Category Archives: Martyrdom

The Baiter and the Baited

Posted on May 21, 2019 by Abigail

The Baiter and the Baited We are back from a week of my neuropathy treatments at the Loma Linda clinic in California. The main progress this time has been in locating more precisely the regions of the body – ahem, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", accusation of bigotry, cause of neuropathy, derivative philosophy, determinism, epigenetics, established consensus, ethology, functionalism, genetic model, genetic theory, illness as a message, inflammation in the body, intelligence in nature, Jewish memory, Jews and Christians, l’esprit de l’escalier, Loma Linda clinic, masked insults, Materialism, neuropathy treatments, neurovascular system, oldest hatred, original philosophy, philosophic colleagues, physical self-understanding, pogrom, Princeton historian, reductionism, scale of nature, self-understanding, social baiting, social forces, social insults, social life as war, sonograms, symptomatic improvements, talk to our bodies, the body’s realism, the expressive body, the First Crusade, the Holocaust, the new anti-Semitism, the siddur, the talking body, walking handicap | Leave a comment

Time Travel

Posted on April 30, 2019 by Abigail

Time Travel When I was a girl in New York City, my favorite thing to do was to go by myself to the Metropolitan Museum. In those days, the vast rooms were usually empty. Often I seemed to be the … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Alfred Lord Tennyson, alone with art, ancient Jerusalem, ancient stones, artistic beauty, “the well of time”, “thee’s and thou’s”, beauty in art, beheading of Mary Queen of Scots, buried layers, bygone feelings, bygone lives, City girl, death of friends, decoding the past, earlier worlds, Egyptian sarcophagi, Enlightenment, Formalism in art, Herodian temple, human incompleteness, irrecoverable past, longing for the past, loss of friends, lost worlds, martial glory, Mary Queen of Scots, meditation vision, Metropolitan Museum, mourning friends, museum visit, New York City, nostalgia, other worlds, otherness, poet laureate, pride and shame, rams’ horns, retrieving the past, Second Temple, self-knowledge, soldier’s duty, Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade”, The Archaeological Method, the past, The Pyramids, The Sphinx, Tudor England, Voltaire, Voltaire on the ancients | 2 Comments

The Burning of Notre Dame

Posted on April 16, 2019 by Abigail

The Burning of Notre Dame The first photos showed the cathedral’s high spire falling, its skeletal wood frame silhouetted against the engulfing red flames and – seen from the city’s venerable center – a column of smoke rising. Notre Dame … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Medieval, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 9/11, a city’s heart, accidental fires, architecture of the human soul, “set fires”, barbarian invaders, believing nothing, churches at risk, churches desecrated, churches vandalized, defensive city perimeters, emptying a population, erotic Paris, gothic architecture, gothic architecture's exemplar, la plus belle ville du monde, life and death of cities, medieval city, New York fireman, nihilism, Notre Dame, Notre Dame burning, Notre Dame’s high spire, Parisian skepticism, photos of Notre Dame burning, Rome’s aqueducts, sacking of Ancient Rome, secular Paris, spiritual thirst, the heart of Paris, towers of Notre Dame, Vandals and Visigoths, Wars of Religion, World Trade Center | 6 Comments

The Big City and Me

Posted on March 26, 2019 by Abigail

The Big City and Me I went to New York for an overnight last Thursday. This trip had been postponed for at least a year, during which I was dealing with one huge difficulty after another. Through the times and … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, books, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 20th century critic, 51st Street, a writer’s honor, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Alice’s Teacup, authenticity and success, Barbara Fisher, Barnard College, biography, Cafe Sabarsky, catching spies, Columbia University class of 1925, con artist, conservationists, Diana Trilling, easy mark, embezzeler, FBI raid, feminist activists, FGM, formative experiences, Frank and Ada Graham, friend of the arts, German U-boats, German/Austrian 20th century art museum, Henry M. Rosenthal, hollow words, honor killing, ill-gotten gains, integrity, Laurin Raiken, Leo Bronstein, life savings, Lionel and Henry, Lionel Trilling, Maine people, male friendship, meaning what you say, Meyer Schapiro, mitzvah, mystically sensitive, Nazi spy, Nazi spy ring, Neue Gallerie, New York City, New York in World War II, NYU Gallatin Division, old friends, Phyllis Chesler, Phyllis Chesler’s A Politically Incorrect Feminist: Creating a Movement with Bitches Lunatics Dykes Prodigies Warriors and Wonder Women, Phyllis Chesler’s The New Anti-Semitism, political courage, power street, Public Intellectual, reunions, righteous action, saving the earth, sense of place, short wave radio, sisterhood, street smarts, teacher/student relation, The Big City, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, U-boats off New York, Viennese café, you can go home again, you can’t take it with you | 2 Comments

Nibbles from the Tree of Knowledge

Posted on March 12, 2019 by Abigail

Nibbles from the Tree of Knowledge On my night table for last read of the evening is a book with the title, Forbidden Knowledge. It concerns a topic that I’d never considered as such: whether there are, or ought … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Martyrdom, Masculinity, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the moderns", absurdist philosophies, Adam and Eve, Aristotle, Aristotle's Metaphysics, bedtime reading, book of Genesis, broken places, classical civilization, cognitive powers, corrupt intelligence, curiosity, curiosity and its dangers, cynicism, dialectic and its dangers, divine prohibition, fundamental values, getting help in life, greatness of philosophy, Greco-Roman source, Hegel, hollowness of soul, Judeo-Christian Civilization, knowing too much, logos of the cosmos, moral dangers, noble truth, original sin, philosophic journey, philosophic rationalism, philosophy and culture, philosophy and zeitgeist, philosophy's goal, philosophy’s influence, Prometheus, Prometheus punished, rational animal, Roger Shattuck’s Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography, scientism, secular science, Socrates, Socratic ignorance, Spinoza, stealing fire, the ancients, The Enlightenment, The Garden of Eden, the great rationalists, the great systems, the hard problems, the meaning of life, the medievals, theology of The Fall, theory of everything, tree of knowledge, tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Western Civilization, world historical hero | 4 Comments

“Evil is Really Not Banal”

Posted on March 5, 2019 by Abigail

“Evil is Really Not Banal” This past week we’ve been in California, where I’ve resumed my treatments for neuropathy at the Loma Linda hospital. The other event of the week, salient for me, was a talk at the Claremont School … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, dialectic, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Martyrdom, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", audience Q&A, author/publisher relation, “The Rake’s Progress”, banality of evil, behaviorism, Bernard Harrison’s Blaming the Jews: The Persistence of a Delusion, blaming the Jews, book endorsements, book reviewers, book reviews, bureaucratic mindset, Claremont School of Theology, Coincidences, conscious evil, diabolical cunning, Evil, evil personified, excusing the Holocaust, explaining evil, fiction and real life, fighting the good fight, firming resolve, futile counterargument, groupthink, guidance from above, Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Holocaust research, illustrations from life, knee fracture, Loma Linda Hospital, meaning what you say, moral coverup, Nazi arguments, Nazi canards, Nazi materials, Nazi talking points, neuropathy treatments, publishing snafus, speaker event, synchronicities, the Holocaust, the seducer, theologians, traps of argument, truth stranger than fiction, white-washing evil, wolf in sheep’s clothing | 10 Comments

Normal?

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Abigail

Normal? There were many things I wanted to be when I grew up, but one of them was NORMAL. Since the counter-culture hadn’t yet come to public notice, normal was the only option offered to young girls at that time. … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute freedom and terror, Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged absolutely normal, abuse and harassment therapy, acupuncture, adventures and misadventures, body language, camel hair coats, category mistake, Chinese Herbal treatment, college co-eds, college romance, cultural expectations, cultural norms, culture and counterculture, defensible life, dream verdict, dream vision, equine coach, experiments with truth, featureless normality, French womanly wisdom, horse sense, horse talk, ideals for young girls, inhabiting one’s body, inhabiting one’s intentions, massage therapy, Me Too, medical checkup, movie stars, Normal, normality, norms, other-directedness, peripheral neuropathy, personal repair, pretended adoration, primary care physician, Princeton town, Princeton University, public approval, qualitative norms, realized intentions, Smith girls, social kiss of death, statistical averages, wisdom figure | Leave a comment

	Abigail on “Evil is Really Not Banal…
	Abigail on “God and The Care for On…
	Timothy Haverkamp on “Evil is Really Not Banal…
	Jerel Wohl on “God and The Care for On…
	Abigail on Good Philosophy Gets You to th…

Category Archives: Martyrdom

Never miss a post! "Dear Abbie" in your inbox is a click away.

Email Abbie!

We’re Social.

Recent Posts

Recent Comments and Replies

Archives

A picture is worth…

Follow Dear Abbie on Twitter!