An Old Clip from PBS: Thomas Fleming

Pastor David Ramirez posted this bit of an interview done a long time ago with Thomas Fleming  for the series "Making Sense of the Sixties."  I am not sure who this black-haired young man is, but his point of view seems familiar.

 

Avatar photo

Thomas Fleming

Thomas Fleming is president of the Fleming Foundation. He is the author of six books, including The Morality of Everyday Life and The Politics of Human Nature, as well as many articles and columns for newspapers, magazines,and learned journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Greek from the College of Charleston. He served as editor of Chronicles: a Magazine of American Culture from 1984 to 2015 and president of The Rockford Institute from 1997-2014. In a previous life he taught classics at several colleges and served as a school headmaster in South Carolina

8 Responses

  1. Ken Rosenberger says:

    This is a great clip, as fresh today as whenever it was filmed. I think you may have a good theme for a future symposium too: Conservative heroes who were written off as lefties by mainstream conservatives. Berry and Kerouac would be good subjects obviously. Who else? George Kennan, John Lukacs, maybe Gene McCarthy? All the people slandered by David Frum in his Unpatriotic Conservatives hit piece. Heck, you could do an entire week on the people purged by National Review back in the day.

  2. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    Yes, all of the above. I had contact with Kennan, except what I heard from Lukacs, and, of course, Kerouac was out of it by the time I realized what he really was. But Lukacs was a friend, I had some dealings with Berry whom I admired and liked, and spoke on the telephone once or twice with Clean Gene.

  3. Allen Wilson says:

    It seems like I remember seeing this on TV back then, but of course I didn’t know who you were, didn’t pay attention, and couldn’t have understood any of it if I had. Ah, the ignorance of youth!

  4. Robert Reavis says:

    Dear Tom,
    These thoughtful answers you provided “back in the day” remind me of those scenes one can still observe along the west coast of calm looking boulders lodged in the surf surrounded by violent ocean waves. I am surprised PBS aired such a thoughtful piece but am pleased they did.

  5. Avatar photo Thomas Fleming says:

    It was a multi-part program in which I was one of many presenters. The producer who interviewed me struck me as intelligent and thoughtful. His original conception was to make a point-counterpoint program presenting the positions of left and right. After some preliminary interviews on the telephone, he asked me to recommend some other conservatives, which I did. Later he told me he couldn’t use most of the interviews of conservatives he had gone to the trouble, not because they were too rightwing or extreme but because they were incoherent, simply predictable cliches stitched together. When we met in Ann Arbor, I suggested that he aim more at a few central themes and spend less time on partisan debate. It turned out to be a pretty decent show. Of course it was slanted toward the kids, but after all it was their revolution, but overall, it was thoughtful.

  6. James D. says:

    Dr. Fleming,

    On Youtube, your video has generated over 26,000 views and 550 comments. Most that I read were supportive. The world needs more Dr. Fleming on Youtube! I would love to see the entire interview.

  7. Andrew G Van Sant says:

    I came across a review of the series published in the Baltimore Sun. Total BS, and I do not mean Baltimore Sun.

  8. Ben says:

    Watching how the eyes move as he speaks, speaks volumes.

    Where are all the good interviews today?