The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

7

Clearing the Air….

The End-of-the Worlders are going from handwringing over a possibly stolen election–please don’t tell me you know it is stolen in fact because you don’t know anything of the kind–to declaring the death of the American republic. It’s the worst sort of ditto-head approach to politics. It begins by saying, “Say, this is about the best damn country that has ever existed” and go on in the vein of Babbit’s speech to the Zenith Booster Club.

16

Sophocles’ Ajax: The Struggle Over the Corpse

The end of the Ajax is a rhetorical battle over the corpse of Ajax, and, though it is a war of words, it is no less serious than the Homeric conflicts over the battle and armour of a fallen hero.  The basic antagonists are three:  Teucer, the two Atridae (who make much the same argument, though Agamemnon is more reasonable, perhaps because he is dealing with Odysseus), and Odysseus. Rather than summarize the scene, I’d like to leave it up to the readers to give their response to the following questions: First, what is the nub of each set of...

19

Wednesday’s Child: The Political Transvestite

Like the word’s Italian variant, coprifuoco, “curfew”–which is now in effect in several European countries–comes from Old French cuevrefeu, “cover fire,” advice to citizens to extinguish fires at a certain hour of the evening.  My wife thinks it’s sweet. “It shows concern,” she says. “Just compare it to what we say in Russian.”  In Russian the equivalent is “commandant’s hour,” meaning do what you’re told or be brought before the commandant and get the regulation nine grams of lead in the back of your head.  Language gives nations away.

3

Revenge of the MIC

If BidenHarris make it into the White House, we’ll see the full restoration of the MIC: the Military Industrial Complex, as Ike called it. The latest appointment is Gen. Lloyd Austin, who aced out the expected pick, Michele Flournoy. Not surprisingly, the Woke Media are turning this into an “intersectional” battle: If confirmed, Austin would become the first black SecDef, while Flourney would have been the first woman to hold the post. But both are tied into the MIC

5

Secession! and Then What? by the Alabaman

By

“Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star…”   So said the Southern secessionists of the 1860s.  Even with whatever differences the leaders of the CSA were certainly a much more culturally intact group than we are presented with today, even I dare say within our own state governments. 

7

Wars and Rumors

 But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. Luke 21  ...

28

Not My President!

Karl Keating, the wise founder of Catholic Answers, has put up a post saying it is time for Trump supporters to wise up, take their medicine, and acknowledge Biden  as “my President.” His argument, as one would expect from such a man, makes good sense. Of course the Democrats cheated, just as the Republicans cheated. Both sides always cheat, and they have rigged the system to be a strictly two-party system in which the two gangs of scoundrels will take turns grabbing the boodle. I am not happy with the outcome, but if the Democrats are better at playing the...