Tag Archives: purpose in history
World-Historical Lives: Winston Churchill and Hannah Senesh
Today I’ve read to the end of two books, both about lives honed on the cutting edge of history. So what is “history” and what does it mean to live on its edge? Let’s stipulate that history is the tale … 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 abandoning one’s purpose, Abbie’s family and Allied war efforts, action and motive, action and purpose, ambiguity of treason under enemy occupation, ambiguity of treason under pro-nazi regime, Arabs’ rejection of UN vote for partition, bad luck in history, Balfour Weizmann victory in World War I, beliefs changing history, beliefs in history, betrayal in history, betraying one’s story, Bible and history, books as house presents, British mandate in Palestine, brother-sister love, chance in history, Churchill and Allied victory, Churchill and the Jews by Martin Gilbert, Churchill and Weizmann in World War I, Churchill as Lord of the Admiralty, Churchill as wartime leader, Churchill in World War II, Churchill Weizmann and naval victory, Churchill’s liking for Jews, Churchill’s opinion of Jews, Churchill’s resistance to the Nazis, Crash of the Heavens by Douglas Century, cultural change, cultural ideals, cultural transformation, cutting edge of history, David M. Armstrong as friend, David M. Armstrong Australian philosopher, family member and smuggling arms to the Haganah, family members in Jewish Brigade, family members in World War II Jewish Brigade, forgetting one’s purpose, freedom in history, God freedom and chance, Hannah Senesh, Hannah Senesh and British rescue mission, Hannah Senesh and farewell letter, Hannah Senesh and Hungarian antisemitism, Hannah Senesh as heroine in Israel, Hannah Senesh as poet and writer, Hannah Senesh as prisoner, Hannah Senesh in Palestine, Hannah Senesh’s mission, heroes, heroes and heroines, heroines, history’s cutting edge, history’s unpredictability, honor in history, honoring one’s purpose, honoring one’s story, Josef Avidar and bullet factory, last days of Hannah Senesh, life-changing beliefs, life-changing events, luck in history, macro-history, meaning of life, national hero, national heroine, personal history, personal history and macro-history, persons and their stories, prisoner of war, Providence and freedom in history, providence and history, purpose in history, saving allied pilots in World War II, saving Jews in World War II, smuggling arms to the Haganah, story-line of history, summary justice in wartime, the Balfour Declaration, The Jewish Brigade Group, UN 1948 vote for Palestine partition, wartime hero, wartime heroine, why men fight, Winston Churchill, world history, world-historical people
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The Desecration of Desire
What is desire? It’s what gives direction to our lives – on the organic and also conscious levels. If we lack purpose, our animate existence loses the sense that it is going somewhere. The consequences can be life-threatening. In personal … 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, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, 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 children and sex education, coed sex education classes, collective purposes, college and sexual expectations, condemning Wendy Shalit, countering porn addiction, crisis of motivation, crisis of purpose, cultural boundaries, cultural ideals, cultural options, cultural transgression, culture and approved desire, culture and knowable options, culture as organizing desire, culture inverted, culture setting limits, desire and identity, desire and self-direction, desire made pointless, directionlessness, disciplined freedom, fashions in feeling, feminine sensibility blunted, feminine sensibility disregarded, free society and individual purpose, freedom and self-direction, girls and suicide, goal-oriented action, history and cultural change, history and organized desire, history and story, history made meaningless, life purpose, meaningful human history, modesty and feminism, modesty and sex education, modesty and women’s liberation, modesty as a new fashion, modesty as a style, modesty as fashionable, modesty revived, modesty vs repression, modesty vs sexual hangups, motivation in culture, national ideals, normal desire, normality, normality desecrated, other-directedness, pointlessness, purpose in history, purposive lives, respect and disrespect, sex education and abuse of girls, sex education and disrespect for women, sex education as counter-erotic, sex education as desire-killing, sex education in elementary school, sex education vs romantic hopes, sexual expectations and self-protection, The Intelligibility of History by Abigail Rosenthal, uninhibitedness vs self-protection, Wendy Shalit, Wendy Shalit and ridicule, Wendy Shalit’s A Return to Modesty, Wendy Shalit’s appreciative letters, women saying no, young women and ideality
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