Tag Archives: going along to get along
Philosophers’ Lives: As Told and Untold
Recently, I’ve been going through back issues of Proceedings and Addresses, the official publication of the American Philosophical Association. A given issue will contain programs and announcements for the current meetings, and Memorial Minutes, which of course means obituaries for … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, 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, journalism, 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, Nihilism, novels, ontology, oppression, 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, 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, theology, time, Truth, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged a truthful academic, a truthful man, a truthful philosopher, academic blacklisting, academic blackmail, academic books, academic mean girls, academic obituary, academic power disparities, academic power play, academic power politics, academic reprisal, academic seduction, academic sore loser, academic sucker-punch, American Philosophical Association, APA Memorial Minutes, believing something true, brutal honesty, career busting, Colin McGinn, Colin McGinn scandal, collegial appreciations, costly candor, cover-up stories, creatures of fashion, Darwinian psychology, diplomatic obituaries, dressing for the women’s movement, exaggerated eulogies, Freudian experiments, Freudian psychology, going along to get along, graceful comeback, How would you look in a novel?, Intellectual fashion, introducing women’s liberation, lives of philosophers, male vulnerability, materialist psychology, not going to get along, over-educated rationalizations, philosopher Edward Erwin, philosophers cover stories, philosophers who lie, philosophy as pursuit of truth, philosophy at Stony Brook, philosophy at University of Miami, playing the victim, professionally costly honesty, public feminist, reductionist psychology, refusing to lie, Regime of Denunciation, schadenfreude, sexual harassment and murky motives, songs for the women’s movement, SUNY at Stony Brook, tenure fight, the genius project, the official story, the unofficial story, thinking away responsibility, totalitarian tactics, truth-telling cousin, victim power, victim’s power games, war of the sexes
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Passionate Intensity
In 1919, William Butler Yeats wrote a poem with two lines that came to seem more timely as the century wore on: The best lack all conviction, while The worst are full of passionate intensity. Within little more than 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, Bible, 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, 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, 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, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, 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 American Revolution, anger on the right, approval on the left, atrocity envy, authoritarian shortcuts, being woke, Ben Franklin’s warning, best lack all conviction, binary as accusation, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklyn Connections, can’t take a joke, cancel culture, conformism, crowd pathology, culture of suspicion, defeatism, defending democratic norms, defending human rights, defending liberal arts, defending the oppressed, democracy vs mob rule, denouncers denounced, dream as an argument, dream illustration, dream of Metropolitan Museum, dream providing an argument, eligibility for cancellation, enemy of the people, Enlightenment, feckless faculty, fighting the good fight, getting canceled, going along to get along, good intentions, having a prayer, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind, heteronormative as accusation, human rights as self-evident, I have a dream, left mirroring right, left/right mirror images, liberal arts curriculum, living on your inheritance, losing by failing to fight, marginalized, nazi erasure of rights, objectively guilty, opposing oppressors, oppressed as social rank, oppression as status, oppression without status, oppressor/oppressed relation, parental authority, parental responsibilities, parents and children, political conformity, political intolerance, political shunning, politically downranked, politics as humorless, professor of philosophy, progressivism, qualifying as oppressed, racism as accusation, Reign of Terror, rights bearing citizenship, rights not self-perpetuating, rise of fascism, romance and political courage, saving Brooklyn College, school teachers’ authority, sexism as accusation, social murder, status on the left, story of victory, the Guillotine, transphobia as accusation, unrecognized oppression, William Butler Yeats, worst have passionate intensity, Yeats’ The Second Coming, you don’t lose them all, you don’t win them all
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Interesting Times
There is a well-known curse, supposedly Chinese, that goes: May you live in interesting times! In my childhood I lived in a New York City that snowed in winter. We schoolkids built snowmen and went sledding in the park. Life … 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, 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, 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, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, 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, 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 academic bureaucracy, American philosopher, anti-semitism and loss of cultural self-respect, anti-semitism as replacement for personal defeat, anti-semitism in England, anti-semitism in higher education, anti-Zionism and Western cultural demoralization, anti-Zionism as loss of cultural self-defense, antigenocide turned on its head, Battle of Trafalgar, Bernard Harrison's Blaming the Jews, Big City childhood, British nineteenth-century cultural flourishing, building snowmen, Chautauqua movement, Chinese proverb, civilizational cycles, dark romanticism, demoralized generation, edifying educational retreat, English philosopher, going along to get along, Hebrew Bible as Jewish memory, Hitler’s anti-Judaism, Hitler’s genocide, Hitler’s racial classifications, ideal world vs real world, interesting times, Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence, Israel’s will to survive, Jews as remembering their history, Jews not a race, Jews recording their history, Jews seen as a race, memory gap, moral balance, New York City childhood, overt vs implied anti-semitism, philosophic colleague, predictability of anti-semitism, safe and solid childhood, seeing what you expect, sledding in the park, suppressing chronological memory, the English defeat Napoleon, the makings of an anti-semite, too much of a good thing, transatlantic conversation, UN anti-zionism, uplifting vacation, wholesome group activities, wholesome uplift vs wicked world, William James, William James’ What Makes a Life Significant?, World War I demoralizes England, World War II and British cultural exhaustion
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The Old Year Resolved
Since I had the afternoon free, I thought it would be interesting to reread my journal entries from 12/30/22 to the present evening. How had the past year gone for me personally? Actually, I’d expected to find chasms that had … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, 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, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romanticism, science, 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, terror, 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, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 19th century Romanticism, 4000 year old conflict, a balanced life, Abraham's blessing, anti-semitism in America, anti-semitism's global reappearance, anxiety and reality, artists who stay normal, avant-garde artists, Biblical combats for the legacy, Biblical fights over the inheritance, challenges of life, cherem in the Hebrew Bible, competing cultural values, competing for the Biblical blessing, conforming nonconformists, culture and holy writ, Davidic genealogy, diary record, empathy at a distance, evil's reach, extraordinary opinions expressed as ordinary, fashionable radicals, finding one's purpose in life, German Romanticism, German Romantics, going along to get along, Hamas and moral contagion, happiness, Hegel, hysteria mistaken for talent, indulging youthful rebellion, Isaac's descendents, Ishmael and Abraham, Ishmael and Hagar, Ishmael and Isaac, Ishmael Isaac and the blessing, Islam's conflict with Jews, Islam's conflict with Judaism, Islamic triumphalism, Jonah and the Ninevites, joyful serenity, limits of cherem in Biblical Israel, living and dying by ideas, multiculturalism in Biblical Israel, New Year resolution, October 7, opposing evil, opposing middle-class morality, past life motivating current life, past life vision, Paul Gauguin, people are what they believe, people live and die for their Absolute, personal equilibrium, personal growth, personal journal, personal memories, personal story, Peter Paul Rubens, revoked ban on the Amalekites, Sarah and Hagar, self-maintenance, shocks of life, slaying dragons, storm and stress, Sturm und Drang, suicidal nonconformity, talent and hysterics, talent doesn't need abnormality, the Book of Ruth, the oldest hatred, the personal becomes geo-political, the Quran and Jews, the Quran on Jews at end of history, unconventional opinions expressed as if normal, unresolved Arab-Israeli conflict, year-end retrospective
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Witness
How important is it to be witnessed? I think we’re built to view it as pretty important. It’s close to the heart of motivation. We don’t want “no one to know.” “As God is my witness,” we say, to underscore … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic politics, academic quarrels, ancien regime, ancien regime’s reprisals, autobiographical memory, blaming the whistleblower, blaming the woman, canceling the whistleblower, cost of the Louisville Ohio River flood, cynicism and feeling unseen, defending God’s house, El Al airline, Elmer Sprague, emotional shelter, erasing memories, evidence that we live true stories, father daughter relation, fatherhood, feeling isolated, feeling unseen, filial piety, forgetting what we regret, French aristocrats, God as my witness, going along to get along, guilty stories, high school honor student, importance of remembering, inherited memories, inspired advice, institutional faith of the covenant, isolating inconvenient people, key witness, King Louis XVI, looking for my father, Louisville boyhood, Louisville Fourth of July, Louisville Male High, Louisville’s Ohio River flood, McGuffey Readers, Me Too, meritorious deeds and recognition, no need for recognition, no one knows, old time religion, ousting a predator, personal exoneration, pilgrimage, places reserved in memory, power relationships, remembering accurately, revisiting a remembered place, revisiting memories, sacred places, seeing Ancient Israel in Modern Israel, seeing the past in the present, selective forgetting, selective memory, sharing true stories, sharing what happened, silencing resistance, southern courthouse square, southern hospitality, southern memories, southern nostalgia, the American Revolution, the Jewish covenant, the old home town, the old house, the town my father knew, to honor through memory, when no one remembers, whistleblower, witness to the story
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The Family Laundry
A cousin just told me that the Israeli branch of the family is putting out a book that she has seen in advance of publication. It’s about the immediate forebears of that branch, who are people of large consequence in … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, oppression, past and future, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Uncategorized, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, biblical Israel, Biblical narrative, book projects, Commemorative volume, Coulda been a contender, El Al flight, Eminent families, Exclusivism in religion, Family flaws, Family lineage, family prestige, Family pride, Family secrets, Family shame, family tree, Flaws and virtues, Generational change, God and Abraham, going along to get along, Grammatical competence, Holy envy, Identity reinforced, Identity undermined, Jerusalem, Jungian thought-forms, Kibbutznik, Krister Stendahl, lech, lecha, Life summonses, Medieval Jerusalem, modern Israel, moral courage, Objective case, opportunism, Passing the buck, Personal truthfulness, Political dynasties, pride and shame, promised land, Reclaiming desert, Religious pluralism, Reproving transgression, Self-betrayal, selling out, Sense of identity, Skeletons in the closet, Speaking Hebrew, Taking a stand, The cost of taking a stand, The navel of the world, truth unvarnished, Visiting Israel, Washing family laundry, Wedding on the Jordan
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Male Gallantry
Male Gallantry Like Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven, here’s a topic that’s been tapping on the casement of my mind during the past few weeks. It’s reminded me of an incident that happened some years back, when I was tenured, published … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged aborted courtship, academic philosophy, alternative cancer treatments, American Philosophical Association, becoming a theist, beleaguered woman, boring and middle-aged, Bullying, Certified Big Shot, collegial expectations, collegiality, cop out, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, emasculated, false pretenses, feminist credentials, fireman friend, former buddies, gang’s all here, ganging up, going along to get along, groupthink, holistic cancer treatment, holistic treatments, jerking people around, joining the mob, life and death decisions, male gallantry, male weakness, male/female bullying, man into worm, old friends, outnumbered, philosophical atheism, philosophical theism, philosophy, phony feminist, professional life, pseudo-authenticity, pseudo-defender of the underdog, renewed courtship, ridicule, search for wisdom, siding with one’s adversaries, stab in the back, the queen of sciences, turning on a buddy, unmanly men, women and children last
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