Tag Archives: social life as war
The Absolute is Up for Grabs
Recent changes in what was formerly considered socially okay may be seen in two incidents I couldn’t sidestep. A long-time woman friend figures in the first incident. We’ve been in each other’s lives since the time in Paris when we … 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, 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, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, 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, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged agenda driven misunderstanding, ancient religious underlayers, anti-Judaism as a culture import, Asian vs Western religious mindsets, Christian myths about Jews, collective guilt, competition for the covenant, competitive theologies, covenant and who God loves best, culturally embedded distortions, David Nirenberg’s Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, diplomacy in friendship, discerning right from wrong, discerning the moral principle, Doctrine of Deicide, extra-historical spirituality, false naivete, faux pas, flipping moral status, friendship at risk, good guys and bad guys, goodwill confronting malice, historical religions, imperiled friendship, innocence and guilt in history, inverting moral relations, Israel’s right of self-defense, Israel’s right to exist, Jewish timeline, killing Socrates, malice in social settings, moral discernment, Oct 7 and ex-friends, Oct 7 and friendship, pulling moral rank, pulling rank on Jews, pulling theological rank on Jews, religious acculturation, rhetorical questions as insults, Secular Left’s ex-Christians, social insult, social life as war, social navigation, socially acceptable, St. Ambrose and Jewish legal rights, St. Ambrose and the burned synagogue, St. Augustine and Jewish legal rights, status rivalry, the burden of Jewish history, theological rank and social rank, theological social climbing, theology and modern Israel, unconscious cultural baggage, unholy theological doctrines, victimhood competition, victims and victimizers, victims falsely accused, victims treated as victimizers, what is absolute for a culture, woman friend, youthful friendships
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The Romance of Life
There are people who suppose, whenever they learn of an act of unbelievable cruelty, that it must have been done in reaction to some unseen but equally towering grievance. To such people, the forces in the human situation are taken … 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, 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, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, 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, 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, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", action prompts reaction, acts of cruelty, assessing inward costs, authenticating apologies, blaming the victim, confrontations with malevolence, costs of moral action, costs of moral evaluation, country club antisemitism, cruel to the kind, deliberate evil, denial and displacement, deserving a happy ending, deserving to win, dialectical conversation, disguised insult, evidence of a healthy life, excuses for evil acts, fighting the good fight, forces in the room, forgiveness as social conformity, forgiveness for the sake of appearance, forgiveness so as not to make a scene, heaven on earth, helping the aggressor, heroes and heroic acts, human values expressed in physicalist terms, human values expressed in value-neutral language, human values understood as force and counterforce, insincere atonement, interpersonal harmony, inward costs of moral action, justice without mercy, kind to the cruel, kind to the kind, life themes, long term friendships, merciless to the merciless, mercy without justice, misdirected compassion, misplaced objectivity, moral judgement vs judgmentalism, moral neutrality, moral realities, Newton's Third Law of Motion, objectivity as a cop-out, people analyzed as billiard balls, physicalist analogies, physicalist analogy to moral reality, powers in play, premature forgiveness, pretended apology, pro forma apologies, psychologizing cruelty, psychologizing evil, pulling the rug from under, rationalizing antisocial acts, rationalizing bizarre behavior, recurring themes in life, scars of moral combat, smiles that bare the teeth, smiling insult, social harmony, social insult, social life as war, social miscalculation, solving social mysteries, strategies of denial, taking advantage of good manners, taking advantage of social norms, the pose of objectivity, the romance of life, to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, transvaluation of values, truth-seeking, unwarranted forgiveness, valuing harmony, victim presumed guilty, what was she wearing, when politeness becomes vulnerability, willful harm
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Loving Thyself
Sometimes the chief happenings of one’s life occur in the form of inward shifts. That’s been true of me lately. Late Saturday night, we returned from five days of neuropathy treatments in California. In the evenings, we dined with some … 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, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, 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, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged achieving social harmony, allegedly free, anti-Jewish vulgarity, award for participating, bruised self-worth, can't lose setup, challenge to integrity, Chillul hashem, choice in boyfriends, class and classlessness, countering social bigotry, defending coreligionists, defending fellow victims, demeaning epithets, demeaning language, desecrating the Name, dialectical exploration, dialectically serious, dilemmas of politeness, escapism, feeling of self-worth, fight for one's footing, fight for one's place in the world, getting it right in retrospect, giving up prematurely, handling social combat, historical Jesus, holding one's own, holding one's own socially, inner life, insincere capitulation, insincere harmony, inward change, Jerry Martin's God: An Autobiography as told to a philosopher, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the man, Jesus's love, Jesus's unfiltered love, Jewish self-protection, l'esprit de l'escalier, Loma Linda clinic, losing the argument but winning the truth, love they neighbor as thyself, loving one's self, loving thyself, loving truth, loving unreservedly, Mark Bussell, meaning what you say, neuropathy treatment, New Orleans, no win situation, painful memories, premature peacemaking, replaying memories, replaying social blunders, rigged competition, risks for truth, rodeo events, saying what you mean, search for truth, self deprecation as defensive, self insult as defense, self love, self love as an hypothesis, self love in social life, self-approval, self-esteem, sincerity vs pretense, smoothing things over, social double binds, social expertise, social ineptitude, social life as war, social missteps, social putdowns, social skills, spoiling the party, styles of being Jewish, tension of disagreement, the embarrassing boyfriend, the humanity of Jesus, truth inadequately defended, truth seeking argument, unqualified love, what I should have said
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The Baiter and the Baited
The Baiter and the Baited We are back from a week of my neuropathy treatments at the Loma Linda clinic in California. The main progress this time has been in locating more precisely the regions of the body – ahem, … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, 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, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, 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, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", accusation of bigotry, cause of neuropathy, derivative philosophy, determinism, epigenetics, established consensus, ethology, functionalism, genetic model, genetic theory, illness as a message, inflammation in the body, intelligence in nature, Jewish memory, Jews and Christians, l’esprit de l’escalier, Loma Linda clinic, masked insults, Materialism, neuropathy treatments, neurovascular system, oldest hatred, original philosophy, philosophic colleagues, physical self-understanding, pogrom, Princeton historian, reductionism, scale of nature, self-understanding, social baiting, social forces, social insults, social life as war, sonograms, symptomatic improvements, talk to our bodies, the body’s realism, the expressive body, the First Crusade, the Holocaust, the new anti-Semitism, the siddur, the talking body, walking handicap
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Microaggression: Woman on Woman
Microaggression: Woman on Woman As anyone knows who knows me, I detest the very word “microaggression.” To me, it’s part of a newly weaponized jargon that allows any accuser to put on the mantle of victimhood and leave the accused … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Childhood, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, master, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, scientism, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, 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, Time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged abuse of power, accupuncture, benign protest, denial, doctor/patient relations, domination, erotic self-defense, feminine dignity, getting a grip, getting a handle, indignity, instinctive defenses, interpersonal dynamics, jargon, medical aggression, medical considerateness, medical intervention, medical power dynamic, microaggression, moral obligation, new treatment, patient dignity, patient embarrassment, patient powerlessness, patient self-defense, physical therapy, preventing abuse, professional abuse, Ralph Waldo Emerson, reflexive aggression, resignation, risks of new treatment, robust common sense, search for cures, social abuse, social aggression, social awkwardness, social clues, social evidence, social life, social life as war, stopping abuse, suspicion, thin skin, unresigned, useless remedies, victimhood, vulnerability, walking handicap, weaponized words
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