Category Archives: politics

The Psalms

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Abigail

The Psalms The other day, and night, I was having a dark night of the soul. It was about A Good Look at Evil again, and the recurrent struggle to get my book shown correctly on Amazon. My patient readers … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, Heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, 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, non-violence, novels, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, radicalism, 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, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good book, abandonment, Amazon books, assertiveness training, Balmedie Scotland, bedtime reading, beleaguered widow, boring Psalms, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", dark night of the soul, despair, divine human intimacy, English-speakers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, feeling abandoned, feeling overwhelmed, frustration, hardback and paperback, Hebrew and English, invisible God, Jesus' last words, Judeo-Christian Civilization, Louisville Kentucky, modern translations of the Bible, non-detachment, non-sublimation, orphans, personal concern, pompous philanthropist, Psalm 22, Psalms, publication date, reading Psalms, real estate acquisitions, research assistant, revised versions, Scotland golf course, self-concern, talking politics, the English language, the human condition, The King James version, Trump's career, Trump's character, unconcealedness, virtuous life, widows and orphans, Wipf and Stock | Leave a comment

What’s With the Nothing?

Posted on May 22, 2018 by Abigail

What’s With the Nothing? In the mornings, when I sit for meditation, I ask for input from On High and generally aspire to learn what the day should hold for me if I orient rightly. Normally, the answers I get … Continue reading →

Posted in Academe, Action, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, beauty, Biblical God, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Masculinity, memory, Moral action, Moral evaluation, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", absurdity, bigotry, blaming Israel, class hatred, conflict resolution, Continental philosophy, deep thinking, divine guidance, emptiness, evil doers, existentialists, global consensus, God in the world, happy every after, ideological conflict, intuitive insight, Israel, Jews, Martin Heidegger, meditation, nihilism, philosophers in cafes, Plato's Republic, pointlessness, political differences, Poussin’s Et in Arcadia ego, prayer input, psychical differences, purpose of life, race prejudice, received opinion, receptivity, root canal surgery, saving the planet, self-assurance, self-discovery, self-knowledge, self-realization, self-trust, skepticism, stereotyping, the big picture, The Nothing, trusting intuition, unforced agreement, who am I? | Leave a comment

Sex, Honor and Philosophy

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Abigail

Plato wrote a dialogue, The Symposium, on this very topic. The setting is a drinking party held to celebrate the victory of one of the guests in a poetry contest. They go round the circle, each guest standing up to give a speech on the Great Question of the evening: What is love? Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, 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, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, 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, 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, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Candid Camera", Alcibiades, ancient drinking party, ancient Greeks, austerity, blacklisting, breaking eggs, Camelot, celibacy, Diotima, disproportionate punishment, eros, eros and biology, eros and health, eros and memory, eros and politics, eros and the beautiful, eros and the good, eros of ambition, eros of social life, erotic disempowerment, erotic empowerment, erotic motives, erotic sin, holier-than-thou, injured pride, love object, love of wisdom, man/woman love, musicals, Parisian café, philosophic friendship, Plato, Plato's dialogues, Plato’s Symposium, pleasure, poetry contest, preserving femininity, preserving masculinity, professional death, professional honor, reparations, romantic speeches, Russian soul, safe space, same-sex love, seclusion, seduction, self-protection, sex and dominance, sex and revenge, sexual harassment, social change, soulmate, The Academy, the man/woman ratio, the mating game, the secret of love, The Symposium, transcendent perfection, virtue signaling, What is love? | Leave a comment

“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

	Abigail on Battered, Bruised … but U…
	Penny Heiple, Three… on Battered, Bruised … but U…
	Abigail on The Man from Dothan
	Judy Dornstreich on The Man from Dothan
	Abigail on The Man from Dothan

Category Archives: politics

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