Tag Archives: friendship
“Gossip”
“Gossip” One of Abigail’s Adages – though I have yet to post it – is this: Slander is always believed. Even more so if it’s in print. Jurgen Habermas wrote a book called (forgive me, it’s his title, not mine) … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, mind control, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 18th century clubs, Ancient Judea, baby names, banishment, cafes, capital crime, cartoons, celebrity, character assasination, Classical Athens, coffee houses, credulity, crucifiction, damaging fiction, Danish philosophy, death, defamation, Downeast Maine, execution, friendship, gazettes, gossip, guilty verdicts, hemlock, Herodotus' Histories, I.F. Stone, I.F. Stones' The Trial of Socrates, I.F. Stones' Weekly, injustice, Jesus, Jurgen Habermas, justice, libel, Loyalty, magazines, malice, Marie Antoinette, modern Israel, moral luck, moral smallness, newsletters, op-eds, opinion journalism, ostracism, political cartoons, popularity, pornographic pamplets, post-war malaise, posthumous reputation, public opinion, quarrel, reputation, reputation loss, reputation rehabilitation, salons, shunning, slander, small town life, Socrates, Soren Kierkegaard, stereotyping, The Corsair, village life
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“Ain’t I a Person?”
“Ain’t I a Person?” What’s a person? Am I a person? All the time? Is God? What’s going on when people say yes or no to questions like that? Jerry and I were in D.C. this week to celebrate the … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, mind control, motherhood, non-violence, ontology, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "the fix", academe, addiction, adulthood, alcoholism, anti-semitism, argument, autonomy, Brooklyn, Brooklyn College, collegiality, communication, corruption, D.C., dangers, defensiveness, dialogue, dignity, dumbstruck, empathy, fear, feminine identity, Feminism, fractional self, friendship, girlhood, God as Person, gothic, graft, grifters, happy child, healing, hidden self, higher ed, identity, inner core, innocence, interpretive frame, Jewish self-respect, Jewish students, life stages, loss, missing persons, opinions, orthodox Jews, person, personal God, personhood, philosophy, photo documentary, presence, reason, religious sincerity, righteous combats, self-respect, shock, teenage, toxic, trust, verbal hate, wholeness, womanhood, words, young-girl-in-flower
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“Worldliness”
“Worldliness” My father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal, was the antithesis of a worldly man. “He never made a useful friend,” as someone said who was well placed to know. Speaking at his memorial service, a college classmate recalled, “We … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, modernism, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, theism, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The World of Yesterday", academic politics, accepting praise, accolades, American studies, betrayal, career, careerism, celebrity, clique, collegiality, Columbia class of 1925, cosmopolitanism, David and Jonathan, dishonesty, esteem, ex-friends, friendship, friendships of utility, genius, Germany in the 1930s, happiness, Henry M. Rosenthal, Holocaust, honesty, honor, honors, integrity, intrigue, Lionel Trilling, literary "in" group, literary critic, literary culture, living a lie, male friendship, mundanity, nazis, New York City, philosophers, philosophy, praise, professional sabotage, renown, reputation, savoir faire, sincerity and authenticity, Stefan Zweig, Success, tastemaker, therapeutic riding, truth unvarnished, uncompromised life, Vienna, witness, worldliness
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“Conversions”
“Conversions” What we believe influences our taste, our most consequential choices, our self-esteem and sense of our own weight in the world. When we are viewed from outside and classified, what’s typically picked out are the inherited features (“nature”) and … Continue reading
Posted in art, culture, faith, feminism, history of ideas, memoir, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions, spirituality, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Ariadne's Thread, Aristotle, atheist, behavior therapy, belief, believer in free will, brainwashing, Caravaggio, coercion, confessions, conservative, conversion, determinist, duress, feminist, Fidelista, friendship, gnostic, Hank Williams, I Saw the Light, Jew, labyrinth, nature and nurture, paradigm change, personal identity, self-concept, sincerity, stimulus response conditioning, The Road to Damascus, theist, traditional woman, transformation, truth
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“The House in Maine”
“The House in Maine” Having grown up in city apartments, owning a home had never been high on my list of desirables. In fact, co-inheriting one, when my parents died, felt like the hand of a heavy fate on my … Continue reading
Posted in culture, friendship, memoir, relationships
Tagged acreage, ante-bellum homes, border disputes, city apartments, entropy, family belongings, fences, friendship, gospel, hometown, inheritance, land, Maine, memorabilia, memories, miracles, New England, New York, nostalgia, ownership, property, real estate, right-of-way, rodeos, selling a home, small towns, surveyors stakes, tradition
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“Integrity”
“Integrity” What is integrity? Is it a dull thing that you get by means of conformism and conventional thinking? Or is it interesting? It’s really, I think, neither conventional nor unconventional, neither conformist nor anti-conformist, neither respectable nor defiant of … Continue reading
Posted in art, culture, femininity, relationships, social conventions
Tagged Authenticity, belief system, candor, character, charm, compassion, con man, con-artistry, conformist, conventionality, eloquence, friendship, integrity, Joan of Arc, non-conformist, normativity, paradigm, seduction, spirituality, Success, talent, transparency, trust, truth, vice and virtue
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“Playfulness”
“Playfulness” Playfulness is a mode of living that always seemed to me stupendously desirable – almost the acme of experience! But if we want to know what it is, that’s rather hard to pin down. Evidently, it’s not acting like … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, friendship, philosophy, relationships, the examined life
Tagged childlike, court jester, fool, friendship, irony, professional comics, sad clown
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