The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Wednesday's Child

29 Aug, 2019

Wednesday’s Child: The Philosopher’s Fruit

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It’s that time of year again.  The doldrums of August is when the fig season is at its peak, and nobody from Syracuse to Cagliari wants to talk about anything but figs or to do anything other than consume them. “That time of year thou mayst in me behold,” as the poet said.  The sonnet, as the gentle reader may remember, is a melancholy, nostalgic dirge, just the kind of bagatelle one imagines Wednesday’s Child whistling as he pours himself a glass of Hine’s Rare & Delicate.  But in fact, few things on earth are mightier antidotes to grumpy nostalgia...

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All Paid Subscribers / Feature / Seiler

27 Aug, 2019

Top Unconscious Election Issue Dates to 1949

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Although I can’t prove it, I think an unconscious element in every presidential election is the fear a candidate might get us into a nuclear war. In my long career of voting for president, beginning with Ford/Carter in 1976, I certainly had a “gut loathing” of only two candidates I thought would be unstable and liable to lunge for the Nuclear Football and press the Button: John McCain, a Republican, in 2008, and Hillary Clinton, a Democrat, in 2016. I think a lot of voters shared that fear. There’s even a 1999 book, “The Gift of Fear and Other Survival...

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FF / Podcasts / Season 3

27 Aug, 2019

Dante’s Moral Code, Part II: Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 31

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Continuing on the previous episode’s discussion of the Commedia as a journey made with “a little help from his friends,” Dr. Fleming expands on the ideas of friendship, whether you can be friends with someone who is not virtuous, whether his relationship with Vergil is considered a “friendship,” and the various “friends” Dante meets throughout his journey. Original Air Date: August 27, 2019 Show Run Time: 27 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner This Podcast is available for Silver subscribers and higher.   Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2019....

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Autodidact

26 Aug, 2019

Hesiod and His World

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The name of Hesiod was often coupled with that of Homer, though the two are different expressions of the Greek mind and temperament.  While Homer writes of aristocratic warriors, Hesiod, in his surviving works, is more concerned with expounding  rustic life and its values and with making coherent sense of the gods.  As a Greek writer, he was the first agrarian but also the first theologian and the godfather of philosophy.

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Best Revenge

23 Aug, 2019

Booklog I: The Man in the High Castle, etc.

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In past years, I have from time to time attempted to write and post a diary of my reading.  Unfortunately, I always tried too hard, picking books I thought would either interest or improve my readers.  This time, I am going to note, simply, erratically, and occasionally relevantly, what I am reading and whatever stray thoughts have cropped up.

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Wednesday's Child

21 Aug, 2019

Wednesday’s Child: Workers United

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“I hate the working class,” my godfather, an artist who painted dream landscapes and equally apolitical still lifes, liked to say between sips of lukewarm tea, I fear only half in jest.  I thought of him the other day, when a neighbor’s ancient water main – expanding from violent summer heat, or else dislodged by one of the minor earthquakes we get every so often in Palermo – leaked into my ceiling and I rushed out in search of somebody who could stop the flooding. I don’t know, perhaps Switzerland, Holland, or some other kind of Germany is an exception,...

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FF / Podcasts / Season 3

20 Aug, 2019

Dante’s Moral Code, Part I: Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 30

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In this episode, Dr. Fleming turns to discussing Dante’s Moral Code. Is it Christian? Is it Florentine? What is the overall moral scope (and argument) of the Commedia? Does friendship play a role? How is that seen through classical and Christian eyes? Original Air Date: August 20, 2019 Show Run Time: 24 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner This Podcast is available for Silver subscribers and higher.   Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2019. All rights are reserved and any duplication without explicit written permission is forbidden.