Category: Fleming
Ancient Vengeance
It is a main thrust of philosophical Liberalism (and of ancient Stoicism) that human beings have a duty to rise above not only animal but parochial and sectarian passions. Any attempt to justify revenge must therefore represent a step back toward the jungle from which we escaped all too recently.
Happy Thanksgiving, and All Praise to John Smith!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all. We are having a simple dinner: vegetables a la grecque–leeks, mushrooms, cucumbers; fresh turkey with corn bread , apple, onion, sage, and sausage stuffing; Southern green beans with bacon and onion cooked in broth; rice of course to honor South Carolina; and pecan pie.
Modern Philosophers Against Revenge
No argument drawn from biological necessity would impress philosophers who, since the Enlightenment, have often written as if man were either naturally good or was only weakly endowed with a bundle of propensities known by philosophers as human nature or, by Christians, as “the old Adam.”
Gone to Texas
As we drove south out of Rockford, the blowing snow and freezing rain threatened to accompany us like bad news all the way to Texas. The snow stopped just beyond Bloomington-SubNormal, Illinois, and we made it to Rolla, Missouri without incident.
Revenge is Natural Justice
Revenge and marriage, as the institutionalized means of expressing love and hate, have much in common: Both are found in a variety of forms, but the forms and tendencies that converge in societies around the globe encourage us to think of them as generically human phenomena
Cheerful News of the Election
On the morning of the first day of the Republican restoration of America, Americans should be waking up to the reality that roughly half the voting population is still so devoted to the devices and desires of their hearts that they cannot break free of their delusions.
Nuclear Paranoia the Second Time Around
Suppose there is no imminent threat of nuclear war. What does the American elite hope to get by terrifying the American people? Just about everything
Reason vs. Passion
Robert E. Lee, who in so many ways epitomized the highest ideas of Christian civility, summed up the common feeling in his famous statement that, “Duty is the most sublime word in our language,” adding the injunction: “Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more, you should never wish to do less.”
Revenge—the Ancient Roots, Part I
This begins a series on the morality of revenge, drawn from the current text of Properties of Blood, Vol. II: The Reign of Hate. If you have not purchased Volume I: The Reign of Love, you have only yourself to blame.
