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In retirement, Bob Anschuetz has applied his long career experience as an industrial writer and copy editor to helping authors meet publishing standards for both online articles and full-length books. In work as a volunteer editor for OpEdNews, he has specialized in helping improve, where needed, the readability of articles submitted by authors for whom English is not their native language. With a background that also includes four years as a college English teacher, Bob points to Henry David Thoreau as a major intellectual influence. He cites Thoreau's many writings promoting conscience-based independent thought and action as instrumental in shaping his own continuing commitment to the progressive social and political values of economic fairness, social justice, non-violent conflict resolution, and global community. Bob also continues to pursue a lifelong love of learning. He has been a regular participant in political-science and philosophy seminars, a volunteer discussion-group leader on a variety of topics, and a literacy tutor. Bob is also a strong supporter of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, associated with Tikkun Magazine, where he served as a volunteer archives editor for two years and published several articles online. His extended Letter to the Editor on the widespread triumphalism in America's response to the killing of Osama bin Laden was included in the Summer 2011 issue of Tikkun.
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Sunday, September 25, 2011
Why Obama Is Necessarily Disappointing Us, and What We Can Do about It. Yes, President Obama has disappointed the hopes of progressives that he would lead the country to transformative change. Political theorist Sheldon Wolin shows us why the blame really rests with America's political culture, in his 2008 book, Democracy, Incorporated.
Sunday, September 25, 2011Why Obama Is Necessarily Disappointing Us, and What We Can Do about It. Yes, President Obama has disappointed the hopes of progressives that he would lead the country to transformative change. Political theorist Sheldon Wolin shows us why the blame really rests with America's political culture, in his 2008 book, Democracy, Incorporated.
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Wednesday, September 14, 2011
THE CHALLENGE OF THE CONSERVATIVE MINDSET Conservatives may view the world in terms of competing interests that must be allowed to sort out winners and losers, while progressives tend to look past individual interests to a common humanity that underlies them and demands a politics dedicated to ensuring the general welfare. For many reasons, the progressive view must prevail, but conservatives can help to ensure that it is effectively implemented in the real world.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011THE CHALLENGE OF THE CONSERVATIVE MINDSET Conservatives may view the world in terms of competing interests that must be allowed to sort out winners and losers, while progressives tend to look past individual interests to a common humanity that underlies them and demands a politics dedicated to ensuring the general welfare. For many reasons, the progressive view must prevail, but conservatives can help to ensure that it is effectively implemented in the real world.
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Tuesday, September 13, 2011
We Need a Progressive Primary Challenge to Obama in 2012! Following the President's failure to argue progressive values persuasively in the debt ceiling negotiations, and in view of the minimal attention to those values that can be found in the mainstream media, it's time to encourage a progressive primary challenge to Obama in 2012 that can help educate the public about what it is progressives stand for. It's time to lay a foundation for progressive governance in the future!
Tuesday, September 13, 2011We Need a Progressive Primary Challenge to Obama in 2012! Following the President's failure to argue progressive values persuasively in the debt ceiling negotiations, and in view of the minimal attention to those values that can be found in the mainstream media, it's time to encourage a progressive primary challenge to Obama in 2012 that can help educate the public about what it is progressives stand for. It's time to lay a foundation for progressive governance in the future!
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Thursday, September 20, 2012
A VIEW FROM THE PROGRESSIVE SIDE: Ayn Rand's Despised "Altruism" Is Essential to Building a NATION of "Producers." Ayn Rand was once acknowledged by Paul Ryan as an important intellectual influence, and her views seem now to be uncannily echoed in public statements by Mitt Romney and other members of the Tea Party-dominated Republican Party. This article offers a politically progressive critique of Rand's views, as they appear in a fictional 55-page speech delivered in ATLAS SHRUGGED by its hero, the anti-parasite "producer," John Galt.
Thursday, September 20, 2012A VIEW FROM THE PROGRESSIVE SIDE: Ayn Rand's Despised "Altruism" Is Essential to Building a NATION of "Producers." Ayn Rand was once acknowledged by Paul Ryan as an important intellectual influence, and her views seem now to be uncannily echoed in public statements by Mitt Romney and other members of the Tea Party-dominated Republican Party. This article offers a politically progressive critique of Rand's views, as they appear in a fictional 55-page speech delivered in ATLAS SHRUGGED by its hero, the anti-parasite "producer," John Galt.
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Monday, December 16, 2019
It's Time for a New U.S. Foreign Policy Committed to Diplomacy and Peace America's regime-change wars are a disaster, but the time is right to adopt a new foreign policy committed to diplomacy and peace.
Monday, December 16, 2019It's Time for a New U.S. Foreign Policy Committed to Diplomacy and Peace America's regime-change wars are a disaster, but the time is right to adopt a new foreign policy committed to diplomacy and peace.
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Thursday, April 30, 2015
Progressives Need To Stand for Something Positive and New: the Broad Common Interest, Not Narrow Special Interests. My purpose in this paper is to propose an approach by which progressives can gain a fair hearing and engaged response in presenting their economic ideas to people outside the progressive choir. Such people include alienated non-voters and struggling conservatives, who, together, may represent an unsuspected pool of potential support.
Thursday, April 30, 2015Progressives Need To Stand for Something Positive and New: the Broad Common Interest, Not Narrow Special Interests. My purpose in this paper is to propose an approach by which progressives can gain a fair hearing and engaged response in presenting their economic ideas to people outside the progressive choir. Such people include alienated non-voters and struggling conservatives, who, together, may represent an unsuspected pool of potential support.
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Tuesday, August 8, 2017
War Not Only Kills People: It's the Single Biggest Destroyer of the Environment. The global anti-war activist organization World Beyond War is seeking to increase its impact by joining forces, where possible, with environmental activist groups. The two movements are natural allies: Militarism is the single biggest destroyer of the environment, and government spending on war and war preparation diminish financial resources available for other pressing needs, including fast-paced creation of a green economy.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Tuesday, August 8, 2017War Not Only Kills People: It's the Single Biggest Destroyer of the Environment. The global anti-war activist organization World Beyond War is seeking to increase its impact by joining forces, where possible, with environmental activist groups. The two movements are natural allies: Militarism is the single biggest destroyer of the environment, and government spending on war and war preparation diminish financial resources available for other pressing needs, including fast-paced creation of a green economy.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Thursday, September 7, 2017
Distorted Views of the Enemy and Bush's "Axis of Evil" The willingness of our government to kill and bring misery to millions of powerless people in nations like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, which represent no direct threat to us, cannot be justified alone in terms of vague strategic concerns. It must be further rationalized by psychological projections that distort perceptions of the adversary's true motivations and justify making war against him.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Thursday, September 7, 2017Distorted Views of the Enemy and Bush's "Axis of Evil" The willingness of our government to kill and bring misery to millions of powerless people in nations like Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, which represent no direct threat to us, cannot be justified alone in terms of vague strategic concerns. It must be further rationalized by psychological projections that distort perceptions of the adversary's true motivations and justify making war against him.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Friday, August 18, 2017
War Can Be Ended: It Is a Product of Cultural Choice, Not of "Human Nature." A prominent meme in American foreign policy is "Peace through Strength," but what I want is "Strength through Peace." Guided by that principle, our foreign policy would no longer be driven by the imperatives of strategic dominance, but by the empathic impulse for creative collaboration with our neighbors around the world, aimed at ensuring every individual physical security and the freedom to pursue his or her own happiness.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Friday, August 18, 2017War Can Be Ended: It Is a Product of Cultural Choice, Not of "Human Nature." A prominent meme in American foreign policy is "Peace through Strength," but what I want is "Strength through Peace." Guided by that principle, our foreign policy would no longer be driven by the imperatives of strategic dominance, but by the empathic impulse for creative collaboration with our neighbors around the world, aimed at ensuring every individual physical security and the freedom to pursue his or her own happiness.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Friday, January 6, 2012
Let's Stop Waging War To Advance America's "Interests." This article argues that, though it is rarely acknowledged by opinion makers, it is a moral outrage that the American government has felt free throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first to undertake wars of choice on weak nations -- effectively wrecking their societies and killing countless civilians -- whenever it believes they pose a problem for perceived "national interests."
Friday, January 6, 2012Let's Stop Waging War To Advance America's "Interests." This article argues that, though it is rarely acknowledged by opinion makers, it is a moral outrage that the American government has felt free throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first to undertake wars of choice on weak nations -- effectively wrecking their societies and killing countless civilians -- whenever it believes they pose a problem for perceived "national interests."
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Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Ten Tips on Writing Articles for Online Publication This tutorial by a seasoned copy editor offers some valuable tips on improving the readability and publishability of articles submitted to online discussion forums.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017Ten Tips on Writing Articles for Online Publication This tutorial by a seasoned copy editor offers some valuable tips on improving the readability and publishability of articles submitted to online discussion forums.
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Tuesday, July 4, 2017
A Proposed Meaning for Human Life: Using Our Powers of Conscious Creativity to Find Joyous Harmony in Diversity. We human beings are the most successful product of biological evolution on earth, the only species with the capacity to create the necessary conditions for our own happiness. The key to that happiness is to make conscious use of our inborn talents to produce, in creative interplay with others, new ideas, tools, products, and other resources that add objective value to society and the world by meeting genuine human needs.
Tuesday, July 4, 2017A Proposed Meaning for Human Life: Using Our Powers of Conscious Creativity to Find Joyous Harmony in Diversity. We human beings are the most successful product of biological evolution on earth, the only species with the capacity to create the necessary conditions for our own happiness. The key to that happiness is to make conscious use of our inborn talents to produce, in creative interplay with others, new ideas, tools, products, and other resources that add objective value to society and the world by meeting genuine human needs.
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Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Compared to the Benefits of Peace, Spending Money on War Is Insane Few people fail to regret the death, destruction and suffering inflicted by war. Another of its consequences, however, is in the long run even more damaging to the cause of human well-being. That is the waste of resources in preparing for, and waging, war that could otherwise be used to help meet the physical, economic, social, and cultural needs of ordinary people.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Tuesday, September 12, 2017Compared to the Benefits of Peace, Spending Money on War Is Insane Few people fail to regret the death, destruction and suffering inflicted by war. Another of its consequences, however, is in the long run even more damaging to the cause of human well-being. That is the waste of resources in preparing for, and waging, war that could otherwise be used to help meet the physical, economic, social, and cultural needs of ordinary people.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Monday, July 3, 2017
We Can, and Need To, Negotiate with Putin, Not Demonize Him. To my mind, the current obsession of American politicians and mass media with Russian interference in our presidential election is both blatantly hypocritical--considering America's own misdeeds--and demonstrative of an inability to walk a mile in the other guy's moccasins. The far bigger fish we Americans have to fry is avoiding a nuclear war with Russia. That will require negotiating with Putin, not demonizing him.
Monday, July 3, 2017We Can, and Need To, Negotiate with Putin, Not Demonize Him. To my mind, the current obsession of American politicians and mass media with Russian interference in our presidential election is both blatantly hypocritical--considering America's own misdeeds--and demonstrative of an inability to walk a mile in the other guy's moccasins. The far bigger fish we Americans have to fry is avoiding a nuclear war with Russia. That will require negotiating with Putin, not demonizing him.
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Monday, February 19, 2018
America's Motto Can't Be "America First." It Must Be "People First." The U.S. should begin to shift its foreign policy away from waging war or providing military aid to benefit the regional ambitions of countries whose principal virtue is that they serve America's geopolitical interests. Instead, its foreign policy should be aimed primarily at helping all undeveloped countries gain access to life essentials such as clean water and food. The defense dollars saved could be put to much better use.
Monday, February 19, 2018America's Motto Can't Be "America First." It Must Be "People First." The U.S. should begin to shift its foreign policy away from waging war or providing military aid to benefit the regional ambitions of countries whose principal virtue is that they serve America's geopolitical interests. Instead, its foreign policy should be aimed primarily at helping all undeveloped countries gain access to life essentials such as clean water and food. The defense dollars saved could be put to much better use.
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Monday, July 11, 2011
Progressive Leadership To Serve the Common Good This article argues for "progressive" solutions to the nation's critical debt and employment problems, but makes the larger point that the approach proposed can help heal widespread popular alienation by overtly addressing the common good, rather than the narrow needs of a ruling elite.
Monday, July 11, 2011Progressive Leadership To Serve the Common Good This article argues for "progressive" solutions to the nation's critical debt and employment problems, but makes the larger point that the approach proposed can help heal widespread popular alienation by overtly addressing the common good, rather than the narrow needs of a ruling elite.
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Wednesday, August 30, 2017
War Is Immoral: It Reinforces a Social Pathology That Keeps Us from Fulfilling Our Positive Human Potential War is immoral, because it violates the very principle of what it means to be a human being. War may have a transitory effect on human history, but it is at bottom a reactionary force, serving mainly to reinforce a human mindset that famed psychologist Abraham Maslow called the "psychopathology of the average." A principle manifestation of that pathology is the inability to see the world from the other guy's point of view.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Wednesday, August 30, 2017War Is Immoral: It Reinforces a Social Pathology That Keeps Us from Fulfilling Our Positive Human Potential War is immoral, because it violates the very principle of what it means to be a human being. War may have a transitory effect on human history, but it is at bottom a reactionary force, serving mainly to reinforce a human mindset that famed psychologist Abraham Maslow called the "psychopathology of the average." A principle manifestation of that pathology is the inability to see the world from the other guy's point of view.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Wednesday, August 10, 2016
We Need a Creativity Revolution to Meet Real Human Needs and Spark Personal and Social Joy. We human beings are the most successful product of biological evolution on earth, the only species with the capacity to create the necessary conditions for our own happiness. The key to that happiness is to make conscious use of our inborn talents to produce, in creative interplay with others, new ideas, tools, products, and other resources that add objective value to society and the world by meeting genuine human needs.
Wednesday, August 10, 2016We Need a Creativity Revolution to Meet Real Human Needs and Spark Personal and Social Joy. We human beings are the most successful product of biological evolution on earth, the only species with the capacity to create the necessary conditions for our own happiness. The key to that happiness is to make conscious use of our inborn talents to produce, in creative interplay with others, new ideas, tools, products, and other resources that add objective value to society and the world by meeting genuine human needs.
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Sunday, September 17, 2017
Non-Violent Civil Resistance Works. It May Be the Only Way to Stop America's Next Unnecessary and Illegal War! Non-violent civil resistance has proved a successful strategy for combating the conduct or policies of repressive regimes and repelling occupation by foreign invaders. It may also be the only way to prevent America's next unnecessary and illegal war and, ultimately, in freeing the world from the tyranny of institutionalized militarism.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Sunday, September 17, 2017Non-Violent Civil Resistance Works. It May Be the Only Way to Stop America's Next Unnecessary and Illegal War! Non-violent civil resistance has proved a successful strategy for combating the conduct or policies of repressive regimes and repelling occupation by foreign invaders. It may also be the only way to prevent America's next unnecessary and illegal war and, ultimately, in freeing the world from the tyranny of institutionalized militarism.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Sunday, September 24, 2017
A Multifaceted Movement to Outlaw War: as Outlined in David Swanson's "War No More: the Case for Abolition" In the words of its Director, David Swanson, the anti-war activist organization World Beyond War stands for something new: "not a movement to oppose particular wars or new offensive weapons, but a movement to eliminate war in its entirety." Achieving that goal, as he shows in his book "War No More: the Case for Abolition," will be hard and take time, but the alternative is to invite either nuclear or environmental destruction.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Sunday, September 24, 2017A Multifaceted Movement to Outlaw War: as Outlined in David Swanson's "War No More: the Case for Abolition" In the words of its Director, David Swanson, the anti-war activist organization World Beyond War stands for something new: "not a movement to oppose particular wars or new offensive weapons, but a movement to eliminate war in its entirety." Achieving that goal, as he shows in his book "War No More: the Case for Abolition," will be hard and take time, but the alternative is to invite either nuclear or environmental destruction.
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Tuesday, September 5, 2017
America's Wars Are Making Us Less Free and Safe America's best course as the world's only superpower is not to try to force small developing nations to remake themselves in ways that serve our own security and economic interests. We should instead help them realize their own national aspirations by offering them the economic, political and technological assistance they may need to do so. Isn't this, in the end, the only sensible approach for dealing with North Korea?
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
Tuesday, September 5, 2017America's Wars Are Making Us Less Free and Safe America's best course as the world's only superpower is not to try to force small developing nations to remake themselves in ways that serve our own security and economic interests. We should instead help them realize their own national aspirations by offering them the economic, political and technological assistance they may need to do so. Isn't this, in the end, the only sensible approach for dealing with North Korea?
Series: War Must and Can Be Ended (8 Articles, 12300 views)
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Wednesday, January 4, 2017
"Manglehorn": A Call to the Authentic Life The 2014 Al Pacino movie "Manglehorn," available on DVD, is a psychological drama that also seems to me an artful meditation on the theme of inauthenticity in American life. The title character, Manglehorn, played by Pacino, avoids facing life's realities until a harsh in-your-face challenge to his own sense of self sets him on a different course.
Wednesday, January 4, 2017"Manglehorn": A Call to the Authentic Life The 2014 Al Pacino movie "Manglehorn," available on DVD, is a psychological drama that also seems to me an artful meditation on the theme of inauthenticity in American life. The title character, Manglehorn, played by Pacino, avoids facing life's realities until a harsh in-your-face challenge to his own sense of self sets him on a different course.
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Saturday, January 16, 2016
How To Add Staying Power to the Sanders Campaign In my book, Bernie Sanders of all presidential candidates has the best ideas for America and can be trusted most to back his ideas to the hilt. But for staying power to win the presidency, his campaign needs to be strengthened in two ways: by broadening its message to include the One Percent, and by quickly planning and mobilizing an activist people's movement with a comprehensive strategic plan.
Saturday, January 16, 2016How To Add Staying Power to the Sanders Campaign In my book, Bernie Sanders of all presidential candidates has the best ideas for America and can be trusted most to back his ideas to the hilt. But for staying power to win the presidency, his campaign needs to be strengthened in two ways: by broadening its message to include the One Percent, and by quickly planning and mobilizing an activist people's movement with a comprehensive strategic plan.
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Monday, March 19, 2012
Living Out the Creative Self: It's the Key to Bridging Differences and to a Meaningful Life. As de Toqueville noted, Americans are "joiners," deriving a large part of their self-identity from the values of the groups to which they are attached. The insularity of many value-based groups makes outreach to groups with other views and values difficult or impossible. This article argues that meaningful communication is only possible when it reflects the powers of creativity and insight innate in individual group members.
Monday, March 19, 2012Living Out the Creative Self: It's the Key to Bridging Differences and to a Meaningful Life. As de Toqueville noted, Americans are "joiners," deriving a large part of their self-identity from the values of the groups to which they are attached. The insularity of many value-based groups makes outreach to groups with other views and values difficult or impossible. This article argues that meaningful communication is only possible when it reflects the powers of creativity and insight innate in individual group members.
