Author: Thomas Fleming

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Free Content

8 Jan, 2019

Should Students Read T.S. Eliot?

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Dear Autodidact: Question for you. T. S Eliot is one of my favorite poets. ( I have read and re-read many of his poems) Most friends of mine aren’t as enthusiastic about him. I’ve often heard people say that he “killed poetry” with his “Modernist” style. This is also the view of a number of conservative professors I know (none is  a literary scholar, though) Do you think there’s any truth to this claim? I tend to read poetry for its meaning, not its style (so Eliot’s style doesn’t bother me much) A Catholic College Student Dear Catholic College Student,...

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Fleming / Free Content

7 Jan, 2019

Direct Election: A Grave Threat to Republics

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John Seiler has posted a sensible column on why the electoral college is not going to disappear in a puff of smoke.  He points out that one of the great compromises that made the Constitution possible is an electoral system that protects the interests of smaller states without eliminating all the advantage enjoyed by larger states.  There is, however, another aspect of the electoral college that is worth looking at:  the principle of indirect election.

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

5 Jan, 2019

The Future Belongs to Them

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The freshman Democrats in Congress are behaving like the stars of a down-market reality TV show.  Alexandria—like Cher and Madonna, she really doesn’t need a last name—has been dancing up a storm, though many of her supporters have been disappointed by her lumbering performance.  

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Free Content

1 Jan, 2019

Sicilian Trog, Part II

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This is the long-awaited Part II of my Agrigento Trog There is hardly a better place in Europe—not even Athens—were the differences between the ancient and the modern world can be felt so acutely.  20th century Agrigento is, at its best, a tribute to the greed and and contempt for humanity that have characterized modern governments that are the distilled essence of democratic man.  The local government is hopelessly inept at carrying out the most basic tasks—picking up trash, policing traffic, cracking down on organized crime.  And yet, good democratic socialists that they are, they have imposed new rules on...

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Autodidact

30 Dec, 2018

How To Learn—and Not to Learn—a Foreign Language, Part III:  Grammar

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“I’ve grammar and spelling for two And blood and behavior for twenty. In studying any new language, the two most basic elements are the proper pronunciation, meaning—and of course spelling—of words, in other words ‘vocabulary,’ and grammar.  In simple English, while the study of vocabulary focuses attention on individual words, grammar consists of the rules that determine the form (morphology) and function or structure (syntax) of words. The arbiters of Postmodern English have tried their best to eliminate prescriptive grammar—that is, the normative rules of language usage—from our speech, but few other European languages have been so thoroughly revolutionized.  The...

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Best Revenge / Fleming

27 Dec, 2018

Trog 6

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Most of us Americans, by the time we reach a certain age, have grown used to living in our own houses with our own families and under our own rules.  Travel upsets all our  arrangements, and in hotels we are subjected to other people’s arguments and, what is worse, to other people’s children.  Here in Agrigento, we have our own little house, which is really just two apartments that make up one building.  But, for all the privacy we have, we are still on other people’s property. The other people are used to strangers, since they operate a very nice...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

24 Dec, 2018

Imperialism From the Cradle to the Grave, Conclusion

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In the bad old days of previous centuries and millennia,  conquering nations trashed the civilizations they occupied for diverse reasons.  (I am not now speaking of looting, which can sometimes be a back-handed token of esteem.) Some savages and barbarians just like breaking things.  Since they cannot create, they can at least destroy.  Sometimes it is to teach a lesson.  “You think you Jews can play power-politics by making an alliance with the Egyptians?  Watch this!”  Sometimes, the point is to destroy symbols and traditions to which the conquerors object on moral grounds:  Cortez was a ruthless man, but the...

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Autodidact / Feature / Fleming

24 Dec, 2018

How to Learn–and Not to Learn–a Foreign Language, Part II. Defining Goals

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Many people, embarking upon a serious study of a living foreign language, dream of acquiring fluency.  While this is probably an impossible dream for most of us, so are a virtuous life, athletic prowess, and saintliness.  The difficulty should be no deterrent to the determined, though we must always keep in mind the very remote chance that we could ever succeed. What do I mean by fluency?  My second Greek teacher, Walton Morris, had a rigorous definition.  In the 1950’s he had worked in Army intelligence along the French-German border, gathering information on Communist activities.  One day, he would pose...

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Autodidact

20 Dec, 2018

How–and How Not To—-to Learn a Foreign Language:  Preface

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In the land of the fast buck, the Flim Flam man is a king who never goes broke underestimating his fellow-citizens.  Where lesser men are horrified by the sufferings of humanity, the great man  unflinchingly faces disasters—famine,  plague, drought, or shortage of memory sticks—as an opportunity to increase his fortune.  And, where there is no actual shortage or serious problem, it is a small matter to create the illusion that fathers en masse are molesting their daughters, millions of children are being snatched by strangers, or synagogues are under siege by an upsurge of Nazi anti-Semitism.  To remedy these tragic...