The Fleming Foundation

The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

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Andrei Navrozov / Feature / Wednesday's Child

25 Jul, 2018

Wednesday’s Child: Letter from Tuscany

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If ever I had the temptation to shirk my duty as the gentle reader’s clarion and dulcimer, if ever I wanted to declare myself on holiday and beg off for just a single week, if ever nature triumphed over nurture to make a child’s chore of the fast approaching Wednesday, it is now. I am in Tuscany, where the other day it actually rained – that last word describing an atmospheric condition when condensed moisture falls from the sky in drops, see also snow. In July in Palermo, where it last snowed in 1956, leaving an air conditioned house to...

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Free Content

24 Jul, 2018

Herodotus Book I, Continued: Democracy and Tyranny

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By Herodotus’ time, tyranny had developed a bad name, and he his descriptions of their behavior constitutes a pragmatic manual to set beside Machiavelli’s The Prince.  Tyrants champion the poor and the weak particularly women and foreigners; they are lustful and prone to adultery and eccentricity—Periander was accused of having relations with his dead wife.  They maintain power by disarming the citizenry and oppressing anyone who is distinguished for birth, talent, virtue, or wealth.  I know, it sounds exactly like the Democratic Party today.

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Feature / Seiler

22 Jul, 2018

A Generation of Peace?

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In 1970, a year in office, President Nixon gave an address to the UN titled “A Generation of Peace.” With the Cold War hot in Vietnam and elsewhere, and American campuses and cities erupting in riots, it didn’t seem peace was at hand. Yet Nixon soon went to Moscow and Beijing in his still-famous trips. “Only Nixon can go to China” has become a saying meaning someone who is strong in one area using that to work out a compromise with an enemy.  In his 1972 campaign, Nixon’s slogan was “A Generation of Peace,” and he won 49 states in...

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Free Content

22 Jul, 2018

Born Out of Due Time: The Think Tank Murders, Chapter One (Revised)

The events of last night’s dream were coming back to him slowly.  He opened his eyes and looked around the room, at the window almost occluded by an unkempt lilac bush, the austere chest of drawers that held his folding clothes, the small writing table with a reading light still shining on a white legal pad on which he sometimes scribbled notes during the night.  He was still here, stranded in this place and time.  There was nothing to be depressed about.  You could not always choose the millennium you lived in, though the thought had crossed his mind.

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Fleming / On the House

21 Jul, 2018

Autodidact: Herodotus, Part I

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Since the Persian Wars—like the Punic Wars, the Crusades, and the West’s ongoing struggle with Islam—serve to define who we are, perhaps it would be useful to take a brief look at the parts of Herodotus that are directly relevant to the cultural struggle between the West and its enemies.

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Free Content

20 Jul, 2018

Thomas Fleming Interviews Ched Rayson

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CPR: I began to wonder if this website was a good place to launch the book.  It is not the small circulation that disturbed me, but the apparent lack of interest.  When I asked for the metrics on my chapters in comparison with other stuff, what you gave me showed a huge gap between pieces authored by you and those that had been written by others.  I began to wonder if this site was not simply, you know, some kind of ego trip for an editor who had been bounced from his job.  The idea of you getting more attention than me was pretty demoralizing.

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Fleming / Free Content

20 Jul, 2018

Rending the Seamless Garment, II: Killing the Killers

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I have heard liberal Catholic priests and Protestant ministers say that there is something “unchristian” about the death penalty.  I have even heard those who say that the Church has always been opposed to executions, but I challenge them to cite one passage of Scripture or one creed, one conciliar document, one encyclical that unequivocally condemns the execution of murderers.