Tag Archives: saving Brooklyn College
The Stroke of Lightning
Tonight I want to revisit an experience whose status in modern culture is typically regarded with skepticism. The French call it the stroke of lightning (le coup de foudre). It’s the sudden descent/visitation of romantic love. It’s not the same … 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, 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, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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, Renaissance, 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 absolute risk, antiromantic skepticism, Brooklyn Connections vs Core Curriculum, choice at the crossroads, Coup de foudre, Dante and Beatrice, Dante’s Divine Comedy, detachment of the observer, Edmund Husserl, failing to rise above it, failing to stay detached, first kiss, Jerry Martin and Abigail Rosenthal, knowing you are in love, life choice, maintaining detachment, meaningful kiss, meaningful relationship, Medieval romance and gnosticism, Medieval romance and otherworldly, Medieval romance as model, medieval romance as subversive, mistaking infatuation with love, mutual attraction, no guarantees in love, obeying the summons of love, observer and observed, peak experience, phenomenological bracketing, phenomenological reduction, resisting the summons of love, rising above it, Romance, romance in fiction, romance in psychology, romance novels, Romantic Love, romantic risks, saving Brooklyn College, Saving the Brooklyn College Core in The New York Post, Saving the Brooklyn Core in The Jewish Daily Forward, saving the core curriculum, Saving the Core in The Chronicle of Higher Education, self awareness, self deception, skeptical of romance, the meaning of a first kiss, the stroke of lightning, The Stroke of Lightning vs societal norms, the summons of love, Tristan and Iseult, two paths in the wood
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Passionate Intensity
In 1919, William Butler Yeats wrote a poem with two lines that came to seem more timely as the century wore on: The best lack all conviction, while The worst are full of passionate intensity. Within little more than a … 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 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, 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, 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, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, 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 American Revolution, anger on the right, approval on the left, atrocity envy, authoritarian shortcuts, being woke, Ben Franklin’s warning, best lack all conviction, binary as accusation, Brooklyn College of CUNY, Brooklyn Connections, can’t take a joke, cancel culture, conformism, crowd pathology, culture of suspicion, defeatism, defending democratic norms, defending human rights, defending liberal arts, defending the oppressed, democracy vs mob rule, denouncers denounced, dream as an argument, dream illustration, dream of Metropolitan Museum, dream providing an argument, eligibility for cancellation, enemy of the people, Enlightenment, feckless faculty, fighting the good fight, getting canceled, going along to get along, good intentions, having a prayer, Hegel’s Phenomenology of Mind, heteronormative as accusation, human rights as self-evident, I have a dream, left mirroring right, left/right mirror images, liberal arts curriculum, living on your inheritance, losing by failing to fight, marginalized, nazi erasure of rights, objectively guilty, opposing oppressors, oppressed as social rank, oppression as status, oppression without status, oppressor/oppressed relation, parental authority, parental responsibilities, parents and children, political conformity, political intolerance, political shunning, politically downranked, politics as humorless, professor of philosophy, progressivism, qualifying as oppressed, racism as accusation, Reign of Terror, rights bearing citizenship, rights not self-perpetuating, rise of fascism, romance and political courage, saving Brooklyn College, school teachers’ authority, sexism as accusation, social murder, status on the left, story of victory, the Guillotine, transphobia as accusation, unrecognized oppression, William Butler Yeats, worst have passionate intensity, Yeats’ The Second Coming, you don’t lose them all, you don’t win them all
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Our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary
Our Twentieth Wedding Anniversary Today, the twentieth of January, is the actual day of our 20th wedding anniversary, though we had our celebratory dinner last Friday, after seeing the James Baldwin movie, “If Beale Street Could Talk.” At the restaurant, … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, action, anthropology, art of living, beauty, Biblical God, books, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, race, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, secular, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic criteria, academic dissenter, academic fights, anniversary, attraction of opposites, avoiding fights, “If Beale Street Could Talk”, black ex-patriot writers, boringly normal, bracketing attachments, bracketing the natural attitude, celebratory dinner, collegial rivalry, contemplation of essences, cri de coeur, defining projects, desire to know, dodging fights, Edmund Husserl, emotional defenses, emotional intelligence, falling in love, falling out of love, fight to the finish, fight with my name on it, James Baldwin, knowing one is in love, life risks, life summersault, life-changing summons, literary cri de coeur, love and courage, male ego, marital adjustments, marital real life, Marriage, movie goers, movie reviews, nostalgia, outing someone, Patrick Moynihan, personnel decisions, phenomenological reduction, political firing, political strategizing, queer and black, religious experience, religious summons, restaurant noise, Richard Wright, risking sacred things, romantic courage, romantic idealization, romantic while black, sacred things, saving Brooklyn College, sharing a world, sharing values, the marital adventure, the meaning of marriage, the right wife, vital things, wedding anniversary, womanly skills, writer’s rivalry, yearning
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