Tag Archives: politics of experience
Does Life Have Meaning?
Books by Viktor Frankl had been lying around the house for years, but I had never opened one. Their titles in translation (e.g. Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything) – seeming to capture banality pure, unalloyed and fully platitudinous … 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, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, 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, 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 academic firing, academic job fight, academic life and conscience, academic politics, Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism, character test, collective unconscious, concentration camp dehumanization, conscience, conscience and moral law, conscience and personal decision, conscience in concrete situations, conscience in specific situations, consequential choice, consequential question, cultural contradictions, emotional drives, Frankl vs collective unconscious, Frankl's Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning, Frankl's Yes to Life: In Spite of Everything, Freud vs Frankl, Freudian therapy, Freudian therapy vs logotherapy, Freudian vs Jungian therapy, Hannah Arendt, Hannah Arendt’s political advice, harmless dodging vs dishonest dodging, harmless dodging vs harmful dodging, inner heights vs despair, instinctual drives, Kant and conscience, Kant categorical imperative, Kant universal law, life at the limits, life contradictions, limits of psychic mapping, living one’s conscience, logotherapy, mapping the psyche, moment of truth, moral challenges, moral courage, moral courage deprecated, Moral crisis, moral landscape, moral loneliness, moral test, one’s personal calling, personal despair, philosophy department politics, philosophy departments, platitudinous sayings, political pressure, politics of academic tenure, politics of experience, pre-feminism, question with life consequences, recognizing a defining choice, recognizing a moral crossroads, remaining oneself, shallow advice, social pressure, spiritual challenges, Ten Commandments, Ten Commandments and personal choice, Ten Commandments and unique situations, test of honor, the price of integrity, the price of remaining oneself, trial by fire, truth-telling and academic philosophy, untenured faculty, utilitarian greatest happiness, utilitarian maximizing happiness, utilitarianism, Viktor Frankl, Viktor Frankl’s death camp experience, well-intentioned therapist, women as second sex, women’s dependency
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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
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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
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Ave Atque Vale (Hail and Farewell)
The other day I scanned the internet for news of ex-friends who’d stayed significant in my memory. “We quarreled,” as French philosopher Sartre said about one former friend, the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, “a quarrel does not matter. It’s just one more … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, 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 academic colleagues, academic dramas of character, academic politics, aristocratic decadence, aristocrats and plebeians, Augustine's boyhood theft, ave atque vale, bad debt, belated farewell, code of conduct, code of honor, concepts of logic, creative logician, decadence, dramas of character, drunk driving, ex-friend, fateful choice, filicide, former friends, French philosophers, friends beyond death, friends beyond the grave, friends’ lives, hail and farewell, honorable losers, labyrinth of man-woman relations, legal redress, loan between friends, logic tutor, love of wisdom, man/woman labyrinth, Merleau-Ponty, moral candor, Moral crisis, moral discernment, moral price of job security, moral price of tenure, moral risk, moral temptation, outward repentance, paying one’s dues, philosopher ex-friend, philosophical colleagues, philosophical conversation, philosophical curiosity, playing with good and evil, politics of experience, pompous philosopher, pompous wordiness, potential dishonesty, prep school and manhood, quarrels of friends, reformed character, reformed church-goer, reformed rake, remembered friends, risking one’s honor, Sartre, selling out, selling your vote, sense of honor, significant friends, symbols and words, toying with wrongdoing, trained emotional suppression, training to suppress feelings, unrepaid loan, upright citizen
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In Quest of Lost Friendship
The other night I had a dream in which I met a woman whom I used to regard as a friend. But she’d become an ex-friend – in the following fashion. An ill-wisher who’d known me from my earliest days … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, appreciation, art of living, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, 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, institutional power, 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, Nihilism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic friendships, academic politics, ad hominem attacks, afterlife reunion, afterlife visitation, ambiguity as disguise, believing a damaging lie, broken friendship repaired, candid truthfulness, collegial friends, collegial sense of trust, conversations with a deceased friend, correcting slander, credulous colleagues, credulous family friends, damaging accusations, damaging allegations, damaging gossip, damaging rumors, destroying a reputation, distinctiveness of philosophy, dream reunion, effective defamation, effective slander, evasion of truth, ex-friends, facing the big questions, false accusations, false and damaging accusations, former friends, friends and colleagues, ill-wisher, inauthenticity, intellectual trust, inversions of trust, inversions of truth, legal harm, life pretense vs undisguised afterlife, loss of trust, lost friendship, love of wisdom, meaningful dreams, naïveté as a disguise, narcissism, personal honor, personal honor misrepresented, personality disorders, philosophic friendship, philosophy profaned, politics of experience, pretended ambivalence, pretended appreciation, pretended childishness, pretended confusion, pretended harmlessness, pretended naïveté, pretended non-judgmentalism, professional damage, professional harm, professional patron, professional power, professional protégé, professional protection, protected intellectual space, protecting philosophy, protecting the search for wisdom, Rashomon, repaired friendship, repairing friendship, repentance and forgiveness, restored sincerity, romantic eligibility, search for wisdom, setting the record straight, significant dreams, social demotion, social down-ranking, social terrorism, sowing distrust, spiteful rumors, spoiling friendship, the philosophic life, the philosophic quest, the Rashomon alibi, trust in colleagues, trust in professional life, truth unrecognized, truthfulness vs defamatory lies, trying to undo slander, undermining friendship, undisguised in the afterlife, visitation from the afterlife, wasted words, why philosophy is special, women friends, work friends
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Death and the Doctors
Readers of this column may recall that I had a near-death experience fairly recently. Not the good kind, where you meet all the dear ones who’ve gone before you up the golden stairway. Rather, the kind where you get to … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, 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, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, 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, 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 admitting responsibility, Aristotle on taking responsibility, betrayal of trust, betraying one's calling, betraying one's oath, Cain and Abel, consequential medical mistakes, coordinating instructions between medical institutions, coordinating medical instructions, coordinating medical prescriptions, criminal indifference to patients, culpable carelessness, doctor failure, doctor-caused fatalities, doctor-caused injuries, dodging responsibility, evading responsibility, fatal indifference, go along to get along, healing arts, Hippocratic Oath betrayed, iatrogenic emergency, iatrogenic fatality, iatrogenic near-fatality, in-house politics, institutional politics, involuntary accidents, irresponsible doctors, judging intentions, lawyers representing hospitals, lawyers who represent doctors, malpractice, medical academies, medical accidents, medical fratricide, medical malpractice, medical manslaughter, medical murder, medical politics, my brother's keeper, politics of experience, practiced evasions, professional irresponsibility, profit motive, taking advantage of the vulnerable, taking advantage of weakness, unchivalrous, unromantic, voluntary accidents, was it intentional
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The Silver Plus One
During the days following our return from California, we had to postpone the celebration of our 26th wedding anniversary so the “silver” anniversary plus one – in order first to face the leaning tower of chores and summonses that awaited … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, 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, 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, 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
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Tagged AAR, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal’s philosophical articles, academic combat, academic politics, action vs theory, against all odds, American Academy of Religion, analytic philosopher, anniversary celebration, betting on love, book with illustrations, Borough of Brooklyn, Brooklyn College, calculating advantages, City University of New York, college administration, college administration and curriculum, core curriculum, courtship and analytic philosophy, dating and analytic philosophy, defending academic standards, defending civilization, defending education, defending higher education, falling in love, fatal risks, fighting the good fight, finding the right marriage partner, finding the right partner, foolhardy, foolish risks, God makes marriages, God: An Autobiography As Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin, history department, holy ground, impolitic risks, intelligent risk, Jerry L. Martin’s Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, joining two lives, knowing when to act, knowing when to theorize, last stand, letting go of the result, life review, lifelong projects, looking for Miss Right, looking for Mr. Right, looking for the right partner, love and marriage, marital commitment, marital illusions, marital politics, marriage for compatibility, matters of the heart, meeting friends in cafes, miscalculations, narrowmindedness, not looking for Miss Right, not looking for Mr. Right, novelistic encounters, Pascal's wager, personal history, personal virtues, philosophic evaluation of religious claims, philosophical articles, philosophy and religious claims, Philosophy Department, philosophy of religion, political theory vs action, politics of experience, putting personal life on hold, real life means taking risks, received wisdom, reflection on past choices, religious claims and counterclaims, religious experience, risks of love, romantic illusions, Romantic Love, romantic love as absolute, romantic mistakes, romantic wager, Signature Project, silver wedding anniversary, strategizing, striking while the iron is hot, Theology Without Walls, theoretical vs practical level, true love, true love and marriage, TWW, unexpected religious experience, unprecedented religious experience, unusual religious experience, wedding anniversary, working class restaurant
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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
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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
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Atonement and Forgiveness
This week, when Jewish time has been flowing between the New Year 5781 and the sacrosanct Day of Atonement, I have asked a couple of people I know for forgiveness. It’s the time of year when this is required, for … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, chivalry, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged accepting the apology, adult life choices, anticipating trouble, apologizing, asking forgiveness, asking pardon, Barnard College, college friendships, conditions for forgiveness, conditions for prayer, courtship signs of trouble, crocodile tears, Day of Atonement, Days of Awe, divine calling halt, divine demand, divine exclusion and inclusion, Divine intervention, divine rebuke, divine refusal, divine roadblock, ex-friends, expressing anger, fake contrition, feeling obligated, forgiving injuries, friendships after college, generosity and friendship, generosity in lost friendship, generous forgiveness, genuine contrition, getting presentable to God, getting right with God, giving forgiveness, giving pardon, God saying stop, God’s absence, God’s presence, God’s withdrawal, holy day, holy week, hurt feelings, insensitivity, Jewish time, knowing what one did wrong, losing or risking status, lost friendship, lost youth, loving reactions, making peace, marital negotiations, moral competition, moral confrontation, moral hindsight, moral self-understanding, moral stakes, moral struggle, not invited to the party, novelistic plotline, overcoming resentment, points for trying, politics of experience, psychic wounds, psychoanalytic lore, psychoanalytic understanding, red flags in marriage, reflective repentance, relationship red flags, repairing past wrongs, repairing the world, repairing wrong, resolving life complexities, retrospective moral insight, retrospective moral self-insight, retrospective regrets, retrospective self-judgment, retrospective self-understanding, Rosh Hashanah, self knowledge and repentance, self-definition and premature self-definition, sending God a letter, sense of duty, sense of urgency, Shekinah, snubbed socially, social status, spiritual cleansing, the beautiful people, transcending resentment, understanding one’s misdeed, understanding relationships, unrepaired injuries, victim and victimizer, wounding another, Yom Kippur, youthful injuries, youthful quarrels
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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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