Category Archives: politics

“How I Got to be a Person Whose Whole Life is Lived in Cliches”

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Abigail

“How I Got to be a Person Whose Whole Life is Lived in Cliches” The Rabbis inveigh against gossip. Since a lost reputation is almost as hard to recover as a lost life, they deem it equivalent to a capital … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Childhood, Chivalry, 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, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the evil tongue", a great lady, academic firing, academic hearings, academic reinstatement, ancient customs, Aristotle's Laws of Thought, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Barbara Seaman's Free and Female, Barbara Seaman's The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill, betting on horse race, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, cocktails in the clouds, covering womens' hair, editor at Dutton, Famous feminists, feminist allies, feminist ambiguities, feminist data, feminist heaven, feminist politics, founding mothers, glittering birthday party, gossip, Hans Jonas's Memoirs, horse racing, Identity and Excluded Middle, influential figures, Jewish high holidays, late guest, Law of Contradiction, leading feminist, Leo Strauss, life in cliches, literary gossip, lost reputation, Loyalty, malicious tale bearing, moral ambiguities, New York restaurants, novelistic lives, novels and life, opinion shapers, orthodox Bar Mitzvah, orthodox hair covering, Peggy Brooks, philosophical gossip, philosophical journals, philosophy and religion, projection, public intellectuals, rabbinical prohibitions, rabbinical rulings, rabbis, second wave feminism, segregation of women, standing by friends, stereotyping, story-like lives, supporting the cause, supportive husband, synagogue, The Monist, the narrative view, Top of the Sixes, unexamined assumptions, welcoming the stranger, women in the balcony | Leave a comment

“The Man Behind the Curtain”

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Abigail

“The Man Behind the Curtain” As a sometime student of the mechanics of mind control, I’ve been aware of the ways in which, nowadays, well-intentioned people of diverse climes and views must walk in fear of being denounced. For what? … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the philosophy of praxis", Albert Camus, Andrey Vyshinsky, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, bigotry, breaking the rules, coerced confessions, counter-revolutionary, diversity, equality and justice, established disciplines, former believers, French philosopher, future of humanity, G. W. F. Hegel's Reason in History, G.W.F. Hegel, good intentions, Great Soviet Experiment, guilty mind, haters, hegemony, human nature, inner life, intellectual disciplines, intellectuals and history, man on horseback, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Merleau-Ponty's Humanism and Terror, Mind Control, Moscow Trials, Napoleon, objective guilt, objective psychology, oppressed group, oppressor and oppressed, outward life, political denunciation, power games, preparations for revolution, revolutionary activity, revolutionary aims, revolutionary potential, revolutionary strategy, Richard Wright, Russian revolution, show trials, social stakes, social winners and losers, solitary thinkers, styles of denunciation, subjectivity and objectivity, The God That Failed, true believers, universal brotherhood, utopian visions, virtue signaling, Vyshinsky Trials, world historical figure, zone of intentions, zone of subjectivity | Leave a comment

“Ideas and Real People”

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Abigail

“Ideas and Real People” When I need consolation, when sorrow exerts its hard claims, I turn instinctively to what Plato would call the realm of forms: beautiful things and ideas that are clear and significant. When our friend Leo … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, 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, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A.J. Ayer, aiming at weak spots, Albert Einstein, Anna Akhmatova, anti-fascist, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Boris Pasternak’s Dr.Zhivago, British Embassy, British eyes and ears, British Foreign Office, centrality of ideas, Chaim Weizman, classical art, classical bas reliefs, classical serenity, classical statues, clear ideas, communist party, communist politics, communist revolution, completeness, consolation, cultural definition, cultural vulnerability, Culture, culture against itself, culture defined, culture shapers, destroying a culture, dispatches from Washington, Drew Pearson, eternal achievement, extremism, family tree, fear and shame, George Kennan, Grunewald Crucifixion, Hassidic lineage, hegemony, high culture, humanistic culture, intellectual culture, intellectual friendship, intellectual moderation, intellectuals denounced, intellectuals in the 1930’s, intellectuals purged, intellectuals under terror, intelligentsia, interesting man, Isaiah Berlin, Italian civilization, Italian communist, J. L. Austin, Leo Bronstein, liberal culture, life aims, life under tyranny, living for ideas, Lord Halifax, making a difference, Metropolitan Museum, Michael Ignatieff’s Isaiah Berlin: A Life, moral compromise, motorcycle accident, Mussolini’s dictatorship, nuanced diplomacy, opinion shaper, Oxford education, paisley, Party Line, Plato, Plato’s realm of forms, post-communist revolution, power of ideas, Public Intellectual, reading in prison, Riga Latvia, significant ideas, Soviet Union, Stephen Spender, Strasbourg, strategic mind, Stuart Hampshire, sturdy mind, the Russian soul, things of beauty, Tsar’s overthrow, twentieth century intellectuals, tyranny, USSR, utopian delusions, Virginia Woolf, Walter Lippman, war of ideas, Washington rumors, weakness in culture, Winston Churchill, World War II | Leave a comment

Collegiality

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Abigail

Collegiality It’s one of the most precious chances life offers: to be a team player, a cooperator in a venture, a fellow worker in a joint work. Nothing could be more fun than this sharing of skilled seriousness. Student … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bureaucracy, Chivalry, 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 of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic colleagues, academic quarrels, allies, anguish of parents, broken friendship, casing the target, children in peril, colleagues, cooperating, deaths of parents, defamatory fictions, determined enemy, divorces, enjoying differences, fellow worker, frightening diagosis, having fun, heartbreak, intellectual struggles, irreparable quarrels, joint work, knowing where to strike, longterm friends, lost friendship, malevolent intentions, objective roles, objective rules, personal struggles, philosophical colleagues, righteous combat, rites of passage, rules of the game, search for truth, senior colleague, shared quest, shared skills, state of grace, striking the vulnerable, student life, targeting a weakness, volleyball, weddings, work projects, young adulthood | Leave a comment

So Sue Me

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Abigail

So Sue Me Although writing this column is enlightening for me, the author, and I hope for you my much-loved readers — the elect, the favored few, the discerning ones – tonight I simply can’t. I’m all out of moxie. … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged airport wheelchairs, alternative medicine, angelic messengers, angels unawares, author/reader relation, blood circulation, car country, Christian prayer, circulatory disorder, coincidence, curing styes, discerning readers, divine coincidence, divine outreach, elect readers, elite readers, Enlightenment, evangelical Christians, exhaustion, favored few, feeling empty, feeling spent, flies, Gérard Philipe, gluten-free, healing, helluva trip, holistic medicine, home exercise, hopefulness, idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, indelible stains, Jewish prayer, Kaput, locomotive atrophy, Loma Linda Hospital, mainstream medical medicine, medical innovation, medical research, Michelle Morgan, Ms., neural atrophy, neuro-vascular condition, neurologists, neuropathy, neuropathy at Loma Linda, new neuropathy treatment, old French movies, Parkinson's, past life therapy, persistence, physical therapy, plague of flies, powerful mantra, prayer for sale, pseudo-cures, psychic healer, purported cures, quackery, skilled dry cleaners, synchronicity, top-rated neurologists, uphill climbs, walking incapacity, Western medicine, writing a column | Leave a comment

The Deep and the Shallow

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Abigail

The Deep and the Shallow A medley of book review weeklies and monthlies arrive here in a more or less continuous stream. I look through them, both to get an idea of what’s new – what is getting the attention … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, 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, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged avant garde writers, book review journals, book review weekly, calendar time, clock time, cultural fault lines, cutting edge trends, deep, depth, effects of marriage, emotional depth, escapism, established professionals, French dinner, Futurism, German Romantics, getting ahead of the story, getting out of the story, happy endings, in quest of lost time, intellectual depth, Les feuilles mortes, literary critics, literature of the absurd, living in the now, living one’s story, lost identity, lost time, Marriage, meaninglessness, meditation, modern day Buddhists, moral depth, new books, nihilism, nonfiction, nostalgia, opinion shapers, opinions of critics, philosophers, pointlessness, power in the world, praised books, Presentism, recommended books, search for identity, search for meaning, Sehnsucht, self-help gurus, shallow, significance, staying in the story, temporality, the butterfly, the center cannot hold, the flow of time, the specious present, threatened identity, time travel, time-bound life, TV gurus, vanishing instant, wedding anniversary, wounded souls, yearning, young couples | Leave a comment

The Feminine Force

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Abigail

The Feminine Force Some years ago, I met a young woman artist, a painter of very large canvasses, who had married a young Moroccan in order to give him a way to live and work in New York City. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Chivalry, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, 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, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged #metoo, 19th century philosophy, 19th-century literature, a woman's interest, anti-feminist, Arab youth, asymmetry of sexes, biological imperatives, Bullying, Cleopatra, co-education, conflicts in feminism, conformism, danger of rape, deceptive charm, dissent, equal representation, erotic ideal, ethical duty, expressing one's charm, fear of dissent, Feminine Force, Femininity, Feminism, free spirit, frustration, future of Russia, gallantry, gallantry in men, getting pregnant, handsome hero, Henry James's The Bostonians, ideal situation, imprinted by intimacy, Julius Caesar, lifting morale, Lionel Trilling, love worthiness, manipulativeness, Mark Antony, marriage for green card, masculine force, mastering the space, meaning of life, meeting mother, men's protectiveness, Michael Artzibashev's Sanine, Moroccan youth, mutual love, mysteries of eros, New York City, nihilist, obligation to be happy, original work, ostracism, peer pressure, personal fulfillment, post-Civil War, power of volition, protection of women, reading one's mind, reading the best, reciprocal commitment, relaxing resistance, resisting pressure, revising the canon, Richard Lovelace's To Lucasta Going to the Wars, rule breaker, Russian novels, self-actualization, self-surrender, sisterhood, social safety, Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra: A Life, Submission, surrendering one's will, Tel Aviv, the canon, the erotic, theoretical discussions, undocumented immigrant, what counts as consent, will power, women and STD, women in Islam, women students, women's charm, women's first intimacy, women's impregnability, women's liberation, women's seducibility, women's self-protection, women's vulnerabilities, yin and yang | Leave a comment

	Abigail on The Man from Dothan
	Judy Dornstreich on The Man from Dothan
	Abigail on The Man from Dothan
	Johan Herrenberg on The Man from Dothan
	Abigail on Woman’s Search for Meanin…

Category Archives: politics

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