Monthly Archives: September 2015
“Happiness”
“Happiness” “Call no man happy until he is dead,” said Solon, the ancient sage, to Croesus. Croesus was “rich as Croesus,” as the saying goes, and king of Lydia. So he was nonplussed at Solon’s reluctance to admit that he … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Autonomy, Class, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, History, history of ideas, Identity, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Power, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, twentieth century, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Quiz Show", "the pursuit of happiness", academic fight, acupuncture, Advice, Ancient Lydia, Ancient Persia, anguish, Aristotle, bird baths, bird watching, birds, birthright, Brooklyn College, Carl Mangione PT, celebrity, Charles Van Doren, cheating, college curriculum, Columbia class of 1925, confession, Croesus, Cyrus the Great, Declaration of Independence, despair, divine gifts, family honor, grace, gratitude, hairdresser, handicap, Henry M. Rosenthal, human rights, identity, ingratitude, insincerity, Jennifer Kelly hairstylist, Kinetic syndrome, Mark Van Doren, memoir, misery, mortification, Mr. Right, national scandal, Nicomachean Ethics, non-advice, normality, physical therapy, problem of evil, reputation, resignation, Richard Firnhaber acupuncture, right to happiness, sell out, selling one's birthright, sincerity, Solon, suffering, the emotional norm, The History of Herodotus, the human norm, the mental norm, the physical norm, the psychical norm, TV idol, TV Quiz Show, unhappiness, walking handicap, wickedness
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Self-Acceptance
Self-Acceptance This is the season of deck-swabbing and deck-clearing, if you are Jewish. I tend to say that, at best, I am “Jewish in the head.” By that I mean: having tried a wide range of belief systems, I came … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Alienation, Anthropology, Contemplation, Contradictions, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Health, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Memoir, Mysticism, non-violence, Ontology, Peace, Power, Psychology, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, Violence, War, Zeitgeist
Tagged absolution, acculturation, afterlife, anger, anxiety, belief systems, clearing decks, Days of Awe, divine guidance, escapism, excuses, fear of death, forgiveness, getting real, grace, grace under pressure, guilt, inner voice, Jewish New Year, judgment, judgmentalism, life review, moral facts, mortality, NDE, near death experience, pardon, Psalm 27, Psalms of David, purification, rationalizations, Reform Judaism, religious service, repentance, ritual observance, Rosh Ha Shana, Selichot, temple, transcendence and immanence, unconscious fears, validation, Year 5776
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“Being Brave”
“Being Brave” Nobody wants to think of herself as a whining, sniveling, cowering coward. At the same time, one of the advantages of the female sex is that (forgive me, sisterhood!) we are not expected to wear such courage as … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Art, Autonomy, Chivalry, Cities, Class, Contradictions, Cool, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Mind Control, non-violence, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, slave, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, Violence, War, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The War Has Taken Place", assault, authority, bad guys, blaming victims, bravery, breaking under torture, consensus, conventions, courage, courage under fire, coward, cowardice, criminals, extreme situation, extreme tests, freedom, gender roles, genocide, German occupation of France, grace under pressure, Holocaust, honor, Jewish prayer, judging victims, martial arts, masculinity and femininity, massacre of Armenians, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, nazis, New York City, pain, pain threshold, pain tolerance, prayer, risk-taking, self-defense, social construction, socially constructed identity, Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage", subway crime, subway mugger, tests of valor, torture, training in courage, urban crime, victim's conduct, victim's courage, World War II
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