Mass Society
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Mass Society and “Public” Sexuality, Part 2: Abortion
One may suggest that life either begins at birth or at conception, but neither option treats life very seriously. A more accurate yet more mysterious option might be “life continues through conception”. Continue reading
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Mass Society and “Public” Sexuality Part 1: Contested Moral Terrain
In our investment in Mass Society, liberal-democratic societies have skilled us at politicizing the nonpolitical. Continue reading
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A Private Life and Her Three Communities
Without that inner circle of significant others, we’re left with shallowness and a void: we’re “known of,” but never truly known, even to ourselves. Continue reading
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Fulfilled Needs and Desires: by Gift or by Effort?
A person who thinks of herself secretly as a completely autonomous self, with unlimited possibilities (for this concept is what society teaches), finds herself in an impossible situation. Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat: Existentialism and the Church’s Potential Complacency – Part 4
If … the function of organized religion turns out to be nothing more than to house justification, and canonize, the routines of mass society; if organized religion abdicates its mission to disturb individuals in the depths of their consciences, and seeks instead simply to “make converts” that will smilingly adjust to the status quo, then… Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat Part 3: Mysterious Relationship
Instead of obeying the Word and Spirit of God, the body of those who love one another precisely insofar as they have been freed from facticity and routine, the orderliness of objective mass society, one surrenders at the same time one’s human and one’s religious integrity. Continue reading
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Authenticity Under Threat, Part 2: Alienation in Mass Society
As we saw from Part 1 in this series of posts (which I encourage you to read before going on), our current systems of knowledge and power are not so much concerned with the authentic identity of concrete persons (you and I). Those systems are primarily concerned with objects of study including such commonplace perspectives Continue reading
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Hannah Arendt: Politics – Authenticity, Mass Society and the Private Realm
Arendt invokes the realm of privacy, which is the realm of persons who are significant others to the individual. These significant others are the context for the emergence of an individual. In other words, the realm of privacy includes our social sphere where each of those significant others has a reciprocal relationship with each other. … Continue reading
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Hannah Arendt: Labour and the Colonization of the Private Realm
This is the first lecture that lays the groundwork for connecting the moral ideal of Authenticity to the work of Hannah Arendt. This lecture was given on January 31, and it introduces some of the essential features of Hannah Arendt’s “The Human Condition”, and explores her concept of Labour in the private realm. It suggests Continue reading
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Limitations on Rights: a Bicentennial Reminder from Hegel’s “Elements of the Philosophy of Right”
Among the books of the nineteenth century that have something important to say to us now Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820) deserves a prominent place. It’s not the obvious contender for a popular read in the 21st century. He doesn’t make it easy for himself if getting readers was the aim as his 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 