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The Human Being Is Not the Source of Meaning: Heidegger and Sartre
For Sartre, authenticity is bound up with self-creation. The authentic person accepts the burden of freedom and refuses bad faith. They do not pretend that their choices are dictated by some fixed essence or external authority. They own their freedom and act. But for Heidegger, authenticity is not primarily self-creation. It is a more truthful… Continue reading
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Podcast Episode: The Innocence That Kills: American Exceptionalism as Spiritual Pathology
Pip: There is a kind of pride that doesn't know it's pride — it just calls itself responsibility. Raymond Klassen at Ideals and Identities has thoughts about that, and they are not comfortable ones. Mara: Today we're looking at American exceptionalism as a spiritual formation — what it costs to believe a nation is innocent… Continue reading
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Interpretation: Between Facts and Freedom
The central issue is not simply what is happening. It is how what is happening is being made intelligible. Because events, on their own, do not arrive with meaning already attached to them. They must be interpreted. They must be narrated. They must be placed within some kind of framework that allows people to say… Continue reading
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Air at 49
You have always walked your own road,not the easy one,but the one that asked something of you …and you answered. Not with noise,not with spectacle,but with a steady couragethat reshapes the world quietly. You carry distance in your bones …miles from where you began,threads of home stretched across time zones …and still, you stand,rooted in… Continue reading
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Action in an Age of Systems: Anthony Giddens, Hannah Arendt, and the Problem of Technocratic Rationality
Her analysis of totalitarianism underscores how thoughtlessness and procedural obedience can replace moral responsibility. But her critique extends beyond extreme regimes. Whenever politics is reduced to technique, something essential is lost. Continue reading
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Sovereignty: The Power Beyond Ownership
” Sovereignty and ownership overlap in everyday speech, but philosophically, linguistically, and practically they point to very different kinds of authority and relation.” Continue reading
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Secularism and Pluralism: Divergent Social Imaginaries
My faith as a Christian cannot be privatized. My relationship with God is personal, but it isn’t private. Continue reading
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For Alan and Jolly
“Welcome, Foon ying, Swagaat! I especially welcome those people who have come from far away to be here today, from abroad and from places outside Edmonton. My name is Ray Klassen, and I am so honoured that Alan and Jolly have asked me to help them celebrate their wedding today. As I have come to… Continue reading
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The Problem with Mass Pop Music isn’t that it’s “Pop”: Mass Culture and Mass Society
Republicans don’t annoy me; Democrats don’t either. Conservatives don’t annoy me, neither do Liberals or New Democrats. But…. technocrats annoy me. The Problem with Mass Pop Music isn’t that it’s “Pop”: Mass Culture and Mass Society Continue reading
About me: I am a career educator and traveler at heart. My written work includes academic writing in philosophy and linguistics, English acquisition, and most intently in the areas of spiritual engagement with reality and what that means for our public lives.
My education is a mixture of formal study in philosophy, political theory, Biblical studies, and history, along with professional teaching certification in TESOL and in cognitive testing, and international teaching.
My travel experiences include a range of countries in Asia, Europe, Africa and North America. I have lived in Canada, the United States, Germany, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand. From those places I have traveled to many others besides.
I am a child of the 70’s and a “family man.” That means I have two wonderful kids who have been round the world with me.
Lastly, I am married to a wonderful woman since 2004. She is my partner, my friend, and my muse.
Thanks again for stopping by,
Raymond Klassen - Ideals and Identities 