Tag Archives: projection

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

Battered, Bruised … but Unbowed?

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Abigail

Battered, Bruised … but Unbowed? Last week, reflecting on my deep reluctance to do anything that would promote my newly-released book, A Good Look at Evil, second edition, I determined that the real barrier isn’t that I believe I have … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A. G. Eric Scheniderman, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", abusive men, abusive relationships, Amazon’s “Look Inside”, amazon’s books, assertiveness training, bad guys winning, being outnumbered, betrayal of trust, Bible study, Bill Clinton, book endorsements, book promotion, chariots of fire, cheering the sick, combatting adversity, compliance with abuser, coping with setbacks, decent manhood, defending one’s work, demands of nature, distance healing, electronic preview, embezzler, evil diagnosed, evil portrayed, female receptivity, female vulnerability, feminine pliancy, feminine sensitivity, femininity as social construct, feminism’s counsels, fictional stories, getting evil’s number, giving up the fight, hype, II Kings 6:15-17, internalizing real problems, jacket blurbs, Juanita Broaddrick, king of Syria, life as story, lifemanship, mirror of evil, modern cynicism, modernity’s worldview, mug shot, nameless adversary, narrative view, nature v nurture, neuropathy treatment, nineteenth century novels, nonfiction narrative, not giving up, Pentateuch, persistence as key, persistence as victory, prayer guidance, prayer-based healing, predator in disguise, projection, protecting one’s book, publication date, puffery, rabbinic duties, satanic attack, sexual predator, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, sting operation, stress fracture, string of accidents, taking oneself seriously, the sleeping dogs, thwarted story, Torah Study, true stories, unexpected guest, Victorian novels, woman's nature, women’s disguising armor, yin and yang | 2 Comments

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’?”

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Abigail

“Evil? What Do You Mean, ‘Evil’”? Back when the first edition of A Good Look at Evil came out, I told a Maine neighbor that I had written a book about evil. He was a carpenter who had done a … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, 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, 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, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged backhanded compliment, biological determinism, class privilege, common sense, concealed enmity, controlling, copping out, cruelty, cultural determinism, cultural relativism, defying public opinion, denial, determinism, dissent from consensus, dodging responsibility, Downeast, encounters with evil, environmental determinism, escapism, evil as objective, evil as subjective, experimental psychology, expertise, fact/value split, fearing the worst, finding excuses, following the crowd, free will, guilt trip, hard-heartedness, history of evil, hitting the mark, holier-than-thou, hoping for the best, illusion of free will, illusion of freedom, indoctrination, insensitive, interested party, involuntary reactions, judgementalism, judgments of fact, judgments of value, Maine neighbors, manipulation, meanness, missing the mark, money privilege, moral absolutism, moral common sense, moral danger, moral evasion, moral evidence, moral interest, moral intuition, moral manipulation, moral relativism, moral superiority, moralistic language, morality moralism, narrowness, non-conformism, non-judgmentalism, one of the herd, out of control, out of touch, outlier, over-privileged, people as herd animals, personal condemnations, personal insults, projection, rationalizations, relativism, rigid, self-interest, self-righteousness, skepticism, social privilege, subjective relativism, the loner, tongue-lashing, tyranny's recruits, unconscious motivations, unforgiving | Leave a comment

“How I Got to be a Person Whose Whole Life is Lived in Cliches”

Posted on March 27, 2018 by Abigail

“How I Got to be a Person Whose Whole Life is Lived in Cliches” The Rabbis inveigh against gossip. Since a lost reputation is almost as hard to recover as a lost life, they deem it equivalent to a capital … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the evil tongue", a great lady, academic firing, academic hearings, academic reinstatement, ancient customs, Aristotle's Laws of Thought, Aristotle's Metaphysics, Barbara Seaman's Free and Female, Barbara Seaman's The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill, betting on horse race, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, cocktails in the clouds, covering womens' hair, editor at Dutton, Famous feminists, feminist allies, feminist ambiguities, feminist data, feminist heaven, feminist politics, founding mothers, glittering birthday party, gossip, Hans Jonas's Memoirs, horse racing, Identity and Excluded Middle, influential figures, Jewish high holidays, late guest, Law of Contradiction, leading feminist, Leo Strauss, life in cliches, literary gossip, lost reputation, Loyalty, malicious tale bearing, moral ambiguities, New York restaurants, novelistic lives, novels and life, opinion shapers, orthodox Bar Mitzvah, orthodox hair covering, Peggy Brooks, philosophical gossip, philosophical journals, philosophy and religion, projection, public intellectuals, rabbinical prohibitions, rabbinical rulings, rabbis, second wave feminism, segregation of women, standing by friends, stereotyping, story-like lives, supporting the cause, supportive husband, synagogue, The Monist, the narrative view, Top of the Sixes, unexamined assumptions, welcoming the stranger, women in the balcony | Leave a comment

My Worst Birthday

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Abigail

My Worst Birthday If we hadn’t begun it the evening before, it would have been even more disastrous. But I was scheduled to have an author photo taken by a professional photographer who does those things, and my dread of … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", acts of God, Authenticity, author photo, authorial assignments, bad attitudes, birthday, birthday dinner, caring friends, childhood best friends, compatibility, compatible marriage, country gospel, disciplined callings, disciplined lives, earned miracles, emergency cancellations, expectations, finding the silver lining, French restaurant, frightening consequences, frustrating consequences, frustration, genuine friendships, good attitudes, gospel hymn, happy birthday, happy marriage, health imperative, imagined expectations, inauthenticity, inclement weather, inspiration, Just A Closer Walk With Thee, knee injury, light at the end of the tunnel, living for distraction, looking on the sunny side, lost footing, lowered expectations, Marriage, miracles, motels booked, motels dark, muffled inspiration, neuropathy, neuropathy treatments, Nor'easter, not settling for less, noticing the helps, photo phobia, power outage, prayer guidance, prestige and status, professional photographer, projected plans, projecting worst case, projection, real friends, romantic delusions, romantic hopes, Romantic Love, search for shelter, settling for less, significant other, sincerity, sincerity overrated, slough of despond, speaking enagements, staying in the present, the camera doesn't lie, the luck of the draw, the marriage lottery, the writing rationale, time-servers, true love, trust, trusting the helps, trying to pray, unaffected friendship, unforseen setbacks, variety in friends, wellness imperative, worst birthday, worst case scenario, worthwhile lives | 7 Comments

“Jews on the Brain”

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Abigail

“Jews on the Brain” Over time, I have from time to time lost a friend or two – to many forces and factors – but, among them, sudden and insistent incursions of anti-Jewish feeling. Interestingly, I’ve encountered relatively little anti-semitism … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Judaizing", 18th century reason, anthropology, anti-Jewish, anti-semitism, authority, biblical lessons, bigoted epithets, bigotry, chairs of Hebrew, Christian culture, Christian polemic, Christianity and Islam, Church Fathers, counter-culture, covenant, Culture, David Nirenberg's Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, divine/human partnership, dominance, Enlightenment, epithets, filial piety, fully human life, generic human task, Gnosticism, God's pilot project, group identity, groupthink, hadiths, happy endings, Hebrew Scripture, human nature, Islamic culture, Jewish influence, Jews and Gentiles, Jews on the Brain, lending at interest, Living in sacred history, medieval kings, metaphysical unreality, modern economy, new revelation, normality, normalizing life, Old Testament, Patristic writers, personal identity, philosophes, political stratagems, political theology, pre-judgment, prejudice, profane history, projection, Protestant Reformation, prototypical sacred history, reading the Bible, real life, reason, religion of Jesus, repression, reverence for parents, reverence for teachers, rigid legalism, sacred history, Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, sola scriptura, temptation, ten lost tribes, the historical level, the historical playing field, the normal, the plane of history, the Western tradition, theological dogmas, theology, tribe of Jehudah, ur-language, usury | 2 Comments

Nostalgia and Yearning

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Abigail

Nostalgia and Yearning For most of my life, I’ve lived under a low-hanging cloud of yearning. The Germans call it Sehnsucht. It’s romantic longing for a fog-enshrouded, mystery-enfolded, beckoning future. It’s the kind of longing depicted in the movie, “Wuthering … Continue reading →

Posted in action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romanticism, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged acceptance, aestheticism, aesthetics, alchemy, ancient Egypt, ancient Israel, Anya Seton, Anya's Seton's Green Darkness, art as a cultural marker, beautiful art, being centered, belonging, bodice busters, Carnegie Museum, creativity, curators, curators' fads, daydreams, doomed lovers, Egyptian mummies, Egyptian tombs, Egyptian wall paintings, El Al flight, Emily Brontë, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, equilibrium, estrangement, Fine art, Germany in the 1930s, girlhood, girlhood fancies, Goethe, Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, gothic romance, Hollywood films, Holocaust, home sickness, homecoming, hypnotic regression, idealization, idealized future, idealized past, imagination, Lawrence Olivier, life balance, living in the now, Merle Oberon, Metropolitan Museum, modern Israel, museum goers, Native American art, Nazi period, nostalgia, Old Hollywood films, ordinary life, past life regressions, Peace, place in history, present world, projection, recognition, reincarnation, relics, repetition, retrospection, return, reunion, romantic suicide, Sehnsucht, Shoah, star-crossed lovers, stately homes, Stefan Zweig's "The World of Yesterday", suicide cult, the moors, The Romantic Movement, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, time travel, Tudor times, Turner Classics, typee, world of tomorrow, yearning | Leave a comment

“Cynicism”

Posted on June 18, 2015 by Abigail

“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 | Leave a comment

“Dante’s Lovers”

Posted on March 24, 2015 by Abigail

“Dante’s Lovers” There is a circle of hell, not very far down but definitely under the white line of redemption, where Dante places a certain species of doomed lover. There the enchanted couples pursue each other and, it seems, are … Continue reading →

Posted in alienation, chivalry, courtship, culture, desire, erotic life, evil, faith, femininity, gender balance, guilt and innocence, identity, idolatry, literature, love, male power, memoir, poetry, power, psychology, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, slave, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, Zeitgeist | Tagged "getting religion", "Lydia", "Now Voyager", "Ode on a Grecian Urn", addiction, attraction, Bette Davis, blind devotion, courtship, cynicism, Dante, doomed lovers, Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, fulfillment, hell, hope, idyll, infatuation, John Keats, longing, lust, Merle Oberon, projection, romantic fantasy, sacrificial love, scorned lovers, second circle, seduction, self-deception, tease, unrequited love | Leave a comment

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“Dante’s Lovers”

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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