Category: philosophical counseling

• May 4, 2015

  The Falsehood Called Sharing

  A soft culture such as ours consists of a diet of compassion. Compassion makes us docile, putting us to sleep. “Let compassion be everywhere,” we chant. “To the north, south, east, west, above, and below. Compassion for everyone!” Then we go home happy, having provided a service to the planet. Compassion makes us feel good. A soft culture…
• April 30, 2015

  Why Everyone is Sad yet Nobody Angry

  Have you noticed that, by and large, few people get angry today? That few stand up for themselves and lash out? Get irritated? Yes. Ornery? Sure. Persnickety? No doubt. But blood boiling? No. Have you also noticed how most people get–and are–really sad? They have the blues, they’re in a foul mood, they’re down in the…
• April 29, 2015

  The Post-Martial Orientation: Cultivating Toughness

  Long the pride of place among the educated, compassion, empathy, and presentness are giving way to a completely different order of supreme virtues. This is because, at a more general level, the post-religious outlook is being supplanted by a post-martial outlook. It has to be so, since history is uncompromising. This is what I see. The post-martial…
• April 27, 2015

  Sentimentality or Dangerous Love?

  Love of a lover is not a mere affection, sentiment, or passion. Affections come, sentiments disappear, passions wane. Yet love, insofar as it is love, not only resides but also grows. Emotions perish, love endures. Furthermore, love of a lover is a religious concept. I devote myself to my lover, with this commitment not being a prison cell or an obligation…
• April 24, 2015

  Enough with Niceness

  This morning my philosophical friend said, ‘We keep calling spade a feather. Let’s call a spade a spade. We need to dig into the truth. The truth is rude and blunt. Truth empties out all the bullshit.’ One colleague told me recently, ‘Religion is not nice.’ I told this to my philosophical friend and she replied, ‘That’s true.…