Category Archives: Absolute Freedom and Terror
What Kind of a Man?
I grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (in the days before that got to be a swank neighborhood) and, aside from Mr. Z (our superintendent who turned out to be a Nazi spy), nobody – rich or poor or … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abnormal motives, anti-semitism as a syndrome, attacking the vulnerable, blaming the Jews, Catherine Chalier, chivalrous men, Christianity re human relations, conference on Levinas, conspiracy theorist, covert social insult, duties of a guest, eliding Levinas’ Jewish influence, Emmanuel Levinas, eros of life, evil unambiguous, French philosopher, handling social insult, Hannah Arendt and Eichmann, Hannah Arendt and Holocaust victims, Hitler unpopular in New York, Holocaust and philosophy, Holocaust survivor, honoring a guest, Jewish approach to human relations, Jewish identity, Levinas and assassination threats, Levinas and Jewish thought, Levinas and the human face, Levinas re the human face, Levinas’ disciple, living out one’s story, Manhattan's Upper East Side, manhood and courtesy to women, manliness and unmanliness, misremembering history, misremembering Hitler, moral clarity, moral clarity in World War II, moral clarity vs moral ambiguity, Nazi spy in Manhattan, nonresistance to evil, normality of friendship, Peterhouse in Cambridge U, pseudo questions, psychology of anti-semitism, resistance to evil, respecting the human face, reversing good and evil, secular human relations, self-realization, simplicity of evil, social reality, social reality before anti-semitism, socially problematic to be Jewish, Spoiling One’s Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt in Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Sydney University’s Dept of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, the human norm, World War 2’s domestic front, World War II
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Peterhouse Meets Abbie
Peterhouse was founded in 1284 which makes it the oldest of the colleges in Cambridge University. A “college” provides a residence for students going for degrees at various levels and also for Fellows and other instructors who will be available … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged academic dinner, academic politics, academic publications, Anti-Semitism at Cambridge University, Anti-Semitism at Peterhouse, anti-semitism in academe, Australian politics, Australian research affiliate, Australian Universities, bad manners, baiting a guest, christians and jews, colleges in Cambridge U, collegial friends, comparing husbands, countering an insult vs making a scene, culture of rudeness, defending honor, defending one’s honor, dinner for visiting philosopher, erotic failure, guest from Peterhouse, handling a social insult, handling social aggression, hidden prejudices, higher ed in England, honoring a guest, husband as protector, Jews handling Anti-Semitic insults, maintaining courtesy and countering insult, medieval Anti-Semitism revived, personal honor and honor of one’s people, Peterhouse, philosophical friends, philosophy in Australia, philosophy research affiliate, private prejudices, protecting a vulnerable wife, protocol of social life, responding to a rude guest, signals of safety, social boundaries vs personal protection, social decorum vs protecting one’s wife, social disadvantage, social protocol, social protocol and handling an insult, social protocol and personal insult, social protocol vs social insult, spousal failure as protector, spouse as ally, supportive husband, Sydney U’s Dept of Traditional and Modern Philos, symbolic life and death struggle, table talk, the honor of Jews, unhidden prejudices, unsupportive husband, unsupportive partner, visiting philosopher, women handling insults, women handling male insults
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Do Evil People Get Better at Evil If They Reincarnate?
My book, A Good Look at Evil, doesn’t describe the best-known bad actors in human history. The cases I deal with are mostly of near-contemporaries. And, when dictators are discussed, it’s usually through their effects on people who executed their … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, childhood, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 20th century dictators, 20th-century totalitarians, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", culture unraveled, dictators and public relations, dictators’ lust for power, dictators’ official ideals, dictators’ rationale, dictators’ transpersonal rationales, famous bad actors, Franco’s dictatorship, Franco’s rationales, hidden agendas, Hitler’s dictatorship, ideology and strategy, ideology and the Holocaust, ideology vs strategic effectiveness, manipulation, manipulative control, manipulative dominance, manipulative seduction, Mussolini's pro-Italy propaganda, Mussolini’s dictatorship, Napoleon and French Revolutionary ideals, Napoleon and Roman prototypes, Napoleon at Malmaison, Napoleon’s classicism, Napoleon’s liberté and égalité, Nazi race theory, peace of mind, power as a means, power as the end, power for its own sake, rape, reincarnated villains, tyranny and reincarnation, tyranny misunderstood, tyrant who reincarnates, tyrants’ rationales, tyrants’ unconscious agendas, tyrants’ unconscious motivations, undoing the culture, villains in history
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