Author: Thomas Fleming

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Fleming / Free Content

17 Dec, 2016

The Fleming Foundation Wants You

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Wanted:  A Few Good Men and Women Dear Subscribers and Readers: The Fleming Foundation needs help.  We have virtually no staff but the broken-down old editor plus some part-time help from volunteers, and, if we are going to thrive and grow, we need more. If you have any useful skills—beyond talking a good game or thinking great thoughts —please consider joining our dedicated band of volunteers.  What sorts of skills?  Computer and internet experience, for example, secretarial skills, business administration, book editing and publishing, writing and editing…  We are deficient in every area. And compensation?  Initially, nothing but good will. ...

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Fleming / On the House

17 Dec, 2016

Jerks 2: Taxonomy, Part D

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Self-made millionaires set the tone for this class, and any scholar or man of letters who has had to raise money among men of wealth and influence will see himself in Eliot’s Prufrock.  These poor fools have to listen, hour after hour, to Dives’ tales of victories on the golf course and of his personal prowess in beating down less competent or less ruthless rivals.  I have friends who used to know a Georgia business tycoon—let’s call him Ted—and they regaled me with tales of how the buccaneering plutocrat boasted of besting not just his enemies but his friends.  Once,...

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Autodidact / Fleming

14 Dec, 2016

Aristotle’s Politics, Book VII

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The concluding books of the Politics, VII and VIII, are a meditation on the themes introduced by Plato in the Republic: What is the nature and characteristics of an ideal commonwealth and, in particular, what education would be appropriate for its citizens?  To address these questions, Aristotle has to remind us of what he said in the Ethics about the proper ends of human life—that we do not, to quote Socrates, live to eat but only eat in order to live.  In other words, that material necessities have to be met, not as ends in themselves but as means that must...

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Fleming / On the House

14 Dec, 2016

Dealing with Putin

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Andrei Navrozov has posted a very timely remark on my piece “Donald and the Russians”: “Indeed, let us not “build an even more costly, inefficient, and tyrannical intelligence apparatus.” Let us instead rebuild a military decimated by 30 years of wishful thinking, fraudulent arms control treaties, and suicidal unilateral disarmament.” I agree with my Russian friend, with this proviso: that we take an honest look at who has gained the most since the death of Brezhnev. Where once the West confronted the Soviet Empire in Germany, we now enter into contests of subversion and electioneering in Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, et...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

12 Dec, 2016

Donald and the Russians

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The Russians are coming!  The Russians are coming! Or rather, if we are to believe President Obama’s CIA, they are already here, manipulating presidential elections in favor of their own particular spetznaz, Donald Trump.  Before we decide to ramp up the Second Cold War or build an even more costly, inefficient, and tyrannical intelligence apparatus, Americans might consider, for just a moment, three aspects of this question–simple facts, really– that are receiving scant attention. The first and most obvious fact should be obvious and, if we were listening to the radio, we’d probably hear it from Sean and Alex:  The...

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Diary of a Jerk-Hunter / Feature / Fleming

9 Dec, 2016

Jerks 2, Part C: The Virtue of Being a Selfish Jerk

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The Rugged Individualist   “Who is John Galt?” I don’t know and couldn’t care less, but lots of disgruntled young people waste time on the internet asking this question, as pointless as it is pretentious.  John Galt was, of course, the fictional protagonist of Ayn Rand’s bloated novel, Atlas Shrugged, in which he leads a work-stoppage of the competent and innovative against a world of egalitarian consumers who do not appreciate what the geniuses of the world have done for them.  He is, in other words, the rugged individualist that is supposedly America’s greatest contribution to world civilization.  He is also...

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A Life / Feature / Fleming

8 Dec, 2016

A Life in Shreds and Patches, Chapter 1: In Search of a Vocation, Part D

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By the time I was in school, history had virtually disappeared from the curriculum, displaced by “social studies” units on how Juan and Maria lived on a coffee farm in Brazil and road a donkey to school.  Geography, which before my time meant learning to read a map and name the principle features of the terrain, now meant reading morality plays about the more interesting people who lived in distant lands.  Although I have tried to remedy it, my ignorance of geography has plagued me all my life.  Lately, I have been reading through Momsen’s History of Rome.  I thought...

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Feature / FF

7 Dec, 2016

Roger McGrath Remembers Pearl Harbor, UPDATE 2

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Roger McGrath, US Marine and illustrious historian of the American West, is also an authority on the Second World War.  In this ongoing interview, he sheds some light on the event that drew the United States into war 75 years ago. TFF:  Prof. McGrath: This week marks the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. When you and I were growing up, “Remember Pearl Harbor” was a common phrase, something like “Remember the Alamo in 19th century America. I’d like to explore with you why this event was so significant to two generations of Americans and why these days it seems to be...

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Fleming / Free Content

6 Dec, 2016

California Nightmare

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Meet Derick Almena, model Californian and prototype for the next generation of Americans.  Derick—in his world we dispense with formalities—is “manager” of a warehouse in Oakland California, where he sublets space to various artistes.  At this for-profit arts collective, which he named the Ghost Ship, Derick and his rentors throw parties.  At a dance party last Friday night, a fire started and raced through the rabbit warren, killing at least 36 people.  Derick’s first reaction, posted on Facebook, expressed no sorrow for the victims—much less remorse: “”Everything I worked so hard for is gone.  Blessed that my children and Micah...

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A Life / Fleming

3 Dec, 2016

A Life in Shreds and Patches, I: In Search of a Vocation, Part C

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Friend Harry had not always known he wanted to teach classics, but he had enjoyed his Latin courses at Yale, and it seemed a reasonable decision.  He was not a strong-willed person in any obvious sense of being stubborn or overbearing, but when he made up his mind, in his own quiet way, he stuck things out.  He was,  as the saying used to go, steady as the tortoise who won the race, and it was no surprise when it went on, unobtrusively of course, to a solid career.  I never aspired to steadiness and always found it unfair that...