Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Dostoevsky Explains Trump’s Appeal

By Robin Bates | Published: December 27, 2015

Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor helps explain Donald Trump’s popularity: people want certainty more than they want freedom of thought.

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Is Freedom More Powerful than Fear?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2015

Obama in his Oval Office speech on terrorism said that “freedom is more powerful than fear.” Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor would beg to differ.

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Conspiracy Theories Explained

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2015

Why do conspiracy theories thrive? Because people can’t face up to the emptiness that would come with a real explanation. Thomas Hardy understands the phenomenon in his poem “Hap.”

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We Risk Becoming Grendel’s Mother

By Robin Bates | Published: November 16, 2015

In reaction to the horrors of the Paris massacres, we are in danger of becoming consumed by the vengeful grief of Grendel’s Mother. The times call upon us to be Beowulf strong.

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Tolstoy Calls Us to Aid Syrian Refugees

By Robin Bates | Published: October 4, 2015

During the evacuation of Moscow in “War and Peace,” the Rostov family gives up their worldly goods to help soldiers in distress. This is much more than many in the U.S. are willing to do for Syrian refugees.

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An ABC of Our Attack on the Earth

By Robin Bates | Published: September 3, 2015

In his “ABC of Radical Ecology,” Scott Bates sets forth an alphabet primer for various environmental ills.

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Obama’s Eulogy & Beloved’s Baby Suggs

By Robin Bates | Published: July 3, 2015

Commentator Melissa Harris-Perry quoted from “Beloved” following Obama’s Charleston eulogy. The passage she chose helps explain the power of the speech.

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No Room in This House for Two “I”s

By Robin Bates | Published: June 28, 2015

A Rumi parable speaks to the recent killings in Kuwait City and Charleston. It shares certain themes with Barack Obama’s Friday eulogy to Reverend Pinckney.

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Hillary Will Be Cast as a Witch

By Robin Bates | Published: April 23, 2015

Prepare to see Hillary Clinton cast by the GOP in the role of the Wicked Witch of the West

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