Author: Thomas Fleming

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Autodidact / Fleming

26 May, 2017

Ben Jonson, Part I

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This is a revised and improved version of a talk I gave at a Summer School on Elizabethan/Jacobean England.     In the north aisle of the nave of Westminster Abbey there is a tomb of a man buried vertically with the inscription, “O Rare Ben Johnson.” [sic]  The inscription was made at the request of a casual visitor who happened to be walking by. The misspelling is believed to be the work of those who replaced the original at some point.  The unusual positioning is explained by an anecdote.  Jonson was being chaffed, so the story goes, by the...

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Fleming / Free Content

25 May, 2017

SPECIAL GUESTS AT SUMMER SEMINAR

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Time is running out, but there is still time to sign up for our special program on the roots of the revolutionary tradition.    In addition to the lecturers we have already announced we hope to have two old friends with us:  Christopher Check, my former second-in-command, who will be speaking on the Mexican Revolution and the persecution of Christians, and Dr. Srdja Trifkovic, who will share his thoughts on recent developments in Russia.  If you are still hesitating, about coming, then read the letter below one more time.   Dear Friend and Fellow-Reader: “The lamps are going out all...

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Fleming / Free Content

23 May, 2017

The Religion of Peace is Busting Out All Over

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American bigots are always complaining about Islamic violence.  They apparently are incapable of listening to the reasonable and fact-based arguments put forth by their democratically elected monarchs.  George Bush explained to us that Islam was a “religion of peace,” and his successor gave us the  valuable lesson in American history that Muslims had been with us from the beginning.  Of course they were, doesn’t anyone remember the Terrorists who went by the name of Barbary Pirates? For all these reasons and many more, American bigots should beware of drawing conclusions from the recent attack in Manchester, England, that left 22...

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Autodidact / Fleming

18 May, 2017

Filmer’s Patriarcha, Conclusion

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Filmer’s Patriarcha, Conclusion Most of the most important topics that Filmer takes up have been covered, but there are a few points in the latter parts of the work that are worth pointing out and possibly talking about.  Let me list them briefly. 1) In his discussion of John Selden (VIII), Filmer cleverly notes the discrepancy in the arguments of those who flatly rejection the idea  that sovereign power can be traced to Adam but eagerly embrace the notion that property rights derive from the first man.  I didnt’ know there were already libertarians in the 17th century.  In his...

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Fleming / Free Content

16 May, 2017

Trump ‘s Enemies on Right and Left–A Plague on Both their Houses

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The Trumpster is in trouble again. In this week’s tempest in a teapot, he is:  A) Derided for apparently  backing off on the promise to move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem—Mark Levin is livid, and I can’t imagine why!  B)  Accused of sharing information with the Russians on how to fight ISIS—the news room of the Washington Post is said to have cheered the report.  C) Deserted by the professionally  dumb blond of the conservative press, Ann Coulter. In reverse order:  If you have ever cared about what Ms Coulter—a perpetual adolescent who will not act or dress her...

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Fleming / On the House

15 May, 2017

Cyber Attacks–Cold Turkey for Addicts

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Free to all subscribers, unpaid as well as paid. The cyber attack that began last Friday has much of the world–at least that part of it that worships the living demon Bill Gates instead of the demon ghost of Steve Jobs–trembling in fear.  Most Windows users are not at risk, apparently, since the attack is aimed at  an older version of  Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system.  one that is not given tech support by the company.  Microsoft has quickly made a patch-update available to prevent access to the attack, but  since much of the Third World is relying on pirated software, which  cannot be...

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Fleming / Free Content

12 May, 2017

Still Time to Join the Counter-Revolution

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Revolution & Resistance Dear Friend and Fellow-Reader: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.”Sir Edward Grey’s famous remark was inspired by the outbreak of World War I, the European civil war that was the beginning of the end of our civilization.  Now that we are closer to the end than to the beginning of our descent into the abyss, it is more vitally important than ever to understand what has happened, or rather, what we have done to ourselves.At our first Summer School, we studied the greatest external threat...

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Fleming / Free Content

11 May, 2017

Filmer’s Patriarcha, IV-VII (FREE)

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Filmer is typically accused of tracing the legitimacy of Charles I, back, in an unbroken line, to Adam.  What he actually argues is something different.  In the first place, he points out that, at least in principle,  there is always an heir, even if that heir is unknown.  If Adam were still alive and died today, there would be an heir, though no one would be able to discover who it was.  On the strength of the Old Testament, he assumes that the principle of primogeniture is universal, when it is not.  The privilege given first-born sons is a natural tendency,...

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Articles / Autodidact / Free Content

10 May, 2017

The New Index: Deleting the Great Books of the Anti-Western World

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Most people are acquainted with published series and curriculum lists of  “great books,” such as the Great Books of the Western World, the Harvard Five Foot Shelf, the reading lists of “great books” colleges, and the contributions to curriculum reform made by the latterday president of the Wizard of Oz University, the Great and Terrible Bill Bennett. Most of the writers on most of the lists are either deserving of careful study, such as Homer and Sophocles, Vergil and Cicero, Dante and Shakespeare, or at least harmlessly pleasant pieces of fictions (Little Dorritt) or merely tedious scientific and mathematical works (Ptolemy,...

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Feature / Fleming / From Under The Rubble

10 May, 2017

Feeding the Monster:  Macron and the Propaganda War

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The new French president claims that opponents tried to sabotage his campaign by claiming that he is homosexual.  The claims were based, on the one hand,  in  “misogyny because they say it’s not possible to be with a woman who’s 24 years older, and “on the other side, it’s homophobic.” Emmanuel Macron is in a bit of a bind, because when any public figure denies allegations of  homosexuality, his denials are taken, in some quarters at least, as evidence of anti-homosexual bigotry.  He is quick, therefore, to insist that he would cheerfully admit to being homosexual, if he were, though I...