From sea to shining sea, on social media pages nationwide, brave men are taking up cudgels on behalf of their brothers-in-sex-and-gender, the ones whose lives are facing ruination because of this country’s #MeToo moment, as accusation after accusation of sexual harassment and assault issue forth from women who’ve previously remained silent. In each case, theirContinue reading “Dear Men, Shut Up About ‘Due Process’ Already”
Category Archives: Psychology
Hypocrisy And The Unequal Weighing Of Political Preferences
‘We’ are shocked time and again by the hypocrisy and political incoherence on display: Trump voters help elect a man who seems to act against their economic interests; they prop up a serial sexual harasser and abuser even as they claim to be fine, upstanding, family types dedicated to stamping out immoral behavior of allContinue reading “Hypocrisy And The Unequal Weighing Of Political Preferences”
Robert Morrison And Antoine Panaioti’s Nietzsche And The Buddha
Two recent books on Nietzsche and Buddhism–Robert Morrison’s Nietzsche and Buddhism: A Study in Nihilism and Ironic Affinities, and Antoine Panaioti’s Nietzsche and Buddhist Philosophy–do an exemplary job of examining, sympathetically and rigorously, some related questions of enduring philosophical interest: What is the relationship between Nietzsche’s writings and Buddhism? What were Nietzsche’s views on Buddhism?Continue reading “Robert Morrison And Antoine Panaioti’s Nietzsche And The Buddha”
Anita Hill, Harvey Weinstein, And National Amnesia
In October 1991, I, along with millions of other curious viewers, watched the Senate nomination hearings for the Supreme Court nominee, Clarence Thomas. My curiosity, like that of many others, had been piqued by the presence of Thomas’ former assistant, Anita Hill, who had accused him of sexual harassment at her workplace. On the secondContinue reading “Anita Hill, Harvey Weinstein, And National Amnesia”
Teaching Gone Bad: Reflections On A Semester Gone Wrong
Teaching has gone wrong this semester. I do not need to wait till the end of this semester to write my usual self-assessment; this semester has been a disaster. Two of my three classes are dead in the water, drifting aimlessly; my students and I are locked in a fatal embrace of disinterest and mutualContinue reading “Teaching Gone Bad: Reflections On A Semester Gone Wrong”
‘Prison Literature: Constraints And Creativity’ Up At Three Quarks Daily
My essay, ‘Prison Literature: Constraint and Creativity,’ is up at Three Quarks Daily. Here is an introduction/abstract: In his Introduction to Hegel’s Metaphysics (University of Chicago Press, 1969, pp 30-31), Ivan Soll attributes “great sociological and psychological insight” to Hegel in ascribing to him the insight that “the frustration of the freedom of act results in the search ofContinue reading “‘Prison Literature: Constraints And Creativity’ Up At Three Quarks Daily”
#MeToo Shows Sexual Harassment And Abuse Is A Feature, Not A Bug
The Facebook status is simple: Me too. If all the people who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote “Me too” as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem. Please copy/paste, if you’re comfortable doing so. And effective: it has produced a deluge of “Me too” statuses. The vast majorityContinue reading “#MeToo Shows Sexual Harassment And Abuse Is A Feature, Not A Bug”
Blade Runner 2049: Our Slaves Will Set Us Free
Blade Runner 2049 is a provocative visual and aural treat. It sparked many thoughts, two of which I make note of here; the relationship between the two should be apparent. What is the research project called ‘artificial intelligence’ trying to do? Is it trying to make machines that can do the things which, if doneContinue reading “Blade Runner 2049: Our Slaves Will Set Us Free”
Childhood Crushes – II: Jennifer O’Neill In ‘Summer Of 42’
I wasn’t alone in wishing I was Hermie. Many teenage boys–American or otherwise-had the same thoughts on seeing Summer of 42, the cinematic adaptation of Herman Raucher‘s memoirish coming-of-age novel, a movie that made me laugh very, very hard during its screening and then left me silent and devastated as I walked back to my boardingContinue reading “Childhood Crushes – II: Jennifer O’Neill In ‘Summer Of 42’”
The Self As Prison
In his review of Charles Simic‘s The Lunatic: Poems and The Life of Images: Selected Prose Phillip Lopate makes note of Simic’s “cultivation of awe,” his “opening himself to chance, that favorite tactic of Surrealists” and makes note of this pronouncement: Others pray to God; I pray to chance to show me the way out ofContinue reading “The Self As Prison”
Samir Chopra 