Tag Archives: identity politics
My Identity Problem
The title of this column tilts and teeters into a complaint so hackneyed – so yesterday – that even alluding to it might put one at social risk among the smart set. This although just a few years back, mores … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, 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, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, 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, 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, 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 Abigail L Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, academia and October 7 2023, academic cheering for atrocities, academic culture, anti-semitism returns, black philosophy students, black students, campus culture, conservative habits of belonging, contemporary culture, cultural trends, fashionable identity, fashions in victims, group belonging, group identification, group of one member, Holocaust memory, identity, identity and belonging, identity crisis, identity politics, identity problem, individual vs collective identity, Israeli family, Israelis and identity, Jewish history, Jewish identity, Jewish survival, liberal habits of denial, majority of one, male privilege, mob psychology, moral identity, Nazi racial classifications, persecution and privilege, persecution and social status, persona and identity, philosophy of identity, playing the victim card, pulling moral rank, self and society, social identity, social norms, socially accepted identity, socially unacceptable identity, victims du jour, white male heterosexual identity, white privilege
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Back by Popular Demand: It’s Hegel!
Back by Popular Demand: It’s Hegel! Hegel is one of the philosophers from whom I’ve learned a lot. Though he was born and died in nineteenth-century Germany, he’s still timely. In the Anglo-American sphere, the question I get is, “What’s … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, 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, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, 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, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 19th-century philosophy Anglo-American philosophy, academic scandal, acquiring wisdom, administrative regulations, belief and identity, blacklisting, brute force, cancel culture, caste system, civil society, collegial friendship, contextual knowing, Continental philosophy, Corneille, cultural knowing, damn-fool scrape, deathbed regrets, decoding fiction, democratic infrastructure, democratic institutions, denouncers denounced, destroyed status, dishonoring, dominant group, Empiricists, enemy of the people, false beliefs, federal system, fictional characters, freedom unalloyed, French Revolution, G.W.F. Hegel, German philosophy, getting smart, guillotine, he said she said, historical forces, homo sapiens sapiens, human fairness, human governance, human unfairness, identity politics, inability to lie, inherited privilege, instant freedom, involuntary, Jane Austen, life achievement, life of ideas, lost standing, Marxism, Marxist materialism, mass executions, material cause, means of production, mediating institutions, metaphysical idealism, moral high ground, mutual mercy, mutual understanding, natural disasters, novelistic, Oppression, personal identity, philosophic friendship, plagues in history, political bullies, political center, political denunciation, political dissenter, political mobbing, popular demand, power dynamic, power relations, power to the people, professional standing, protective truths, pulling moral rank, raw data, Reign of Terror, revolutionary aims, sense perception, Shakespeare, shared fantasy, social standing, student/professor eros, the general will, tricoteuses, true beliefs, unconscious power, victim power, voluntary, voluntary associations, who seduced whom, world views
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Loyalty to Origins
Loyalty to Origins* What you and I would like to achieve in our identity politics is purity. We don’t want to be double — or a double-crosser. We want to be single-minded. As Leo Bronstein, whom I’ve cited before in … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, the examined life, the problematic of men, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Anne Fadiman’s The Wine Lover’s Daughter, Barbara Fisher, battle of words, British acculturation, character challenge, Clifton Fadiman, college friendships, Columbia archives, Columbia class of 1925, establishing authenticity, friends and rivals, getting each other’s number, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s “Inventions”, identity ambivalence, identity loyalty, identity politics, identity purity, ignoble victories, Jewish authenticity, Jewish intensity, Jewish Theological Seminary, John Vaughan, Leo Bronstein, Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling/Henry Rosenthal correspondence, literary powers, living as a Jew, loyalty to origins, male friendship, male rivalry, male status, non-Jewish surnames, obsessively Jewish, one-upmanship, passionately Jewish, Sidney Hook, spiritual adventure, stylish imperturbability, talented classmates, the false and the genuine, The Menorah Journal, the name Trilling, Trilling/Rosenthal friendship, unflappable snobbishness, verbal sparring, who is more authentic, writers fictionalizing writers, writers on writers, youthful genius
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The Worse, the Better?
The Worse, the Better? In the 1930’s a political strategy known as “worsism” was in fashion. Worsists believed that the worse, the better! This meant, the more desperate people became, the closer we got to the revolution that would bring … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, martyrdom, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, suffering, terror, terrorism, 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
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Tagged above the battle, all hat and no cattle, American Indian fighting, anti-Israelism, anti-semitism, Arapahoe, Arendt’s Forgiveness, bad guys lose, biological racism, bringing the revolution, curing bigotry, curing delusions, delegitimizing Israel, digging in deeper, dominance and subordination, evening the moral score, evening the score, false memory, German philosopher, good guys and bad guys, good guys win, group dynamics, groupthink, Hannah Arendt, happy-ever-after, Heidegger’s apologists, Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, Heidegger’s defenders, high gear denial, identity politics, inciting agressors, incremental change, inherited guilt, intention as power, Jewish sensibility, Kasim Hafeez, Martin Heidegger, meliorism, metaphysical racism, mob rule, moral rank, moral scorekeeping, natural riding, Nazi commitments, new heaven and earth, old-time Westerns, Palestinian, past life memory, political philosopher, political strategy, politicizing the campus, politics of experience, pre-revolutionary conditions, pulling moral rank, reversing social syndrome, reversing syndromes, revolutionary hopes, riding into the sunset, run-up to the Holocaust, shadow boxing, Shoah, social climate, social comedy, social persona, social pose, social syndromes, the 1930’s, the Indians win, The Nazi Party, the oldest hatred, the unthinkable becomes thinkable, the worse the better, theological demonization, tough guys, tragic sense, virtue signaling, worsism
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Red Letter Day
Red Letter Day In recent columns, I’ve alluded to reversals of fortune, a succession of them, coming in the form of rejection letters. Two came from senior editors who turned down an article, controversial and breaking new ground, which was … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, literature, love, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", anti-humanism, anti-semitism, at home in the world, Augustine’s Confessions, big shots, book people, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, controversial essays, exhausting one's options, experiment with truth, feeling lighter, gender asymmetry, identity politics, illustrated books, influencers, influential people, internalizing rejection, literary agent, literary prizes, lungeing the horse, magazine editors, Marxism, men and women, millenarianism, natural riding, newsworthy article, Nobel Prize, novelistic non-fiction, opinion shapers, popularity, race relations, Red letter day, rejection letters, respect from horses, respecting horses, reversals of fortune, Rousseau’s Confessions, self-publishing advantages, self-worth, sexual asymmetry, sexual equality, shedding light, stunned silence, trade press, true story, university press, unpublished book, weight of the world, words and images, world views, worldly considerations
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