Tag Archives: normality
“Happiness”
“Happiness” “Call no man happy until he is dead,” said Solon, the ancient sage, to Croesus. Croesus was “rich as Croesus,” as the saying goes, and king of Lydia. So he was nonplussed at Solon’s reluctance to admit that he … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, autonomy, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, idolatry, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, philosophy, poetry, political, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, twentieth century, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Quiz Show", "the pursuit of happiness", academic fight, acupuncture, Advice, Ancient Lydia, Ancient Persia, anguish, Aristotle, bird baths, bird watching, birds, birthright, Brooklyn College, Carl Mangione PT, celebrity, Charles Van Doren, cheating, college curriculum, Columbia class of 1925, confession, Croesus, Cyrus the Great, Declaration of Independence, despair, divine gifts, family honor, grace, gratitude, hairdresser, handicap, Henry M. Rosenthal, human rights, identity, ingratitude, insincerity, Jennifer Kelly hairstylist, Kinetic syndrome, Mark Van Doren, memoir, misery, mortification, Mr. Right, national scandal, Nicomachean Ethics, non-advice, normality, physical therapy, problem of evil, reputation, resignation, Richard Firnhaber acupuncture, right to happiness, sell out, selling one's birthright, sincerity, Solon, suffering, the emotional norm, The History of Herodotus, the human norm, the mental norm, the physical norm, the psychical norm, TV idol, TV Quiz Show, unhappiness, walking handicap, wickedness
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“Cynicism”
“Cynicism” The other day a young woman I know, an artist and philosopher who picks up a dollar working at the cafe I frequent, said to me that some of the people she meets act so deplorably that she’s getting … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "don't sweat the small stuff", absurdity, anomie, anxiety, apathy, arbitrariness, bad arguments, bad people, civilizational purposes, creativity, crisis, cynicism, disappointment, displacement, ennui, expectations, fairy tales, Faith, fear, Femininity, globalism, hatred, heartbreak, humankind, identity, insulation, introspection, meaninglessness, memoir, misanthropy, misology, motivation, normality, official story, personal narrative, philosophic crisis, projection, pseudo-profundities, purpose, reason, repression, self review, sensitivity, social construction, Socrates, stipulative meanings, tenderness, The Phaedo, The Princess and the Pea, tough-minded, toughness, truth, women's liberation, youth
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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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Dream Lessons
“Dream Lessons” When I was a small child, I had a recurrent nightmare in which someone was attacking me. I needed to scream for help but couldn’t, because no sound came out. I would try and try to scream, but … Continue reading
Posted in culture, evil, fashion, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, ideology, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, memoir, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman
Tagged Achille Lauro, aesthetic values, being silenced, Choreographer: Mark Morris, Composer: John Adams, conformity, decency, demonstrators, Director: Peter Sellars, dream, Edouard Manet, fear, firing squad, group execution, History, human norms, Leon Klinghoffer, Librettist: Alice Goodman, Metropolitan Opera House, nightmare, normality, normative, oddball, official story, opera, ostracism, outlaw chic, personal narrative, protestors, social pressure, speechlessness, suppression, terrorists, The Death of Klinghoffer, The New York Times, The New Yorker, threat, trangressive, understanding, voice
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