Tag Archives: opposites attract

Women’s Knockout Fights

Posted on March 12, 2024 by Abigail

In Les Liaisons dangereuses, the 18th-century French novel of cynicism by Choderlos De Laclos, the seductress goads her partner in erotic predation to break off his affair with the lady whose virtue had been surrendered to him. His break is … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, 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, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, law, 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, mysticism, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 18th century novels, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic friendships, academic women, battle for public opinion, believing evil gossip, betrayed friendships, beyond good and evil, bottom rung of the social ladder, breaking implicit social rules, charisma and breaking social rules, competition between women, dance of seduction, defamation seen as power, defamatory gossip, defenseless femininity, disarmed women, enjoying friend’s differences, enjoying one another's differences, erotic competition, ethical glory, ethical judgment, feminine prestige, fight for prestige, French novels, friendships with colleagues, gossip as power play, hidden intrigue, intelligent malice, Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos De Laclos, Les Tricoteuses, life on a moral foundation, living one’s philosophy, losing trust, malicious conspiracy, manipulation of victim status, metaphysical relations, metaphysics, moral discernment, novels of cynicism, opposites attract, painful reminiscence, parental circle of friends, parental death and power changes, people of moral authority, philosophical friendship, playing the victim, power dynamic and parental death, prestige and women, pretended victimhood, pretending to be the victim, seducer, seductive conspiracy, seductress, slander is always believed, social aggressiveness, social conspiracy, social disagreements over underlying values, social fall, social ladder, social rule breaking for personal advantage, social shunning, social trust, social warfare, the cat’s away the mice will play, the knitting women, the politics of gossip, Viking, Viking ancestry, when friendship ends, woman friend, woman who knows where to strike at another woman, women and social power, women as subtle, women as subtle fighters, women know women’s vulnerability, women's rivalry, women’s knockout fights | Leave a comment

The Moral Markers

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Abigail

The Moral Markers From time to time, I pause to picture how the recent phases of my life would look to me if there were no God in the pictures. It’s a sort of thought experiment. Philosophers are given to … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged abstraction, absurdity, agnostic, Atheism, atheistic world view, Authenticity, beyond good and evil, brute forces, complementarity in friendship, concrete experience, consequential decisions, constructive orientation, controlled experiment, cynicism, deleted datum, erasing evidence, experimental confirmation, experimental disconfirmation, false consciousness, fashionable abstractions, fashionable views, feigned belief, fork in the road, Friedrich Nietzsche, integrating experience, limited palette, loyalty v betrayal, Martin Heidegger, meaning of life, meaningful life, models of the ultimate, modern life, Modernity, moral choice, moral fork in the road, moral indices, moral markers, moral neutrality, no rhyme or reason, novelistic plotline, objectivity claims, opinion shapers, opposites attract, pointlessness, power relations, projection, random energy, reality as absurd, relationship dynamics, Social Darwinism, social pretense, survival of the fittest, Swedish descent, the Modern world, the Post-Modern world, theism, theistic world view, thought experiment, Valhalla, Vedantist, Viking worldview | Leave a comment

Paying Nostalgia Forward

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Abigail

Paying Nostalgia Forward Jerry and I celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary last Friday. We watched the inauguration (moving right along here), and then drove through the rain to a Hindu temple in New Jersey that the wonderful lady who runs … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, health, heroes, hidden God, history, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good marriage, being a good couple, being understood, childhood, courage, courtship, cutting the umbilical cord, cyclical time, defining desires, desire, Eastern art, emotional health, falling in love, filial piety, first love, French restaurant, growing up, Hindu temple, homesickness, Indian aesthetic, integrality, lasting desires, life frontiers, life story, linear time, longing, Madison Avenue, Manhattan apartment, marble sculpture, Marriage, maturity, new projects, New York City, New Yorkers, non-historical v historical, nostalgia, opposites attract, overcoming tyrannies, parents, Paris, partnership, personal identity, private space, professional identity, publishing articles, recovery, refusing to grow up, renewal, repairing wounds, repression, Romantic Love, romantic risks, sculpture in high relief, secrets of the future, secrets of the past, seeing significance, self-recovery, self-renewal, self-repair, shared space, suitable life partner, Texans, Texas panhandle, the big picture, the future, the large scheme, the past, the present, true love, uncured wounds, unworthy suitors, Washington DC, wedding anniversary, Western art, wholeness | 2 Comments

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