The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Wednesday’s Child: In Fairyland
What are you doing, I would ask my father towards the end of his life, telephoning him in New York from a succession of tramontane regions that were, to him, as inconsequential as they were exotic. Invariably he would give the same answer: “I am lying in bed waiting for world fame.” World fame never did fall to his share, yet this does not mean that his methodology was flawed.
Help Wanted
We are exploring the possibility of doing a few small events to launch Dr. Fleming’s latest book, The Reign of Love. One of the events would certainly be in Rockford. If you would like to assist in planning an event in your locale, please contact us at your earliest convenience.
Poems by Conrad Aiken
These hills are sandy. Trees are dwarfed here. Crows
Caw dismally in skies of an arid brilliance,
Complain in dusty pine-trees. Yellow daybreak
Lights on the long brown slopes a frost-like dew,
Choosing the Future
Nations make choices, usually unconsciously, though it is too late, when a later generation complains about their teeth being set on edge, to refuse to drink the cup of sour wine that was offered to their fathers.
Donald Trump: Asset or Liability?
Those of us who want to save our country from a corrupt Establishment and the reign of Cultural Marxism may well be a minority, and a dwindling minority at that. Still, we have much support among good people whose intellectual and moral quality outranks the ruling regime.
The Tax Revolt That Never Happened
There is a tedious meme making its weary way around FB. It shows a smiling British soldier and informs the viewer that the USA, a country that once fought a revolution against taxation, has just hired 87,000 more IRS agents. Where are the FB fact-checkers? There was no revolution against taxe
Wednesday’s Child: Old MacDonald’s Way
Some cynical fellow out there has argued that all conversation between people is nothing but power play, with one interlocutor necessarily dominating the other even if the subject of discussion is as inconsequential as what one of them had for breakfast.
Hardening the State
The FBI has made it official: The USSA is a single party dictatorship where the ruling party persecutes opposition candidates. Even if Trump were guilty as charged, a lawful regime would seek to avoid the appearance of government harassment of opposition leaders. Instead, this government has put us all on notice.
Poem: Une Belle Dame Sans Merci
I wrote this some time in the early 1980s before moving to Rockford. It’s been printed in one or two places. Lovers of Ernest Dowson will recognize the line I have borrowed from one of his best poems.
