Tag Archives: genocide
Alter Egos
Alter Egos I’ve just finished reading the remaining chapters of my book, A Good Look at Evil. Though it’s a contribution to the field of philosophy, it has a dramatic build to it. Initial chapters deal with the conceptual battles … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Arabian horses, Arendt’s personal story, banality of evil, behaviorism, bureaucratic conformism, cog in the wheel, conceptual fights, connecting the dots, crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jews, dramatic story, Eichmann trial, equine therapy, following orders excuse, genocide, Gentile world, getting thrown, going country, Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Holocaust, horse as confidante, horse grooming, horsemanship, horses and risk, influence, intellectual detective work, intellectual rationale, intuitive horseback riding, Israeli secret agents, Jewish world, just following orders, Laurel Nobilis Arabians LLC, Milgram experiments, moral displacements, moral evasions, moral projections, narrative, Nazi haven in Argentina, obfuscations, personal life, philosophy, received truth, scared of horses, Skewbald, spirit of history, Stanford Prison Experiments, stilling the mind, talking horse, the kidnap of Eichmann, the Mossad, trust and mistrust, value judgments, you are what you think
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A Good Look at Evil
A Good Look at Evil Last Friday the galley proofs arrived for the new edition of my book, A Good Look at Evil. When the first edition came out, decades back, Temple University Press nominated it for a Pulitzer prize. … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, art of living, autonomy, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, motherhood, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, relationships, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, 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 talent in the room", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academe, academic eminence, academic research, Adolf Eichmann, ahead of its time, Betty Friedan, blurbs, book publishing, collegial relations, Eichmann's Argentine transcripts, endorsements, Eric Voegelin Society, Evil, Famous feminists, feminine self-erasure, first edition, flattery, founding mothers, galley proofs, genocide, Gloria Steinem, good and evil, good philosopher, Holocaust, Holocaust memories, keeping current, life story, Lionel Trilling, literary honors, living one’s story, mass murderer, Nazi thinking, non-fiction narrative, Norman Mailer, opinion shapers, philosophers, philosophic literacy, preface, professional recognition, professional renown, public intellectuals, Pulitzer Prize, reprint, second edition, Simone de Beauvoir, SS, Susan Sontag, Temple University Press, the Eichmann trial, the narrative view, Wipf and Stock
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Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman One of our back-to-back appointments here in California was cancelled, freeing the Saturday afternoon hours, so we decided to go see “Wonder Woman,” a great hero of my childhood now back in living cinematic color. The Israeli girl … Continue reading
Posted in action, beauty, Biblical God, childhood, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, identity, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, love, masculinity, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, past and future, peace, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, power, presence, relationships, roles, romance, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged appeasement, caliphate, comic books, DC comics, DC Extended Universe, film star, Gal Gadot, genocide, good and evil, Holocaust, IDF, Israeli athletes, Jewish experience, Jewish theology, jihadis, Linda Carter, martial arts, Nazi murders, Ottoman Empire, overtraining, Patty Jenkins, post-appocalyptic innocence, prelapsarian innocence, self-acceptance, super heroes, theological escapism, utopia, Wonder Woman, World War I, yetzer hara, yetzer hatov, Zyklon B
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Yom HaShoah
Yom HaShoah I really hadn’t wanted to go this time. It’s the night for commemorating/remembering the Shoah, the Holocaust, which my temple observes annually. Christian clergy sit on the raised platform at the front of the sanctuary and read, taking … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, seduction, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a past life, annihilation of the Jews, anti-Jewish imagery, anti-Zionism, Augustine's Jewish problem, Bishop Ambrose, board of trustees, burning synagogues, ceremony, choir, Christian clergy, Christian factions, commemoration, crazy history, David Nirenberg's Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, diaspora, Divine Presence, divine/human partnership, empathy, empathy with victims, enemies of God, Evil, ex-terrorist, factional disputes, genocide, graciousness, Hebrew revival, Hebrew Scriptures, historian, historicity, Holocaust, Kasim Hafeez, mass murder, mass persecution, meditative silence, memory, mercilessness, new Covenant, New Israel, nice guys, normalized history, norms of decency, old Covenant, Old Testament, past life memory, pitilessness, promised land, Reform temple, reincarnation, remembering, resistence songs, saints, sanctuary, school spirit, Shekinah, Shoah, showing the flag, sincere clergy, spiritual victory, St. Augustine, supersessionism, Swedish incarnation, temple, The Bible, The Longest Hatred, theology of contempt, truthful sermon, victims, wandering Jew, warm bodies, witnessing, Yom HaShoah
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“Abandonment”
“Abandonment” Eloi eloi lama sabachthani These were the recorded penultimate words of Jesus dying on the cross. It’s a quote from a Davidic psalm, but clearly, for him, not an experience at second hand. My God, my God, why hast … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, seduction, self-deception, social conventions, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abandonment, addiction, addictive anti-semitism, alcoholism, anti-semitism, Aramaic, book signing, chariots of fire, chariots of Israel, coarsened national mood, coarsening of discourse, coarsening of public life, conversations with Jesus, creative people, crucifixion, Davidic psalm, Edward Alexander's Jews Against Themselves, Eloi eloi lama sabachthani, evidence for God, experience of God, false memory, fellowship, forsakenness, genocide, God's care, hippies, Holocaust, Jesus, Jesus in synagogues, Jewish fear, Jewish guilt, Jewish history, Jewish memory, Leo Bronstein, longest hatred, national discourse, past life memory, past lives, peace and love, peace on earth, peaceful thoughts, Pebble Hill Church, politicide, providence, recognition, refuge, religious "nones", retired hippies, sbnr, Second Kings 2:9, Second Kings 6:15, seekers, settled creeds, Shoah, spiritual but not religious, spiritual evolution, state of Israel, sympathy, synagogues, tenderness, the prophet Elisha, travail of life
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The Gift of the Jews
Unwrapping the Gift of the Jews What’s the gift of the Jews? It’s to live with God chronologically. Is that all? Is that anything? Well, I don’t know if it’s anything, but it’s the reasoning behind the Bible. Keep track … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, nineteenth-century, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "God is my witness", 19th century thought, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, appeasement, atrocities, Australian Outback, bad people, beheadings, Bible, biblical studies, Charles Dickens, Christians, crucifixions, defamation, Emmanuel Lévinas' "A Religion for Adults" in Difficult Freedom, Emmanuel Lévinas' Difficile Liberté, genocide, good people, good people and bad people, grace, gratitude, Hans Castorp, ISIS, Israel, Joseph Puder, literary criticism, living historically, malice, Malmo, Middle East, Modernity, narrative criticism, non-fiction lives, normality, novelistic lives, novels of ideas, Oliver Twist, pacificism, Peace, Philosophical fiction, Quakers, Roger Sandall's documentary films, salt of the earth, sanatoriums, sanity, sentimentality, StandWithUs, Sweden, Swedish Anti-Semitism, thankfulness, The Covenant, the face of The Covenant, The Face of the Other, the gift, the Other, Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, World War I, Yazidis, Zionism
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