Category Archives: power games
Neither Athens nor Jerusalem
In 1867 Matthew Arnold wrote a book titled Culture and Anarchy in which he held up two saving springs of our civilization: Athens – from which we get the inner urge to “see things as they really are” – and … 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, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, 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, 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
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Tagged a legacy of teaching, academic breakdown and civilization, an unreal city in the future, Athens and Jerusalem, Brooklyn College, college students, decoding real life, desecrating the sacred, enabling rioting students, enlightenment ideals, functional power vs brute power, groves of academe, joining the gang, Leo Bronstein, Leo Strauss, libertine Gnosticism, losing the academy, Matthew Arnold, Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, mob action, mobs on campus, philosophic assumptions, philosophic foundations of behavior, philosophy and personal decisions, philosophy and real life decisions, philosophy and the human experience, philosophy as guide for living, philosophy as shaping culture, philosophy as shaping culture throughout history, philosophy shaping the soul, philosophy’s civilizing mission, playing the victim, profaning the academy, profaning the altars, pulling down Athens and Jerusalem, social conformism, Socratic dialogue, Stanley Rosen, student teacher appreciation, students who don’t study, teachers who don’t teach, teaching art history, teaching as soul-shaping, teaching civilization’s power and presence, teaching philosophy, teaching philosophy as a transmission of a civilizational power and presence, teaching vs indoctrinating, The Academy, the House that Plato Built, the importance of philosophy in history and civilization, the Jewish essence, the unexamined life is not worth living, threatening Jewish students, Western Civilization, Western Civilization’s sources, winning hearts and minds, you are what you think
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History’s Spiritual Side
Over the past few days, Jerry and I have been attending and speaking at the Eric Voegelin Society meetings in Philadelphia. Though the EVS is nested academically within the American Political Science Association, it’s a political science organization with a … 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, 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, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, 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, 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
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's The Evil of This Time, academic credibility, academic fair-mindedness, academic honesty, academics and Hitler, academics who are sincere, American Political Science Association, American political virtues, Austrian anti-semitism, Austrian Catholic illiberalism, authoritarian Catholic illiberalism, Bruno Godefroy, collapse of the norms, defeats explained away, delusional systems, Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, distinguished war criminals, endorsing war crimes, Enlightenment, Eric Voegelin, Eric Voegelin and authoritarian regime, Eric Voegelin Society, EVS in Philadelphia, extremist ideologies, French Revolution, Gnosticism vs Reality, Gnosticism's seductive appeal, Gnostics can't fail, guillotine victims, Hamas pride in atrocities, Harvard collective letter re Oct 7, incorrigible delusions, intellectual courage, intellectual scandal, justifying atrocities of Oct 7, love of truth, masks of detachment, metaxy between Gnosticism and Nihilism, Nazi Austria, Nazi takeover of Austria, Nazism and communism, nice people rejecting the norms, Oct 7 2023, open minded research, political escapism, political science, professors and Hitler, rationality without rationalizing, reality as hard to understand, Religion and Public Life in Harvard Divinity School, safe from refutation, secret knowledge, spirituality in politics, spirituality mishandled, Sydney Carton's last thoughts, the God hypothesis, the suspended middle between Gnosticism and Nihilism, transhuman purity, truth as religion enough, understanding reality, unrepentant atrocity perpetrators, Voegelin and American political virtues, Voegelin and anti-semitism, Voegelin and the metaxy, World War II refugee
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Is the Just Woman Happier?
Is the Just Woman Happier? 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, 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, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, 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, 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
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Tagged a life worth living, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "God and the Care for One's Story", academic combat, academic due process, academic reinstatement, accurate empathy, Aristotle's Metaphysics, asking God for help, broken relationships, carcinoginic social circumstance, classroom discipline, collegial friend, collegial normality, consequential choice, consequential vote, covert aggressor, denying the Rashomon Effect, dimming one's moral lights, disloyalty in friendship, empathy, empathy experiment, empathy with enemies, everyday heroism, evil and personal control, evil sees its opportunity, existential questions, faculty union, false compassion, false friends, fight to the finish, forced option, fork in life's road, friend's betrayal, friends who believe defamation, God's silence, good friends in hard times, gossip as a weapon, human desire to know, inner life of former friends, inner life of friends, irreparable breakup, Is the Just man happier? Is the Just woman happier?, job fight, knowing other minds, knowing other minds as parent, knowing other minds as teacher, knowing the mind of another, liberal guilt, life and death struggle, lost friendships, mind body connection, misperceiving the true colors, moral choice, moral cowardice, moral integrity, moral manipulation, moving on to survive, obligation to survive, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Philosophy Department, physical and mental health, Plato's Republic, playing the victim, politics of experience, power of the weak, prayer and meditation, praying for help, pretended misunderstanding, psyching out one's enemies, repaired social wounds, resisting a controller, resisting a manipulator, resisting an aggressor, resisting betrayal, resisting defamation, risking one’s job, seeing the true colors, social cowardice, social dominance, social survival, solitary struggle, solitude as moral struggle's precondition, standing by a friend, staying in the fight, survival instinct, testing situations, the other minds problem, the Rashomon excuse, the right way vs the easy way, the road less traveled, thought experiment, thought-waves of the mind, unhealthy circumstances, unrepaired wounds, veiled perception, victimhood misused, voting one's conscience, words as a weapon
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