This is a week when I’ve been thinking about old friends who are, as it happens, ex-friends. Maybe it’s a special category of friendship. I’ve devoted a recent column to David, who was a valued philosophical colleague. Together we shared … Continue reading → The post Where Are the Ex-Friends Now? appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
A Good Look at an Old Evil | The title of this column plays off my first book, A Good Look at Evil. There I revisited some of the main...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
The OxStu explores what it feels like to become a tourist in your hometown from the perspective of a Vietnamese student.| The Oxford Student
Domestic violence in Aotearoa New Zealand is not an isolated or private phenomenon. It is a deeply political expression of alienation and systemic violence, shaped by capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. This article argues that the roots of domestic violence lie not merely in individual pathology but in structural conditions of powerlessness, disconnection, and enforced control. […]| The Polar Bl@st
The other day I scanned the internet for news of ex-friends who’d stayed significant in my memory. “We quarreled,” as French philosopher Sartre said about one former friend, the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, “a quarrel does not matter. It’s just one more … Continue reading → The post Ave Atque Vale (Hail and Farewell) appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
Doran Spielman’s When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David Is the Bible a history book? Did the stories in it (or some of the more literal-sounding ones) really happen? Or are we modern people obliged … Continue reading → The post When the Stones Speak appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
The Fork in the Road | A realization visited me the other day. It had to do with lost friendships. I’d always pictured these...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
This podcast features a thought-provoking conversation between host Minter Dial and guest John Vervaeke, exploring the concept of meaning in modern life. Vervaeke, a cognitive scientist and philosopher, discusses the 'meaning crisis' - a widespread sense of disconnection and lack of purpose in society. He delves into topics such as the importance of wisdom, the nature of self, and the role of spirituality in addressing this crisis. The dialogue touches on historical perspectives, contemporary...| Minter Dial
In Liaisons Dangereuses, the eighteenth-century epistolary novel of cynicism by Choderlos de Laclos, the plot turns around two aristocrats who co-conspire to seduce their unsuspecting victims. Their purpose is not so much to gratify sexual desire as to enjoy the … Continue reading → The post Women Enemies and Women Friends appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
The Story | “The crucial thing is the story.” That is what I claim in A Good Look at Evil, my book which holds that the person who...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
A forthcoming new collection of the writings of Bayard Rustin, challenging the shibboleths of the Left and with commentaries from contemporary writers connecting those challenges to the present.| Damage
The other night I had a dream in which I met a woman whom I used to regard as a friend. But she’d become an ex-friend – in the following fashion. An ill-wisher who’d known me from my earliest days … Continue reading → The post In Quest of Lost Friendship appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
Reincarnation: Anne Frank and Me | Some years back I read a book with the title, And the Wolves Howled: Fragments of Two Lifetimes...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
Peter Brown’s Wild Robot series transcends the anti-humanist moralism of much contemporary children’s literature and presents a much-needed vision of a habitable future.| Damage
Steroid use is up, especially among young people seeking to display a particular physique online. The turning of the male gaze upon itself represents a radical form of alienation—and one with some nasty side effects to boot.| Damage
Readers of this column may recall that I had a near-death experience fairly recently. Not the good kind, where you meet all the dear ones who’ve gone before you up the golden stairway. Rather, the kind where you get to … Continue reading → The post Death and the Doctors appeared first on Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column.| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
The Puzzle of Hannah Arendt | The career of Hannah Arendt is surely one of the oddest on record. Doubt has been cast on claims for which...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
Estimated reading time: 35 minutes| The Red Clarion
A person recently asked for sample letters to convince an anti-gay Christian that they were wrong. I don’t think that is likely to help, so I submitted this… Dear Uncle Luke, I think yo…| Jesus Without Baggage
Dear friends,| Random Communications from an Evolutionary Edge
This is the second of six posts seeking to describe what it means to practice co-intelligence. (You can find the first post here.) I’m doing this to support the creation of what’s called “a community of practice” – a network of people who are seeking – together – to better understand and apply co-intelligence in their lives and their work. In the process, I’ve come up with six new ways to describe co-intelligence. So you can use them as windows into the world of co-intel...| Random Communications from an Evolutionary Edge
(NOTE: I’m not really happy with the title of this post, but am having trouble thinking of a different one to describe what the post is about. So please bear with me….- Tom)| Random Communications from an Evolutionary Edge
Translator’s notes and footnotes below. Priority Communication (from Internationale Situationniste no. 7, April 1962) In sociological and cultural theory, the question of power is so well hid…| thesinisterquarter.wordpress.com
What Is Truth? | The question, famously put to Jesus by Pontius Pilate, was prompted by Jesus’ self-report that he had come to bear witness...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
A Writer's Conscience | I just finished reading – actually skimming – what I’m tempted to name as the worst book in the history of the...| Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
Sections An alien evolution Capital’s companions The pace and direction of change The climatic shock of the Younger Dryas seems to have arisen from the freak spillage of a huge glacial lake into the North… More| Stepping Stones
Imagine a community that is characterized by what I’ll call “at-home-ness.” For people who are at home in their community, there are ways of doing things that are appropriate, fitting, and right. There are things one doesn’t do under certain circumstances, and things one does. There’s usually no need to formulate these attitudes as explicit... Continue reading →| The Mirror and the Lamp
This was the weekend of Dia De Los Muertos and of All Souls Day. I missed the events at the Northwest Detention Center commemorating the deaths of millions of displaced immigrants who risk, and som…| Black Orchid Collective