Author: Thomas Fleming

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The New Phase of the Korean War–a possible explanation

The United States has had difficult relations with North Korea, ever since Harry Truman refused to permit the American military to end the Korean War in victory.  Truman’s lack of resolve, coupled with the American elite’s obsession with global Americanization, has meant a long string of failures:  Cuba, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Iran, and Iraq.  Ever since I grew old enough to think I had the right to answer questions of such scope, I have given the same answer, whenever anyone has asked me what to do:  Fish or Cut Bait!  Either leave other people alone or, if we have to fight,...

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On the Wings of a Snow White Dove–Killing Time in Rome

This was one of the last pieces published in a magazine I used to write for.   You know how it is when you have over an hour to kill downtown in a major city?  How time seems to slow to a stop?  Fortunately, the Roman houses beneath the Palazzo Valentini, which we were waiting to visit, are a stone’s throw from the column of Trajan.  On that warm and sunny day in February, we took over an empty bench facing the imperial fora and soaked in the sun we should not be seeing, when we returned, for months.  Before...

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Rome and Back

I am frequently asked questions about travel, and now that we have announced our Fall convivial program in Italy, I expect to be inundated by requests for information, to which I shall cheerfully and gratefully respond.  Nondimeno, I think it will be helpful if I put together some anticipatory observations. Passport Before you do anything, you should check your passport and determine that your passport is valid beyond several months of your return date.  You may, of course, check out various travel websites as well as the US State Department, and you will find as many answers as there are...

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The Myth of the Culture War

More from “Overture to the Suicide of the West” The older advocates of multi-culturalism used to say that they were, like Jesse Jackson, arguing simply for the inclusion of non-Western cultures into the curriculum of an increasingly diversified student population.  Like Bill Clinton, the multi-culturalists believe that the real America only began to come into existence with the liberation of women, blacks, and children.  America may have been founded by straight white European Christian males, but with the emancipation of women, the granting of civil rights to African Americans, and the incorporation of large numbers of Asians and Latin American...

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Ben Jonson’s Classical Restraint (Free to all subscribers)

Classical Restraint Despite his violent temper and conversion (for a time) to the old religion, Jonson was a well-balanced mind with a fondness for the order and beauty of classical literature. In his comedies, he made use of the classical theory of humors in order to promote his own ideas of the balanced temperament, and in his later poems, especially those collected in The Forrest and in The Underwood, the wild young swordsman has transformed himself into an advocate of reason and moderation, both in literature and in morals.  Jonson had tried both the abusive satires of the 90’s, a...

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Hey Hey, HO HO, Cultural Conservatives Have Got to Go

This is the revised second part of my opening lecture at the 2017 Summer Symposium To understand the West’s cultural suicide, we might  begin by looking at an historical event, not from ancient Greece or 18th century France or even from the legendary 1960’s, which are now regarded as ancient history.  Let us start, instead, with with an episode in the culture war that has become a legend.  The year is 1987, just 30 years ago, and the place is Stanford University.  There stands “the Rev.”Jesse Jackson leading a group of 500 Stanford students, chanting “Hey Hey Ho Ho.  Western...

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Get On the Wrong Side of History (Available to All Subscribers)

This is the first part of my opening shot at the 2017 Summer Symposium. Everyone I know or wish to know is on the wrong side of history.  This is hardly much of a distinction., since,  according to the people who own and operate the United States as a corporate  monopoly, half the country is in the same boat. New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says the Confederacy was on the wrong side of history; The members of Black Lives Matter say white people are on the wrong side of history; Barak Obama has declared just about anyone who disagrees with...

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The Summer Symposium, Days Three and Four

Thursday 9:00 Thomas Fleming: “Renaissance of Conspiracy” 10:45 E.C. Kopff: “From Classical Christian Natural Philosophy to      Enlightenment Science” Lunch 2:00 Christopher Check: “The Cristero War” 3:45 Srdja Trifkovic: “The Russian Counter-Revolution” 6:15 Dinner at Mary’s Market Friday 9:00 E.C. Kopff: “The Rise, Decline, and Triumph of Deism” 10:45 James Patrick: “Skepticism and Common Sense: David Hume and Thomas Reid” Lunch 2:00 Frank Brownlow: “Othello: Iago Takes  a Hint from Pico.” 3:30 Thomas Fleming:  “In Search of the Noble Savage” 4:30 Brief Dibattito 6:30 Dinner at The Hope and Anchor

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Summer Symposium, Day Two

Wednesday 9:00 E. Christian Kopff: “Ockham and Nominalism: The crucial event in the history of Western culture?” 10:45 James Patrick: “The Fortunes of Rationalism: Unitarianism, Latitudinarianism, and Dissent” Lunch 2:00 Thomas Fleming:  “The Ancient Roots of the Conspiracy” 3:30 Frank Brownlow:  “King Lear: Nature’s Reformation” 4:30 Brief Dibattito 6:30 Dinner at The Irish Rose First night dinner at Deli Italia    

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Summer Symposium 2017, Day 1

Summer Symposium 2017, Day 1 Tuesday July 17, 2017 4:00-4:45          Registration at Cliffbreakers 5:00                    Thomas Fleming, “Ouverture to the Suicide of the West” 6:30                     Dinner is served at Deli Italia II on East State Street The Fleming Foundation’s Second Annual Summer Symposium opens today.  Speakers include Prof. Frank Brownlow, Prof. E. Christian Kopff,  Dr. James Patrick, Prof. Srdja Trifkovic, Captain Christopher Check, and Dr. Thomas Fleming Fleming Foundation Headquarters, aka the crumbling Villa Pipistrelli, getting a facelift.