Word: rigidity
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From the start, the genre has taken shape and tone from the demands of its audience. The American male likes to believe that he is reading it like it is, and the novel of the modern knight-errant is very much a male genre. It operates on the rigid belief that the world is rotten; to think otherwise is dangerous and unmanly. A corollary view is that the deck is stacked against the decent little guy or distressed damsel. The evidence often seems overwhelming. The shattering aftereffects of World War I, the rise of organized crime during Prohibition, the disillusionment...
...unprecedented third term. Instead, he was widely denounced for his handling of the meeting. His vaunted friendship with President Reagan produced no progress on stabilizing the yen, which has risen more than 30% against the dollar since September, cutting into the competitiveness of Japanese exports. After lobbying for rigid caps on currency fluctuations, Nakasone reluctantly went along with the other summit leaders and agreed to a vague system of monitoring exchange rates. To make matters worse, he appeared to bend to American wishes by agreeing to an antiterrorist statement that singled out Libya. Historically, Japan has tried to avoid antagonizing...
...affair with the Indian subcontinent, in books, films and mini- series, is a quaint disease, a melancholy for everything exotic the empire has owned and lost. To a romantic imperialist brooding over his sherry, the decorous Indians, with their subversive good manners, impressive intellectual tradition and caste system as rigid as their overlords', seemed perfect Asian ambassadors for all things English. The years have lent Indians and Pakistanis of old an ironic nobility; about them a Brit can feel at once guilty and nostalgic. Unless, of course, one has to deal with their sons and daughters on the streets...
...report states, for reaching "coherent and enduring agreement on national military strategy." With some exceptions, "weapons systems take too long and cost too much to produce." Fraud and dishonesty are not principally to blame, says the report; rather, "the truly costly problems are those of overcomplicated organization and rigid procedure...
...more efficient means. That seems to be the guiding principle of what will become known as the Gorbachev era. In Kremlin foreign policy, there has already been a noticeable change, not so much in goals and substance as in method and style. Deft and often deceptive flexibility rather than rigid continuity is now the order...