Author: Thomas Fleming

3

Fleming / Free Content

27 May, 2019

Rights to Public Education?

By

The discussion of human rights limps along on the Forum: Political theories are often too abstract–too etherial to stand fast in the high winds of everyday life.  Let us turn to some everyday topics where human rights might be invoked.  I’ll put a simple one on the table, and others, I hope, will up the ante.  Once upon a time it was assumed that parents were obligated to provide for their children’s education, either by teaching them at home, paying for the private schools they sent them to, or, by the later 19th century in some parts of the US,...

1

Feature / Fleming

21 May, 2019

Romantic Nationalism, I: The Humanity of Herder

By

Herder approached the nations of the world much as a radical environmentalist today regards endangered species.  Each nation is precious because it reflects some quality within the human type, and when an imperial nation eliminates another nation, it is committing a crime against humanity.

12

Free Content

13 May, 2019

Nationalism–the Wrong Right Turn

By

According to nationalists, the will of the nation, as defined as an historic community of blood and tongue, had to find expression in a common and unified state.  Hence, the Italian nationalist Mazzini, whose political lineage goes back to the Revolution, spoke always of the twin principles of unity and nationality.

2

Free Content

8 May, 2019

Poem: John Dryden’s Prologue to Cesare Borgia

By

In this prologue, Dryden takes up the conventional topics of the audience’s lack of appreciation and gratitude.  His clever and self-serving abuse is even more applicable today, to readers who spend hours every day reading what they imagine to be news,.while ignoring the fiction, poetry, and essays that might do them a little good–if only by raising their standards.