Category Archives: seventeenth century
Dreams about Real Life
The night before we left for California, I had what may be the strangest dream I ever dreamed: I was in a passenger plane – flying who knows where – until the airplane was split in two by a lightning … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, 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, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Trauma, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged age of reason, anti-semitism as anti-colonialism, anti-semitism in the Age of Enlightenment, anti-semitism in the Romantic period, anti-semitism inventing deicide, anti-semitism reflecting the Zeitgeist, anti-semitism the same through outward changes, anti-semitism through history, cast thyself down, decoding dreams, don’t test God, dream figure representing anti-semitism, dreams, dreams decoded by experts, dreams self-decoded, dreams that fulfill diagnostic expectations, Freudian dreams, Freudian psychoanalysis, Freudians and New York fashions, God and air travel, God not liking ugly, God’s anger at anti-semitism, gospel hymn I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, history of anti-semitism, I Know Who Holds Tomorrow, interpreting one’s own dreams, Jesus declines to test God, Jew-hatred unchanged in a changing world, Jewish assimilation and the Holocaust, Jungian dreams, lightning and God’s anger, lightning as heaven-shattering, lightning splitting the sky, meaningful dreams, newest form of oldest hatred, oldest hatred, plane crash, post-Darwinian anti-semitism, precognitive dreams, rabbinic Judaism denies concept of collective guilt, rabbinic Judaism denies concept of hereditary guilt, reproaching Holocaust victims, reproaching Israelis as colonialists, reproaching Jews in their ancient home as colonialists, sibling rivalry as theology, Temptation of Jesus, testing God’s believed favoritism, the chosen people, the Chosen People and perennial resentment, turnover-gendered person, undiscovered island, veridical dreams
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Traumatic Memories: Past and Future
I used to take pride in my excellent memory. But sadly, it got somewhat less excellent after my first marriage. Perhaps my psyche decided that certain scenes from that part of my life story were best left un-remembered. With regard … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, 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, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Trauma, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abused children and PTSD, anti-semitism and higher education, anti-semitism as cultural inheritance, anti-semitism as ongoing trauma, anti-semitism as the return of the repressed, anti-semitism in universities, biochemical markers of Holocaust trauma, biochemical markers of trauma, brain function and trauma, C-PTSD, consciousness-raising groups, cultural attitudes toward trauma, domestic abuse and law, global anti-semitism, healing trauma, Herzl’s vision of a Jewish state, Holocaust trauma, Holocaust victims, increasing anti-semitism, inherited trauma, intergenerational trauma, Israel’s resistance to anti-semitism, Israeli Nobel Prize winners, Jewish resistance to anti-semitism, Judith L. Herman’s Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, laws against marital rape, laws against wife-beating, lighting a candle vs cursing the darkness, memories of suffering, memory, memory loss, Oct 7 2023, Oct 8 2023, October 7-8, ongoing traumatizing events, past trauma, Peter A. Levine’s Trauma and Memory: Brain and Body in a Search for the Living Past, political history of trauma, post-Holocaust suppression of anti-semitism, psychic forgetting and trauma, psychic oubliettes, PTSD, PTSD and combat veterans, return of the repressed, social anti-semitism, Theodore Herzl, therapy for memory loss, therapy for trauma, third-generation Holocaust trauma, training trauma healers, trauma after Hamas atrocities, trauma and brain malfunction, trauma and memory, trauma healing before and after, trauma therapy, traumas past and present, traumas present and future, traumatic memory, unbearable psychic wounds, universities and anti-Israel demonstrations, world-wide anti-semitism, Zionism
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How Odd, of God
It happened one time that philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe said to her friend Ludwig Wittgenstein (the philosopher whose Philosophical Investigations she later translated), “What people have had such a history as the Jews!” I think they were in Vienna at the … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, 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, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Anscombe on Wittgenstein: eds Berkman and Teichmann (2025), antisemitism’s deepest causes, being Jewish as an assignment, bigotry among nice people, British philosophers, Chabad, Chabad and Friday night guests, Chabad and guests, Chabad dinner conversation, Chabad Friday night, Chabad rabbi, Chabad rabbinical couple, chasidic dress code, dinner conversation, Elizabeth Anscombe, emotional safety for girls, emotional safety of chasidic girls, empathy as enabler, evil explained away, Friday night dinner, Friday night prayers in Hebrew, healthy family life, Jewish history, Jews in Vienna, lessons of antisemitism, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, making fun of antisemites, modernity and authenticity, modernity and personal risk, modernity and skepticism, modernity vs orthodoxy, moral realism, Orthodox families, Orthodox Jewish families, Orthodox Jewish family life, Orthodox Jewish marriage and children, Orthodox Jews and authenticity, Orthodox ritual handwashing, orthodoxy and deep certainties, orthodoxy and psychological protection, philosophical discussion, recognizing evil, Reform Judaism, specialization in spirituality, spiritual protection, the Wittgensteins in Nazi Vienna, Torah Study, Torah study and liberalism, unique Jewish history, uniqueness of Jewish suffering, well-adjusted families, Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein and Jewish history, Wittgenstein and WWII, Wittgenstein’s Jewish origin, Wittgenstein’s Viennese family
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Anti-Semitism and the Zeitgeist
At the time I came to young womanhood, Jews of my generation believed we were way past the dark days of danger. Only refugees from recent tyrannies spoke of anti-semitism as a force that could show up “even here.” Well … 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, 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, 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, seventeenth century, 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 Adam in Judaism and Christianity, Ambrose, Ambrose and supersessionism, anti-semitism and prejudice, anti-semitism as incurable, anti-semitism defined, anti-semtism and the chosen people, Augustine, Augustine and supersessionism, becoming anti-semitic, Biblical covenant, Bildungsroman, Cain and Abel, Cain's mistake, choosing the Jews, chosenness of the Jews, Christian anti-semitism, Christian thought leaders, coming of age novel, Copernicus Kepler and Galileo, covenant of Abraham, covenant of Israel, crucifixion and redemption, curing anti-semitism, difference between Judaism and Christianity, Enlightenment vs the Jews, erotic competition, ever recurring nature of anti-semitism, exorcism of anti-semites, God as an actor in time, God of history, God of history vs God of nature, God of history vs God of supernature, God's pilot project, Goebbels and his Jewish love, Heidegger and Hannah Arendt, Heidegger’s nazism, human interaction with God, Jesus and Adam's sin, Jewish view of redemption, Jewish vs Christian theology, Jews as the anti-zeitgeist, Judaism and life in real-time, Judaism and preserving memory, Judaism and temporal life, Judaism and the human condition, Judaism as historical religion, Martin Heidegger, Modernity, nazis and Darwin, nazis and racial theory, Newton and the Age of Reason, obsessions about Jews, Old Testament vs Hebrew Bible, original sin, Paul and Original Sin, Paul and the crucifixion, perenniality of anti-semitism, persecuting Jews, political correctness and anti-semitism, political correctness and Israel, recovering anti-semites, religious competition, Romanticism, Romanticism and finding one's roots, Romanticism and rootless cosmopolitans, Romanticism and the Jews, sibling rivalry and anti-semitism, sin in Judaism and Christianity, supersessionism, the Age of Reason, the chosen people, the church and the Jews, the Hebrew Bible, the Holocaust, the Holocaust and nazi rationales, The Trinity, theological defamation, unhealthy relationships, young womanhood, Zeitgeist, Zeitgeist vs the Jews
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