Tag Archives: social death

I Dreamed I Saw Hitler Last Night

Posted on November 28, 2023 by Abigail

Make no mistake, in my whole life Hitler has never appeared in any dream or daydream of mine. I don’t think about Hitler. He’s not in the iconography of my consciousness. This was also the first time I’d seen him … 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, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, 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, 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, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic conference, academic discourse, academic discourse and shunning, academic discourse and unspoken taboos, academic lecture, academic lecture Q and A, academic ostracism, ancient Christianity, ancient Judaism, ancient theological quarrels, archaic thought layers, beyond feminism, body language of discourse, buried thought layers, conversion and rabbinic Judaism, coping strategy, dialectic and self-defense, dialogue and avoidance, disarming body language, early Christian saints, Early Christianity, feminine invisibility, feminism and social intelligence, first-century Judaism, following the argument, handling a situation, healthy discussion, historical imagination, instructive dreams, Jerusalem's Western Wall and the speaking stones, Jews and early Jesus movement, Jews and the afterlife, Jews during the time of Jesus, Judaism conspicuously unmentioned, Judaism misrepresented, looking for an opening, men and women vs feminist abstractions, mutual forgiveness, non-threatening body language, not rising to the bait, political dream, politics of religion, pre-feminist interactions, real-life advice for women, real-life lessons, Saint Ambrose, Saint Ambrose and Jews, Saint Augustine, Saint Augustine and Jews, side-stepping ideological posturing, significant dream, situation handled, situation to be handled, situational choreography, social death, social erasure, social intelligence, Socratic dialectic and the academy, Socratic dialectic and women, staying in the game, the choreography of social power, the dance of professional relations, the dance of social relations, the Righteous Gentiles, theological omissions, theology conference, theology lecture and questions, truth-seeking in the academy, unhelpful ideology, Western religion’s Jewish foundation, World War II newsreels | Leave a comment

Academic Gossip

Posted on June 28, 2022 by Abigail

Academic Gossip One of the seldom-mentioned pleasures of life in the academy – the House that Plato Built – is academic gossip. It juxtaposes the life of ideas against real-life — whetting one’s appetite for both! I’m about two-thirds of … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, 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, Hegel, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged AAR presidency, above the battle, academic gossip, academic politics, academic religionists, ambivalent relations, anarchist, antinomian, authority on Levinas, biographer's indiscretion, biographer's license, Columbia Seminar on Hermeneutics, Columbia University Religion Department, East Coast academia, Edith Wyschogrod, fatal gossip, Free University in Berlin, gender favoritism, Gnostic Libertine, Hillary Clinton, Jacob Neusner, Jacob Taubes, Jerry Z. Muller's Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes, Jewish Studies, lashon hara, life of ideas, life of ideas v real life, malicious rumors, Michael Wyschogrod, Morton Smith, mutual back scratching, mutual witnessing, New York Jewish intellectuals, nihilist, not getting involved, philosophico-theological terrain, roman à clef, rumor mongering, sexist accusations, sharing life stories, social assassination, social complexity, social death, social interactions, social sanctimony, Taubes anecdotes, the evil tongue, the House that Plato Built, therapeutic guru, visiting professorship | 2 Comments

A Therapeutic Proposal

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Abigail

A Therapeutic Proposal It’s hard to compare previous eras to this present one — which is always “the best of times and the worst of times.” That said, there are features of life in our America that feel new to … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, 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, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged best of times and worst of times, common sense, cultural diagnostic, cultural therapy, culture and dialectic, curing injustice, death by denunciation, defining culture, defining history, exploiting resentment, fair competition, group think, Hegelian analysis, Hegelian remedies, historic injustice, human self-acceptance, living in history, living in one's time, man on horseback, manipulating guilt, mediation v immediacy, mob mentality, mutual respect, Next time no more Mister Nice Guy, ordinary life, patience and persistence, peaceful transfer of power, philosophy in history, political common sense, professional assassination, projected guilt, pulling moral rank, recognizing dignity, safe-guarding childhood, self-censorship, silencing dissent, social common sense, social death, story of history, the human condition, thought police, timeliness as a skill, victimization claims, world view, Zeitgeist in present day America | Leave a comment

The Paranormal and Me

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Abigail

The Paranormal and Me If by “the paranormal” is meant the field of reality that comprises effects not linked to causes by any known physical laws — and if the missing links are likely found in consciousness – then the … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, films, freedom, friendship, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic nonreappointment, academic philosophers, academic politics, academic protocol, academic tenure, ambiguous evidence, anecdotal evidence, bad professional news, cause and effect, collegial ridicule, collegial shunning, conscious beings, consciousness, consciousness research, culture and the paranormal, dangers of psi, digging a well, dowser, dowser’s stick, emotional absence, emotional letdown, everyday experience, finding water, funding for research, funding for unpopular research, house in Maine, intellectual foundations, invisible force, known physical laws, medical candor, mediums who cheat, missing explanatory links, news bearer, nocebo effect, nonphysical causation, one of the boys, paradigm change, paranormal and fraud, physical laws, placebo effect, precognitive bad news, precognitive dreams, premonitions, present day physics, private life and paranormal, professional risk, psychic, psychic power, refuting instance, researching the paranormal, secrets of consciousness, significant coincidence, social death, Stephen E. Braude’s The Gold Leaf Lady: And Other Parapsychological Investigations, study of consciousness, the paranormal, the search for truth, unpopular hypothesis, unsupportive men, what everybody knows | 2 Comments

Tag Archives: social death

I Dreamed I Saw Hitler Last Night

Academic Gossip

A Therapeutic Proposal

The Paranormal and Me

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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