Archive for the ‘ Uncategorized ’ Category
A date has been set for Elisabeth’s memorial in Toronto. The information follows for those who wish to attend: Sunday, April 22nd 2012 2pm-5pm The Debates Room in Hart House University of Toronto The address for Hart House is: 7 Hart House Circle Toronto, ON M5S 3H3 416.978.2452 Please see the map below: View Larger [ READ MORE ]
On Thursday night I went to a performance of Philip Glass’ opera Satyagraha, about the early life of Gandhi. I left in a trance, spellbound by the music and the puppetry. In front of Lincoln Center a large crowd had gathered; it took me a moment to recognize the barricades, the police vans lining Broadway, [ READ MORE ]
The talk below was given to a luncheon meeting of the New York Institute for the Humanities on November 18, 2011 at Deutches Haus, NYU. Being among friends, I feel that I can indulge myself a bit of intellectual autobiography and catch you up on what I have been doing in recent years –to this [ READ MORE ]
A talk given at the German Consulate in Toronto on October 24, 2011, to celebrate the opening of an installation of “The Hannah Arendt Denkraum” brought to Toronto from Berlin. Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, es ist mir eine grosse Freude mit Ihnen hier bei der Eroeffnung des Hannah Arendt Denkraums zu sein und ich [ READ MORE ]
Dear Relatives and Friends, Ladies and Gentleman, My step-father Ernst Sutton has honored me by requesting that I eulogize his wife Lois Sutton, who departed our family, our community, and our world on the 7th of October in this year 2011. We who are gathered here at her last home, Jenner’s Pond, each knew her [ READ MORE ]
Last June, I sat on the veranda of the Arowhon Pines Lodge in the Algonquin National Park –Canada’s largest nature conservancy–watching through a pair of binoculars as a small loon on the far side of Little Lake Joe swam along peacefully and then, suddenly, dove out of sight. I waited for her to surface. She [ READ MORE ]
Last week, I wrote two short pieces –750 words were allowed for each–for newspapers. One was a reflection on Hannah Arendt’s concept “the banality of evil” for a series that The Guardian of London is doing on “Big Ideas.” The installment of the series on “the banality of evil” was meant to mark the fiftieth [ READ MORE ]
It astonishes people who live in the European social democracies and here in Canada that in America a major party, the Republicans, and its smaller unofficial ally, the Tea Party, not only claim that taxes are too high but that there should never be –no matter what—any increases in taxes, for anybody. The Tea Party [ READ MORE ]
As I noted in the Welcome to this blog, it will occasionally feature posts by colleagues that relate to its whosafrasidof social democracy themes. This week, I asked two psychoanalyst colleagues, Laswrence Blum., M.D. of Philadelphia and Leon Hoffman, M.D., of New York (co-director of the Pacella Parent Child Center: theparentchildcenter.org) if I could offer you [ READ MORE ]
In my last blog (#57), where I presented some of D.W. Winnicott’s post war reflections on the word “democracy” and what he called the “innate democratic tendency” in societies, I indicated that he thought in terms of a basic analogy between individuals and societies. Both have developmental courses, growing –if they are lucky and well-supported—into maturity [ READ MORE ]