Author: Thomas Fleming

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Fleming

7 Nov, 2016

The Political Lessons of Polybius for 2016, Part I

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Before going further in Polybius’ analysis of the “Libyan War,”  what lessons have we learned so far? First there is the lesson that Machiavelli tried in vain to teach the Italians of his day:  Mercenaries–people who serve in the military for pay and benefits and not out of loyalty to their own people–cannot be trusted.  They are working for their own benefit and not for their country’s.  A few years ago, my sons and I were assaulted by a group of angry black soldiers just back from the Middle East.  “We fightin’ fo you freedom, MFers!”  Of course we have many...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

7 Nov, 2016

Some Ugly Truths

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Conservatives who are content to run against Hillary, without opposing the regime itself,  are working for the other side.  Ask James Comey, Alex Jones, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, George Will….and any lackey of the regime you run into. If Comey knows Hillary is guilty and is hiding the evidence, he should be forced to resign and stand trial.  If Comey did not learn anything knew from Huma and Anthony’s computers but reopened the investigation, he should be forced to resign and stand trial. Anyone advocating abortion for other people should be forced, retroactively, to submit to one.  Retroactive abortion stops...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

5 Nov, 2016

Working Men of All Countries, Unite!

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I shall keep this simple, stupid, and brief.  Our rulers have drawn the line in the sand.  The Bushes have voted for Hillary, “fiscal conservative” John Kasich has voted for the worst Republican candidate in the history of the GOP (John McCain), and the neoconservatives–from Bill Kristol to David Brooks to George Will–have told us that the American hegemony and the American way of life hang in the balance. For a change, the neocons are right.  While they pretend to hate Trump because he is too fond of women, wears a comical rug, and plays the bully when he is challenged, those are not...

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Autodidact

4 Nov, 2016

Political Lessons from Polybius: Introduction

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Dull-witted and lethargic from a touch of gastroenteritis courtesy of the fine food we consumed last week in Dayton, Ohio–we couldn’t make it to Greece but did we really have to spend time in a Dayton Holiday Inn?–I got tired of reading early 20th century espionage novels and poorly written Welsh history.  I happened to open up my little leather travel bag from Florence and found the first  volume of the Loeb edition of Polybius. I have never been a fan of Polybius–his Greek is wooden and repetitious–but he was a wise historian.  I picked up where I had left...

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Diary of a Jerk-Hunter / Fleming

2 Nov, 2016

Jerks, Chapter I, Part D

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Most of us would agree that bad manners are a small thing, when set beside murder, mayhem, and abortion.  Sometimes, though, I wonder.  Thomas De Quincey, in his second lecture on “Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” may have been on the right track when he warned, tongue-in-cheek, against the negative consequences of committing murder. For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. De Quincey could take it for granted that...

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Autodidact / Fleming

2 Nov, 2016

Aristotle’s Politics, Book VI

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Book VI By now Aristotle has taught us to distinguish among the different forms of government according to the characteristics of their sovereigns and to see how one form, through decay or revolution, slips into another or turns into an illegal form.  With this in mind, we need, says Aristotle, to give some attention to the different varieties of democracy, aristocracy, and monarchy.  For us modern Americans, of course, the most interesting discussion concerns democracy, because that is the form of government we say we have. The root principle of democracy is eleutheria, political liberty, both in the sense that...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

25 Oct, 2016

The Truth From Donald’s Big Mouth

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Donald Trump is the bull in the Republican china shop—or, considering who pays our politicians,  should that be China shop?  Whatever passes before his eyes or between his ears can inspire speculations—usually presented as self-evident truths—so outrageous that they offend the official media and embarrass even loyal supporters. To make matters worse, Donald’s most ridiculous proclamations typically have not just a grain of truth but whole boulders of the stuff, bigger than the land mass of Eurasia on a map of the world.  Truth makes Trump’s pronouncements more wicked in the same way that St. Thomas says a true detraction...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

17 Oct, 2016

One Reason to Vote for Trump and 9 Not To…

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Supposing that all the criticisms of Donald Trump are true–and there is at least a grain of truth in most of them–then what? Cons Starting at the bottom of the negatives, Donald Trump is 9  As rude as Hillary Clinton 8 As ignorant as Barack Obama. 7 He has the command of English typical of an NPR newsreader and 6  The social and political philosophy of a baboon in heat. 5  He love women the way a Japanese winner of a hotdog eating contest loves wieners and 4  Actually thinks he is a great man because he has gamed a crooked system...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

13 Oct, 2016

The Long Awaited Death of the Noble Prizes

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The Swedish Academy has announced that the 2016 Nobel Prize for Literature goes to Robert Zimmerman, aka “Bob Dylan.”  Although the announcement left several hundred literate readers in USA—there are at least that many—scratching their heads, the award should be understood as the latest move in a struggle between the Dumb Swede Academy and the Dumb Norwegian Academy. In their campaigns to make the entire world as dumb as Scandinavia, the two confederacies of dunces have pulled off many coups.  In recent decades, the Dumb Swedes have scored a string of successes, hunting up obscure Third World writers, unknown in...

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Feature / Fleming

11 Oct, 2016

Rabbi Jacob Neusner, R.I.P.

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My friend Marco Respinti just wrote to ask me about Jacob Neusner, who died (so I learned) on October 8.   Perhaps my readers will bear with me, if I share a few thoughts on an old friend. How did I recruit Neusner for Chronicles?  I had read several of his popular articles in a number of places, including (as I recall) The National Review.  Finding writers is a large part of an editor’s job, and that means reading a lot of often uninteresting articles and books.  While Neusner wrote too much and too quickly to become much of a prose...