Tag Archives: playing the victim
Where Are the Ex-Friends Now?
This is a week when I’ve been thinking about old friends who are, as it happens, ex-friends. Maybe it’s a special category of friendship. I’ve devoted a recent column to David, who was a valued philosophical colleague. Together we shared … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art of living, atheism, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, 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, 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, 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
|
Tagged a friend’s ghost, a life without distinction, a life without ideality, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, avoiding victimization, betraying expectations, betraying one’s heritage, beyond charisma, beyond charm, coming to manhood, communist party line, debts of honor, disappointing expectations, endangering one’s son, ex-friends, exploiting a friendship, fake spirituality, first love, forgetting one’s debts, funeral notice, gentleman who cheats at cards, honor and dishonor, idealizing and manipulation, intellectual trust, intellectual trustworthiness, life as a true story, mediocre philosophizing, message from beyond, misusing one’s charm, obit notices, old friends, painful self-repair, philosopher’s obit, philosophical adventures, philosophical colleague, philosophical exploration, philosophical fashions, philosophical ghost, playing the victim, politics of experience, pulling rank, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, regretting nothing, repairing one’s life, saving grace from the eternal feminine, selling one’s birthright, social predation, spoiling a life, spoiling one’s story, stern ghost, the eternal feminine, the eternal feminine leads us above, the Nothing nothings, thought experiment, timeline traduced, trading honor for security, trading integrity for security, unfettered thinking, uninspired paintings, utopian illusions, wasting one’s talent, women as victims, women idealized
|
Leave a comment
Philosophers’ Lives: As Told and Untold
Recently, I’ve been going through back issues of Proceedings and Addresses, the official publication of the American Philosophical Association. A given issue will contain programs and announcements for the current meetings, and Memorial Minutes, which of course means obituaries for … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, 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, journalism, 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, Nihilism, novels, ontology, oppression, 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, 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, theology, time, Truth, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged a truthful academic, a truthful man, a truthful philosopher, academic blacklisting, academic blackmail, academic books, academic mean girls, academic obituary, academic power disparities, academic power play, academic power politics, academic reprisal, academic seduction, academic sore loser, academic sucker-punch, American Philosophical Association, APA Memorial Minutes, believing something true, brutal honesty, career busting, Colin McGinn, Colin McGinn scandal, collegial appreciations, costly candor, cover-up stories, creatures of fashion, Darwinian psychology, diplomatic obituaries, dressing for the women’s movement, exaggerated eulogies, Freudian experiments, Freudian psychology, going along to get along, graceful comeback, How would you look in a novel?, Intellectual fashion, introducing women’s liberation, lives of philosophers, male vulnerability, materialist psychology, not going to get along, over-educated rationalizations, philosopher Edward Erwin, philosophers cover stories, philosophers who lie, philosophy as pursuit of truth, philosophy at Stony Brook, philosophy at University of Miami, playing the victim, professionally costly honesty, public feminist, reductionist psychology, refusing to lie, Regime of Denunciation, schadenfreude, sexual harassment and murky motives, songs for the women’s movement, SUNY at Stony Brook, tenure fight, the genius project, the official story, the unofficial story, thinking away responsibility, totalitarian tactics, truth-telling cousin, victim power, victim’s power games, war of the sexes
|
2 Comments
Neither Athens nor Jerusalem
In 1867 Matthew Arnold wrote a book titled Culture and Anarchy in which he held up two saving springs of our civilization: Athens – from which we get the inner urge to “see things as they really are” – and … 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, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, 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
|
Tagged a legacy of teaching, academic breakdown and civilization, an unreal city in the future, Athens and Jerusalem, Brooklyn College, college students, decoding real life, desecrating the sacred, enabling rioting students, enlightenment ideals, functional power vs brute power, groves of academe, joining the gang, Leo Bronstein, Leo Strauss, libertine Gnosticism, losing the academy, Matthew Arnold, Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, mob action, mobs on campus, philosophic assumptions, philosophic foundations of behavior, philosophy and personal decisions, philosophy and real life decisions, philosophy and the human experience, philosophy as guide for living, philosophy as shaping culture, philosophy as shaping culture throughout history, philosophy shaping the soul, philosophy’s civilizing mission, playing the victim, profaning the academy, profaning the altars, pulling down Athens and Jerusalem, social conformism, Socratic dialogue, Stanley Rosen, student teacher appreciation, students who don’t study, teachers who don’t teach, teaching art history, teaching as soul-shaping, teaching civilization’s power and presence, teaching philosophy, teaching philosophy as a transmission of a civilizational power and presence, teaching vs indoctrinating, The Academy, the House that Plato Built, the importance of philosophy in history and civilization, the Jewish essence, the unexamined life is not worth living, threatening Jewish students, Western Civilization, Western Civilization’s sources, winning hearts and minds, you are what you think
|
1 Comment
Is the Just Woman Happier?
Is the Just Woman Happier? Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, 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, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, 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, 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
|
Tagged a life worth living, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "God and the Care for One's Story", academic combat, academic due process, academic reinstatement, accurate empathy, Aristotle's Metaphysics, asking God for help, broken relationships, carcinoginic social circumstance, classroom discipline, collegial friend, collegial normality, consequential choice, consequential vote, covert aggressor, denying the Rashomon Effect, dimming one's moral lights, disloyalty in friendship, empathy, empathy experiment, empathy with enemies, everyday heroism, evil and personal control, evil sees its opportunity, existential questions, faculty union, false compassion, false friends, fight to the finish, forced option, fork in life's road, friend's betrayal, friends who believe defamation, God's silence, good friends in hard times, gossip as a weapon, human desire to know, inner life of former friends, inner life of friends, irreparable breakup, Is the Just man happier? Is the Just woman happier?, job fight, knowing other minds, knowing other minds as parent, knowing other minds as teacher, knowing the mind of another, liberal guilt, life and death struggle, lost friendships, mind body connection, misperceiving the true colors, moral choice, moral cowardice, moral integrity, moral manipulation, moving on to survive, obligation to survive, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, Philosophy Department, physical and mental health, Plato's Republic, playing the victim, politics of experience, power of the weak, prayer and meditation, praying for help, pretended misunderstanding, psyching out one's enemies, repaired social wounds, resisting a controller, resisting a manipulator, resisting an aggressor, resisting betrayal, resisting defamation, risking one’s job, seeing the true colors, social cowardice, social dominance, social survival, solitary struggle, solitude as moral struggle's precondition, standing by a friend, staying in the fight, survival instinct, testing situations, the other minds problem, the Rashomon excuse, the right way vs the easy way, the road less traveled, thought experiment, thought-waves of the mind, unhealthy circumstances, unrepaired wounds, veiled perception, victimhood misused, voting one's conscience, words as a weapon
|
Leave a comment
Women’s Knockout Fights
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 Elevator Pitch”
“The Elevator Pitch” We fly to San Antonio this Thursday, to attend meetings of the American Academy of Religion. Jerry will chair two panels and meet colleagues in connection with the project he founded: Theology Without Walls. Why am I … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged AAR, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", acquisitions editors, advertising, American Academy of Religion, aporia, Augustine’s Confessions, author, autobiography, belief system, book exhibits, Christian conversion, Christian theology, Clinton's loss, communication, concubine, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, contemporary world views, creativity, creativity v marketing, crying uncontrollably, Dallas Airport, dialectic, Donald Trump, elevator pitch, epiphanies, first autobiography, first person narrative, getting heard, getting noticed, getting published, getting your heart broke, great saint, heartbreak, Hillary Clinton, holding your own, influence, intellectual space, life as story, live and learn, lived philosophy, lived story, living one's beliefs, looking like a winner, losers, marketing, mother nature, networking, opinion shapers, pagan diversions, pagan views, Pauline theology, philosophical experience, philosophical journey, playing the victim, public attention, publishing, put on a happy face, recieved hypotheses, resisting victimization, Roman circus, sales techniques, selling yourself, spiritual journey, St. Augustine, storied lives, tests of experience, the book business, Theology Without Walls, Trump's victory, TWW, vulnerability, well of tears, winners, winners and losers, winning the presidency, woman's spiritual journey, woman's spirituality, women fighting back, women holding their own, writer
|
2 Comments
