Many in the GOP who condemned January 6 when it happened now, like Winston Smith, love Big Brother.
Author Archives: Robin Bates
The GOP Has Learned to Love Big Brother
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged 1984, authoritarianism, Donald Trump, George Orwell, GOP, January 6 insurrection Comments closed
O Is for Dirty Oil Men
A Scott Bates poem about the kinds of billionaires–especially the oil men–who are flocking to Trump.
On Lear and Turning 73
Poet David Wright finds retirement lessons in “King Lear.” And aging lessons as well.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Lines on Retirement after Reading Lear", Aging, Carl Jung, David Wright, King Lear, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare Comments closed
An Ent Sighting in New Zealand
New Zealand’s famous “walking tree” brings to mind Tolkien’s Ents.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged David Haskell, Ents, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Northern Rātā or walking tree, Song of the Trees, trees Comments closed
Dostoevsky’s Near Death Experience (NDE)
Dostoevsky’s description of an epileptic fit is only recently being confirmed by science.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Epileptic fits, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Idiot, NDEs, Near Death Experiences Comments closed
Wendell Berry’s Mad Farmer and Jesus
Early in Mark, Jesus’s family thinks he is insane–but sanity, as Wendell Berry notes in “Manifesto: Man Farmer’s Liberation Front,” is sometimes overrated.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front", Jesus's family, Wendell Berry Comments closed
For Pride Month, An Awakening
Wade’s poem “When I Was Straight” describes a literal awakening that foreshadows a literal awakening.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "When I Was Straight", Julie Marie Wade, Lesbian love, LGBTQ, Pride Month Comments closed
Gulliver Reminds Us of Civic Virtue
Is civic virtue becoming a relic of the past? Gullliver’s Travels can help keep it alive.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged civic virtue, Donald Trump, GOP, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift Comments closed
