Tag Archives: holier-than-thou

Desire, Distraction and Dialectic

Posted on November 2, 2021 by Abigail

Desire, Distraction and Dialectic I have a woman friend whose mother hated her in the womb. Surely an exaggeration! — you may protest. Well, I met the lady only once, but she was the coldest being I ever encountered who … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, scientism, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "created equal", 5th Commandment, a mother's instinct, a mother's love, aim of history, aiming at purity, being hated, contradictions as opportunity, contradictions in history, coping with history, end of history delusions, enmity distracts from one's story, fatal flaw, female coldness, foundational relationship, founding contradictions, French Revolution, gaslighting, holier-than-thou, honoring parents, human imperfection, human traffickers, knitting women, Les Tricoteuses, living in history, method of denunciation, method of dialectic, narcissistic mother, object of hatred, personal history, playing the cards you're dealt, politically sexy, prenatal struggle, psychological abuse, recovery from gaslighting, recovery from longterm abuse, religious obligation, search for purity, self-trust, slave system, societal denial, strategies of hatred, The American DNA, the Guillotine, unease of the founders, unmaternal feelings, unmaternal instincts, unvalidated experience, USA as motherland, woman friend | Leave a comment

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’?”

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Abigail

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’”? Back when the first edition of A Good Look at Evil came out, I told a Maine neighbor that I had written a book about evil. He was a carpenter who had done a … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged backhanded compliment, biological determinism, class privilege, common sense, concealed enmity, controlling, copping out, cruelty, cultural determinism, cultural relativism, defying public opinion, denial, determinism, dissent from consensus, dodging responsibility, Downeast, encounters with evil, environmental determinism, escapism, evil as objective, evil as subjective, experimental psychology, expertise, fact/value split, fearing the worst, finding excuses, following the crowd, free will, guilt trip, hard-heartedness, history of evil, hitting the mark, holier-than-thou, hoping for the best, illusion of free will, illusion of freedom, indoctrination, insensitive, interested party, involuntary reactions, judgementalism, judgments of fact, judgments of value, Maine neighbors, manipulation, meanness, missing the mark, money privilege, moral absolutism, moral common sense, moral danger, moral evasion, moral evidence, moral interest, moral intuition, moral manipulation, moral relativism, moral superiority, moralistic language, morality moralism, narrowness, non-conformism, non-judgmentalism, one of the herd, out of control, out of touch, outlier, over-privileged, people as herd animals, personal condemnations, personal insults, projection, rationalizations, relativism, rigid, self-interest, self-righteousness, skepticism, social privilege, subjective relativism, the loner, tongue-lashing, tyranny's recruits, unconscious motivations, unforgiving | Leave a comment

Sex, Honor and Philosophy

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Abigail

Plato wrote a dialogue, The Symposium, on this very topic. The setting is a drinking party held to celebrate the victory of one of the guests in a poetry contest. They go round the circle, each guest standing up to give a speech on the Great Question of the evening: What is love? Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, 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, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Candid Camera", Alcibiades, ancient drinking party, ancient Greeks, austerity, blacklisting, breaking eggs, Camelot, celibacy, Diotima, disproportionate punishment, eros, eros and biology, eros and health, eros and memory, eros and politics, eros and the beautiful, eros and the good, eros of ambition, eros of social life, erotic disempowerment, erotic empowerment, erotic motives, erotic sin, holier-than-thou, injured pride, love object, love of wisdom, man/woman love, musicals, Parisian café, philosophic friendship, Plato, Plato's dialogues, Plato’s Symposium, pleasure, poetry contest, preserving femininity, preserving masculinity, professional death, professional honor, reparations, romantic speeches, Russian soul, safe space, same-sex love, seclusion, seduction, self-protection, sex and dominance, sex and revenge, sexual harassment, social change, soulmate, The Academy, the man/woman ratio, the mating game, the secret of love, The Symposium, transcendent perfection, virtue signaling, What is love? | Leave a comment

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