Tag Archives: violence

World History and Me

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Abigail

World History and Me Last night I watched a documentary about the “discovery” by Europeans of the Western Hemisphere – that vast tract of land between Europe and the India that the spice-hunters sought. In my childhood, that discovery was … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, Biblical God, Christianity, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, ethics, evil, exploitation, faith, films, freedom, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, non-violence, oppression, pacifism, 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, scientism, self-deception, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 10 commandments, 16th century advances, 17th century colonists, advances in navigation, advances in ship-building, advances in world trade, adventurers, American good guys, American guilt, ancient Israelites, animal nature, australopithecines, biblical battles, Biblical historicity, Bronze Age cities, cherem, chosen people, co-religionists, collective atonement, collective guilt, collective penance, colonization, conquest of the weak, conquistadores, Darwinians, defeat of the weakest, depopulation, discovery of America, European diseases, European exploration, European massacres, evolutionary survival, exile, explorers, extinction of hominids, fossil record, genocide, God's blueprint, God's people, God's sovereignty, hegemony, historical guilt, Homer, hominid competition, hominids, homo erectus, homo naledi, homo neanderthalensis, homo sapiens sapiens, hypocrisy, idol worship, indigenous peoples, interpersonal aggression, Israelite wars of destruction, Jesus, Maccabees, man as animal, manipulative moralizing, missionaries, moral high ground, moral posturing, moral rank-pulling, Native Americans, natural defenses, Nazi bad guys, Nazi language, New World, niceness and brutality, Nietzsche, non-fiction narrative, non-violence, Old Testament God, organized pogroms, pagan ways, Pentateuch, personal history, pioneers, policing language, political theory, pre-Columbian population, promised land, psychological self-defense, Queen Isabella, religious non-violence, religious violence, Roman hegemony, securing territory, small pox, survival of the fittest, survival of the strongest, territorial defense, theory of history, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, Torah Study, Trojan War, TV documentary, violence, virgin continent, virtue signaling, voyage of Columbus, war of all against all, will-to-power | 2 Comments

Frustrations and Epiphanies

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Abigail

Frustrations and Epiphanies Our quiet town, with its Victorian houses (many of them kept in good repair by the law firms that have taken them over), its charming signs of civic care and pride, has for some years also been … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, Industrial Revolution, 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, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, 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 AFSC, Alan Dershowitz's The Case for Israel, American Friends Service Committee, anti-Judaism, Asaf Romirowsky and Alexander H. Joffe’s “When Did the Quakers Stop Being Friends?” in The Tower December 2013, befriending enemies, Bullying, charm, Christians in Middle East, civilians in Syria, confidentiality, conflict resolution, contagious ill will, David Nirenberg's Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition, defamation, dialogue, dinner invitations, ex-terrorist, foreign aid misuse, good will, harassment of Jewish students, hate crimes, incitement, inner turn, inter-group dialogue, intimidation of Jewish students and faculty, Israel, Israel Consul, Israel outnumbered, Jewish best friends, Jewish flight, Jewish survival, Jews in England, Jews in France, Joseph Puder’s “Iran’s Ugly Human Rights Record Must Be Addressed in StandWithUs Weekly Middle East Report 7/28/2017, judgments of fact, Kasim Hafeez, moral risk, neighborly relations, nonjudgmentalism, oldest hatred, one-sided views, Palestinian Authority, peace and love, Peace Center, persecution of Bahai, Persecution of Laogai, public debate, relativism, scapegoat, Second Temple, self-deception, self-righteousness, social anti-semitism, spiritual turning, street demonstrations, Students for Justice in Palestine, terrorist, threats to Israel, toxic claims, U.S. Senator, value judgments, vandalism, victims of hate crimes, vigils, violence, Werner Cohen's “The Quakers on Israel and China” in “Werner’s Opinions” 3/13/13, Western Wall, worldly experience, Yazidi | 2 Comments

“Home Away from Home”

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Abigail

“Home Away from Home” “Abigail has always felt abandoned,” Léo Bronstein, my father’s best friend, once said. Léo was a sort of godfather to me and said this after he read the earlier version of my Confessions of a Young … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, childhood, cities, contradictions, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, mind control, motherhood, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, violence, war, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", 1930's, abandonment, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", accuracy, afterlife rewards, age-mates, aggresion, attachment, Auschwitz, building superintendant, café atmosphere, café habituées, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, danger, defense, Divine permission, dysfunctional family, earthly Jerusalem, enemy agent, FBI, German spies, godfathers, hatred, heavenly Jerusalem, Hitler, Holocaust, home, homelessness, homelike, identity, international media, Jerusalem, Jihad, journalists, knife attacks, Leo Bronstein, Madison Avenue, medieval cartography, navel of the world, New York, nonsurvivors, offense, Park Avenue, provocation, security, sense of safety, short wave radio, sincerity, SS guard, survival, the objective case, The Wizard of Oz, troop ships, trust, truthfulness, U boats, Upper East Side, violence, World War II, Yorkville, Zyklon B | 4 Comments

“Peace”

Posted on February 5, 2015 by Abigail

“Peace” Peace! Who doesn’t want it? (Well, lots of people, apparently.) More to the present point: in what ways have I shown a preference for peace, and what’s the peace story for me now? When I was sixteen, I spent … Continue reading →

Posted in action, culture, desire, ethics, evil, femininity, freedom, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, life and death struggle, love, memoir, peace, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sexuality, social conventions, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, war, work | Tagged action, adolescence, adulthood, ashram, celibacy, celibate, Cherokee reservation, compassion, conflict, cruelty, Dorothy Day, dreams, end times, farm work, Fulbright, Gandhi, gangboys, History, impure thoughts, justice, kindness, meditation, mercy, North Carolina, outhouses, pacifism, pacifist, Paris, Peace, peace love and light, Picasso, poverty, promiscuity, purity, Quakers, rabbinic midrash, Smoky Mountains, social construction of reality, summer camp, The Catholic Worker, thought creates reality, vegetarian, violence, youth | Leave a comment

“Gettysburg”

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Abigail

“Gettysburg” Last week included Jerry’s birthday and he determined that the most desirable present would be an overnight visit and guided tour of the Gettysburg battlefield. Naturally I would have gone along with whatever Jerry wanted to do on his … Continue reading →

Posted in action, culture, history, life and death struggle, masculinity, nineteenth-century, political, psychology, relationships, sociobiology, the problematic of men, war | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, American History, battlefield, bayonettes, casualities, chess, choreography, Civil War, courage, fate and providence, fortitude, George G. Meade, Gettysburg, Gettysburg Address, glory, historic tours, historical memory, honesty, honor, Joshua Chamberlain, Little Round Top, manliness, martial arts, military cemetery, military history, Monument of the State of North Carolina, nobility, passion, Pickett's Charge, prudence, public monuments, Robert E. Lee, slaughter, soldiers, strategy, tactics, tragedy, Union and Confederate, United States, vainglory, valor, violence, war games, war memorials | Leave a comment

“Losers”

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Abigail

“Losers” The Loser is the epitome, the spittin’ image, of what we don’t want to be. One time I shared, with a fireman friend, how it feels when you walk down the street feeling like one. “And everybody knows,” my … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, life and death struggle, philosophy, psychology, relationships, social conventions, the examined life | Tagged abuses, aggression, birthright, blessing, crime, desolation, despair, economics, Edward Said, Emanuel Levinas, empathy, envy, fathers, firemen, French philosophers, hatred, Jacob and Esau, losers, manipulation, motivation, one-upmanship, philanthropy, psychology, rejection, self-destructiveness, sibling rivalry, sociobiology, solitude., street smarts, the Other, theories, violence, web of belief | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: violence

“Gettysburg”

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

Recent Posts