In Book III of De Officiis Cicero poses a dilemma: Suppose a father were robbing a temple or digging tunnels into the treasury; should a son give information to the government? The philosopher’s answer, according to Cicero, was: No, that would be wrong.
This piece is a slightly revised version of a piece I published some 16 years ago in a magazine I was then editing. “States Rights? You can’t be serious! What do you want to do–restore Jim Crow or bring back slavery?” Any serious discussion of the American republic always comes aground on this rock, and it does not matter which kind of liberal is expressing the obligatory shock and dismay, whether he is a leftist at the Nation, a neoliberal at the New Republic, or a National Review minicon (or should that be “moneycon”?) looking for ways to pander and slander their way if not...
Kellen Buckles wrote to TFF Facebook page: A friend gave me a copy of Rebecca West’s “Black Lamb and Grey Falcon” and I was wondering if my time will be well spent negotiating those 1,150 pages. Her prologue was full of intriguing ideas but I don’t want to be led astray. TJF: The simple answer is that it is a wonderful book, certainly the most insightful and entertaining volume on the Balkans that is available in English. Nothing else comes close. West does not know the language and makes historical mistakes, but her approach is humble and allows the various...
Everyone these days seems to have some complaint against the Christmas holiday. You’ve heard them all by now, Muslims and Jews whining about “inclusiveness,” downtown storeowners complaining about the chainstores in the malls, and chainstores complaining about Amazon. Small wonder people are so depressed this time of year. Not only is the sun disappearing—and who knows if the global warmingists will ever let it return?—but everyone and his Buddhist brother has some ax to grind. The late Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Whacky Church of G-d Knows What used to do an annual radio broadcast denouncing Christmas. Crazy...
Book I is concerned, generally, with the morally right, and specifically with the four virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and temperance–simple terms in English, but quite complex, both in reality and in Cicero’s treatment.
The long reign of Alexios III (1349-90) marks the beginning of the end of the Empire of Trebizond. Alexios, as the result of a palace coup, came to the throne as a boy of 11, and his youth and inexperience were an invitation to challenges of every sort: warlords in the provinces, his own counselors and bureaucrats, and even from within the church. The Trapezuntine elite was dominated by factions loyal either to Constantinople or to the more locally centered provincial aristocracy. The feud between the Genoese and Venetians broke out again, when the latter were once again granted...
The recent global summit on climate change—inevitably described as “historic”—was discussed and analyzed all over the media-sphere, by bloggers read only by their mothers and friends (if they have any) and by the the most swollen talking heads on television. Everyone was interviewed, profiled, and analyzed. One important participant—an observer really—who escaped their attention was an obscure Italian political analyst, whose work has been studied without understanding for many years. I had a chance to sit down with this great skeptic, and interview him on condition of anonymity. Let’s just call him Nick O. Before the conversation was over, we were...
Donald Trump, as heavy-footed and inarticulate as he is, has shows himself time after time to be a man of superb political instincts. Cut off, for most of his life, from contact with ordinary Americans, he manages, nonetheless, to display old-fashioned common sense in statements guaranteed both to delight what is fast becoming the Silent Minority and to outrage the cowards, liars, and flunkeys who dominate politics and the press. Donald’s latest stunt—and we can only hope that it is not just a stunt—is to call for a moratorium on Islamic immigration into the United States. Of course, most sensible...
I did not watch, hear, or read President Obama’s brilliant address offering a range of eminently practical solutions to the terrorist threat. Why bother? Like most of his recent predecessors, this President would not tell the truth if it were tattooed onto his brain, and if he did accidentally blurt out some particle of reality, the state media would immediately cover up his gaffe. The security of the United States and of its citizens is menaced by Muslims, but neither the President nor the media is willing even to state thate fact. Without reading the speech, I...
This is a slightly modified version of a piece originally published in The Spectator under the title “Tories Back Wrong Philosopher.” It is being made available “On the House” for five days. TWO hundred years ago, the career of Edmund Burke was drawing to a close under a cloud of accusations. The Duke of Bedford and his friends had denounced the one-time budget-cutting reformer and enemy of the royal prerogative for accepting a pension from the Crown. In his ‘Letter to a Noble Lord’, published in February 1796, Burke rebutted the charges of inconsistency and hypocrisy. It was Burke’s last stand,...
