Word: selfishness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...government policy. When asked if she wanted to have children, happily married broadcast journalist Huang Shih-han replied, "I like reading and, well, you can't read if there are children wailing." Why does she think Taiwan's birthrate is so low? "I think our generation is more selfish," she says. "When you have children, you have to sacrifice a lot, and I don't want to do that...
...preferences. Throughout the movie, he wavers between Chertkov's will and Sofya's, but he never displays complete conviction toward either. As he waffles, our perspective shifts accordingly. Is this a writer who believes in power to the people and doesn't want to be nagged by his selfish wife in his last days? Or a confused old man, susceptible to flattery and not up to his own standards of mental agility...
...humanity, it rings more hollow, even though Mortensen grapples well with the potential corniness of that line (he gives a somber, deeply affecting performance). The wasteland that surrounds them--the sun's fire extinguished, the forests burning--makes forcing someone you love to endure it seem like a selfish act. "I don't want to just survive," the Woman tells the Man, and The Road creates such a seamless vision of misery that it persuades you she was right. See it if you have the strength, but if your friends turn you down, arm yourself with a stiff drink...
Whether a higher power exists is debatable, but widespread belief in one has helped humanity advance for millennia. Wade, a New York Times reporter, defends that provocative thesis with evidence drawn from biology, archaeology and anthropology. Humans may be innately selfish, he argues, but early hunter-gatherers needed to subordinate self-interest to the will of the group in order to survive, and "the solution that evolved was religious behavior"--humankind's best organizing principle. Ritual chants and dances fostered kinship and inspired tribes to battle outside threats. As language developed, people ascribed their good fortune to the supernatural...
...want to improve on everything,” Stone said, “we want to be ready, we don’t want to be selfish, we don’t want to change lines inappropriately. That’s what happened at the end. It gave [Princeton] an opportunity that they never should?...