Tag Archives: honor
The Man from Dothan
The Man from Dothan In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, there is a brief but indispensable walk-on part played by a figure of whom we learn only that he is “from Dothan.” He guides young Joseph to Dothan … Continue reading
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, 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, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 7 lean years, archives, Authenticity, Bible, brilliant career, Columbia class of 1925, covenant with God, cultural celebrity, dream interpretation, Egyptian bondage, false accusations, false imprisonment, father/daughter relationship, filial piety, friends of youth, Genesis, God-intoxicated, Henry M. Rosenthal, honor, integrity, intellectual memoir, Jewish existence, Jewish fear, Jewish self-contempt, Jewish vocation, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph revealed, Joseph's brothers, Joseph's coat of many colors, Lionel Trilling, male friendship, Man from Dothan, masked identity, Midianites, Modernity, Moses, oldest hatred, Passover story, paternal last will, Pharaoh's dreams, Potiphar, Potiphar's house, Potiphar's wife, precognitive dreams, Public Intellectual, sibling rivalry, Sinaitic covenant, Ten Commandments, The class genius, The Trilling correspondence, Trilling's students, Ur-story, writer's block
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I Believed Juanita Back When
I Believed Juanita Back When When I watched Lisa Meyers’ NBC interview with Juanita Broaddrick, back when President Bill Clinton had just survived an impeachment vote in the Senate, I called myself a “Clinton Democrat.” Why then would I bother … Continue reading
Posted in Absurdism, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Chivalry, 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, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, non-violence, Oppression, Past and Future, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, 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
Tagged -isms, abuse of political power, abuse of power, accepting imperfection, affronts to honor, Attorney General Bill Clinton, being outed, believing the women, Broaddrick NBC interview, Brooklyn College, Clinton Democrat, collegial relations, credible allegations, criminal rape, date rape, Democratic Party contributors, denial, Dorothy Rabinowitz, due process, due process on campus, elected officials, eros and civilization, escapism, evidence of rape, false accusations, feeling powerless, Feminism, Feminist denial, flawed humanity, good old boys, highest good, honor, hotel room meeting, imaginary innocence, impeachment investigation, innocence, Juanita Broaddrick, K C Johnson and Stuart Taylor Jr.'s The Campus Rape Frenzy: The Attack on Due Process at America's Universities, Lisa Meyers, national honor, NBC interview, out of the closet, partisan feelings, personal and political, personal desire and public life, political powerlessness, power inequalities, power relations, President Bill Clinton, print reporter, public feminists, rape accusations, Richard Lovelace's To Lucasta Going to the Wars, romance and culture, search for purity, serving one's civilization, sex and power, sex and violence, sympathy for women, the life of desire, the official story, the press, the romantic matrix, TV interview, violated woman
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“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 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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“Brokenness”
“Brokenness” By “brokenness” I mean what occurs in our psyches, not what happens when a vase shatters on a tile floor. But what is this psychic brokenness? It seems to occur in our conviction that something – whatever it is … Continue reading
Posted in Alienation, Art, Chivalry, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, history of ideas, Ideology, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, motherhood, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Power, Psychology, relationships, Roles, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Spirituality, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman, Time
Tagged "Infidel", "Look Homeward Angel", "To Lucasta Going to the Wars", "Witness from Hell: The bravery of a North Korean Escape", "You Can't Go Home Again", a mother's love, argument, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, discursive argument, first love, fragmentation, honor, irreparable, Jay Nordlinger, longing, love ballads, Metropolitan Museum, philosophic verities, repression, revenge, Richard Lovelace, Romance, Romeo and Juliet, substitution, Thomas Wolfe, Titanic, transcendence, true love, vainglory, weddings, Yeonmi Park
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“Gettysburg”
“Gettysburg” Last week included Jerry’s birthday and he determined that the most desirable present would be an overnight visit and guided tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. Naturally I would have gone along with whatever Jerry wanted to do on his … Continue reading
Posted in Action, Culture, History, life and death struggle, Masculinity, nineteenth-century, Political, Psychology, relationships, Sociobiology, The Problematic of Men, War
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, American History, battlefield, bayonettes, casualities, chess, choreography, Civil War, courage, fate and providence, fortitude, George G. Meade, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Address, glory, historic tours, historical memory, honesty, honor, Joshua Chamberlain, Little Round Top, manliness, martial arts, military cemetery, military history, Monument of the State of North Carolina, nobility, passion, Pickett's Charge, prudence, public monuments, Robert E. Lee, slaughter, soldiers, strategy, tactics, tragedy, Union and Confederate, United States, vainglory, valor, violence, war games, war memorials
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“What Kind of a God?”
“What Kind of a God?” I have been following, with a mixture of emotions — including curiosity and claustrophobia — C. S. Lewis’s account, in Surprised by Joy, of his conversion to theism (belief in a personal God) from his … Continue reading
Posted in Academe, Art, Culture, Desire, Faith, Gender Balance, history of ideas, life and death struggle, Literature, Masculinity, nineteenth-century, Philosophy, Political, Psychology, Social Conventions, The Examined Life
Tagged Absolute, anthroposophy, élan vital, Britain, C.S. Lewis, conversion, divine, England, Henri Bergson, holistic healing, honor, human desire, Materialism, New Age, occult, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford University, philosophy, prayer, prophetic, reality, sex, Spinoza, SUNY, Surprised By Joy, theism, theosophy, World War I, yoga
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