Escape From the American Cage Fight
White bread America is gone, and if it is replaced with corn pone, tortillas, and sticky rice, there may be a little room left for scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream.
Category: Fleming
Reign of Love, Chapter Two: Love and Hate
The search for a rationally perfect society always leads to tyranny. Morality and politics are rooted not in pure reason but in our attachments by love or strife to others. The Greek mystical philosopher Empedocles is a better guide than the abstract reasonings of Descartes and Kant.
The American Republic From Melting Pot to Cage Fight
America, as we know, is an exception to every rule. Here, all the various ethnicities have blended into a harmonious multi-ethnic nationality that defines itself neither by blood nor religion.
The Revenger’s Tragedy, Introduction, Part II
Americans seem to have a growing obsession with the idea of revenge. Popular culture, which is often a better guide to national attitudes than social surveys, has elevated the avenger to the status of hero, and ever since the 1970’s, films like Death Wish and Dirty Harry have glorified the brave man who defied the law and “did the right thing.”
The Revenger’s Tragedy: Introduction, 1
Revenge or vengeance is a personal act of retribution committed against a person who has wrong the avenger or someone close to him. Retributive punishment is normally, at least in civilized societies, left up to what the Italian press like to call “the forces of public order,” but there is no society known to me where revenge, in one form or another, is not sometimes taken by men and women who have been offended.
Human, Not-Quite Human
In seeking power from steroids and microchips, we become their slaves, and in losing our freedom we lose at least a part of our humanity.
Revenge of the Book Club
Some time ago, I abandoned the regular discussion of selected books. The reason should have been obvious. The cause has disappeared, and we can resume. Working on the second volume of Properties of Blood, I need to rewrite the chapters on revenge. This is a good occasion for looking at the classic work of the English stage, The Avenger’s Tragedy….
Poem by Thomas Chatterton
Chatterton, a late 18th century poet, is more famous as a legend–the teenage poet who died at 17–than as a writer. The Romantics, French as well as English, lionized him. His best known poems are the medievalizing verses he attributed to a 15th century poet, but his talent for painting satiric portraits is evident in “Apostate Will”–a fine sketch of the clergy on the make,
Podcast: The Reign of Love, Chapter One: Exiled Children of Eve
Mankind has got to know its limitations, but from the Tower of Babel to Soviet Union to Woke America, too many men have attempted to build a heaven on earth that turns out to resemble Hell.
Taxes and Tyranny
Nonetheless…if there is one thing we Americans take seriously, it is money But even on that most vital subject, we cannot bring ourselves to tell the truth.
