Tag Archives: Holocaust
“Being Brave”
“Being Brave” Nobody wants to think of herself as a whining, sniveling, cowering coward. At the same time, one of the advantages of the female sex is that (forgive me, sisterhood!) we are not expected to wear such courage as … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contradictions, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, mind control, non-violence, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The War Has Taken Place", assault, authority, bad guys, blaming victims, bravery, breaking under torture, consensus, conventions, courage, courage under fire, coward, cowardice, criminals, extreme situation, extreme tests, freedom, gender roles, genocide, German occupation of France, grace under pressure, Holocaust, honor, Jewish prayer, judging victims, martial arts, masculinity and femininity, massacre of Armenians, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, nazis, New York City, pain, pain threshold, pain tolerance, prayer, risk-taking, self-defense, social construction, socially constructed identity, Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage", subway crime, subway mugger, tests of valor, torture, training in courage, urban crime, victim's conduct, victim's courage, World War II
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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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“Hyper-Idealism and Primitivity”
Hyper-Idealism and Primitivity I’ve been making my way through the spring issue of “The Jewish Review of Books.” It’s far less “in” with the beautiful people than “The New York Review of Books” which commits politicide in prose against the … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, id, identity, ideology, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, non-violence, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sex appeal, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Jewish Review of Books", "New York Review of Books", "Sylvia Rafael: The Life and Death of a Mossad Spy", 1972 Munich Games, Achmed Bouchiki, ambivalence, anti-Semites, Ayn Rand, chastity, clean and dirty hands, combat, cruelty, enabling, enemies, espionage, Freudian id, good and evil impulse, hate, heroes, Holocaust, humility, idealism, innocence, integrity, Israel, Israeli Olympic team, Jews, karma, Lillehammer, love, love/hate, lust, Mossad, Moti Kfir, non-resistance, non-violence, normality, Norway, Olympics, pacifism, powerlessness, pride, purity, rabbis, Ram Oren, self-defense, sin, Tolstoy, Wittgenstein
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“Visitors’ Day”
“Visitors’ Day” As a writer, just now I’m between the last chapter of a revised edition of Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir, and the still-unwritten Afterward and Preface that will provide its new wrapping. As I reviewed (in more detail than … Continue reading
Posted in action, alienation, class, culture, erotic life, ethics, evil, faith, femininity, guilt and innocence, history, ideology, Jews, life and death struggle, memoir, political, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the problematic of woman, war, writing
Tagged "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", "The Gaza Girls", Adolf Eichmann, American Friends Service Committee, Americanization, anonymity, anti-semitism, Bettina Stangneth, book publication, creative work, Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer, feminine charm, FGM, genocidaire, hate crime, hijab, History, Holocaust, human rights, Israel, Jewish refugees, Jews, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, moral norms, niqab, norms of civilization, Palestinians, persecution, Quakers, satire, the Middle East, the Our Father, writing, YouTube, Zionism
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“Anne Frank”
“Anne Frank” What a triumph that girl brought off! Through her unassuming, young girl’s diary, the whole world came to share the sorrows and the innocence of the persecuted Jewish people. Identifying with her was not difficult. At the time of the … Continue reading
Posted in culture, life and death struggle, literature, philosophy
Tagged Anne Frank, anti-semitism, coming of age, Holocaust, Jewish, memoir, Shoah
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“All About My Mother”
“All About My Mother” Unlike me, my mother would give advice, solicited and unsolicited. For example: “Never tell other people your sexual history or how much money you have. That’s Life Capital.” In the little town in Maine where my … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, femininity, philosophy, political, relationships, the examined life
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail Martin, academic politics, France, Holocaust, hospice, Jewish, Jewish history, Kafka, Lausanne, Maine, Maternal insult, Mother, Mother Teresa, mother-daughter relationships, sexual history, state department, World War II
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