Tag Archives: Winston Churchill
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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“Ideas and Real People”
“Ideas and Real People” When I need consolation, when sorrow exerts its hard claims, I turn instinctively to what Plato would call the realm of forms: beautiful things and ideas that are clear and significant. When our friend Leo … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, 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, 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, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, 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
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Tagged A.J. Ayer, aiming at weak spots, Albert Einstein, Anna Akhmatova, anti-fascist, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Boris Pasternak’s Dr.Zhivago, British Embassy, British eyes and ears, British Foreign Office, centrality of ideas, Chaim Weizman, classical art, classical bas reliefs, classical serenity, classical statues, clear ideas, communist party, communist politics, communist revolution, completeness, consolation, cultural definition, cultural vulnerability, Culture, culture against itself, culture defined, culture shapers, destroying a culture, dispatches from Washington, Drew Pearson, eternal achievement, extremism, family tree, fear and shame, George Kennan, Grunewald Crucifixion, Hassidic lineage, hegemony, high culture, humanistic culture, intellectual culture, intellectual friendship, intellectual moderation, intellectuals denounced, intellectuals in the 1930’s, intellectuals purged, intellectuals under terror, intelligentsia, interesting man, Isaiah Berlin, Italian civilization, Italian communist, J. L. Austin, Leo Bronstein, liberal culture, life aims, life under tyranny, living for ideas, Lord Halifax, making a difference, Metropolitan Museum, Michael Ignatieff’s Isaiah Berlin: A Life, moral compromise, motorcycle accident, Mussolini’s dictatorship, nuanced diplomacy, opinion shaper, Oxford education, paisley, Party Line, Plato, Plato’s realm of forms, post-communist revolution, power of ideas, Public Intellectual, reading in prison, Riga Latvia, significant ideas, Soviet Union, Stephen Spender, Strasbourg, strategic mind, Stuart Hampshire, sturdy mind, the Russian soul, things of beauty, Tsar’s overthrow, twentieth century intellectuals, tyranny, USSR, utopian delusions, Virginia Woolf, Walter Lippman, war of ideas, Washington rumors, weakness in culture, Winston Churchill, World War II
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Recognition
Recognition There is a battle scene in Homer’s Iliad where a deep, obscuring fog comes down suddenly over the field of combat. The soldiers have endured danger, hard blows and mortal injuries, but this they cannot stand. “Please,” they cry … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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
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Tagged academic bureaucracy, academic combats, academic hearings, academic termination, accusing the victim, action theory, Adolf Hitler, angelic message, angels, appeasement, aspiration, being seen, being witnessed, brainwashing, casing the situation, consolation, counter arguments, defeatists, Dunkirk, feeling alone, feeling outnumbered, field of combat, film dramatizations, general rules, great men, great women, heroes of resistance, high principles, History, history's vindication, homecoming, Homer's Iliad, Homeric gods, Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour", keeping one's bearings, knowing the particulars, knowing the precedents, links with nature, links with wild creatures, losing one's bearings, memory links, Mind Control, nazis, Nazism, ostracism, other worldly messengers, particular cases, personnel actions, Phyllis Chesler's Islamic Gender Apartheid: Exposing A Veiled War Against Women, pilgrimage, psychological damage, psychological torture, recognition, reunion, rights of women, rules of conduct, sacred journey, Screenwriter Anthony McCarten, self-knowledge, shunning, social force, solitary confinement, their finest hour, thought police, thought reform, totalism, university administration, verified prediction, Winston Churchill, World War II, WWII
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