "is that the common dangers people face fare much greater than their differences. The world cannot be seen in terms of we and they. "In truth it is just...
...still sells and sells. White's collected Essays and collected Letters have lately appeared. So Poems & Sketches seems redundant at first. But for White watchers the book usefully calls attention to a pair of little-known personae: the Poet, a joyful writer of satiric occasional verse, and the Pessimist, a desperate fellow who served as a one-man distant-early-warning system for the late 20th century...