Sleeps with the Angels
The final days of our mother's life.
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Kurt Keefner
Apr 24 min
Writings About Music
Twenty-five years of writing about music! A selection of 17 essays and reviews of music from all over the world.
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Kurt Keefner
Mar 166 min
“Self-Esteem” and Narcissism
Is the Objectivist concept of self-esteem partly to blame for the current wave of narcissism?
440
Kurt Keefner
Nov 23, 20237 min
It's Just Common Sense
Common sense is a surpisingly slippery concept. Here is my attempt to pin it down.
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Kurt Keefner
Nov 15, 20232 min
Talk => Talk => Talk
We usually know what we're going to say before we say it. It's not so obvious how that works..
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Kurt Keefner
Apr 5, 202310 min
Call Me Deacon Blues
Steely Dan's song "Deacon Blues" tells the paradoxical story of how an inauthentic man finds liberation. How much is that everybody's story?
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Kurt Keefner
Nov 20, 202217 min
Fun Songs about Bad Men
When does a fun song about a bad man celebrate wickedness? And is this OK in the name of fun?
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Kurt Keefner
Oct 20, 202212 min
Amazing Meme
The story you didn't know of the classic hymn and how it has been a prolific meme in American culture.
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Kurt Keefner
Oct 5, 202214 min
Foundation Songs
Songs about home: what can we say about them and what do they say about us?
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Kurt Keefner
Aug 16, 20226 min
Contra Szasz
Dr. Thomas Szasz was a staunch opponent of involuntary psychiatric treatment, but there is much more to his thinking.
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Kurt Keefner
Apr 6, 202212 min
Madame X: Portrait of a Scandal
John Singer Sargent's Madame X was not only a bold artistic statement but a pivotal point in the invention of the modern woman.
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Kurt Keefner
Jan 21, 20228 min
Walking into John Singer Sargent
Sargent was one of the greatest painters of his time. I underestimated him. Now I am taking a fresh look at him - and my reactions to him.
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Kurt Keefner
Jan 10, 20222 min
To Become Who You Are
This is an essay about being authentic, which is the alternative to living a falsified life. It is full of hope.
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Kurt Keefner
Dec 30, 20213 min
How a River Becomes a River Once Again
“Before I sought enlightenment, the mountains were mountains and the rivers were rivers. While I sought enlightenment, the mountains were...
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Kurt Keefner
Aug 9, 20217 min
Descending Mount Olympus
Following Ayn Rand too closely stranded me on a mountain peak. Here's how I came down.
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Kurt Keefner
Jun 30, 202116 min
The Perfecting of Howard Roark
Howard Roark is no statue. This is the story of his development as a human character.
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Kurt Keefner
May 20, 20217 min
The Fate of Atlas
I really enjoyed Greek mythology as a boy, but I was never much interested in Atlas. His brother Prometheus, who created humankind and...
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Kurt Keefner
Apr 11, 20213 min
To Choose Wonder
Plato and Aristotle agreed that philosophy starts in wonder, but wonder is a much broader feeling than what they meant. There is...
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Kurt Keefner
Feb 18, 202111 min
Self-Realization and Ecology
How to become who you are naturally rather than by force.
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Kurt Keefner
Dec 5, 20209 min
Freedom and Chess: Playing The Queen's Gambit
Meet Beth Harmon. She is the Mozart of chess, but can she beat her demons?
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