Tag Archives: good intentions

Passionate Intensity

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Abigail

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 | 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 | 2 Comments

“The Man Behind the Curtain”

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Abigail

“The Man Behind the Curtain” As a sometime student of the mechanics of mind control, I’ve been aware of the ways in which, nowadays, well-intentioned people of diverse climes and views must walk in fear of being denounced. For what? … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, 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, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the philosophy of praxis", Albert Camus, Andrey Vyshinsky, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, bigotry, breaking the rules, coerced confessions, counter-revolutionary, diversity, equality and justice, established disciplines, former believers, French philosopher, future of humanity, G. W. F. Hegel's Reason in History, G.W.F. Hegel, good intentions, Great Soviet Experiment, guilty mind, haters, hegemony, human nature, inner life, intellectual disciplines, intellectuals and history, man on horseback, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Merleau-Ponty's Humanism and Terror, Mind Control, Moscow Trials, Napoleon, objective guilt, objective psychology, oppressed group, oppressor and oppressed, outward life, political denunciation, power games, preparations for revolution, revolutionary activity, revolutionary aims, revolutionary potential, revolutionary strategy, Richard Wright, Russian revolution, show trials, social stakes, social winners and losers, solitary thinkers, styles of denunciation, subjectivity and objectivity, The God That Failed, true believers, universal brotherhood, utopian visions, virtue signaling, Vyshinsky Trials, world historical figure, zone of intentions, zone of subjectivity | 1 Comment

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