The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
The attack on Southern symbols has nothing to do with opposing slavery or helping black Americans. It is an attempt to eliminate an important cultural and political tradition that goes back to Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. Such campaigns to eliminate historic identities are defined–and condemned–in international law as “cultural genocide.” Cultural genocide is not a technique used by free republics but by totalitarian ideological states. Even northerners who have little interest in the South should begin to understand that this attack on the South and its flag-bearing cross will inevitably be followed by overt attacks on Christianity and on America...
This text will be available only briefly without cost. When “the gate comes down,” it will be accessible only to subscribers. The Heart Has Its Reason The City of God, wherever and however it exists, is ruled by that kind of love that used to be referred to as “charity.” “He that loveth,” (ὁ γὰρ ἀγαπῶν), far from being in conflict with the moral law (νόμος) taught by the Decalogue, is fulfilling it. Most professional philosophers since Descartes would immediately raise the obvious objection that love or friendship or charity are irrational feelings, sub-rational reflections of our character and experience. We...
Cicero Cicero was one of the most important men of the Roman world. Although he ultimately failed as a statesman, as virtually every statesman does, but he only increased in stature as the years went on. Cicero’s style has been rightly held up as the standard for Latin prose, and his writings on rhetoric and philosophy—as well as his speeches and letters—became the basis of Roman education. Cicero was the model for Christian orators like St. Jerome and Augustine, and his works were taught and read throughout the Middle Ages. The Renaissance, to a considerable extent, began with the Italian...
As a visit to Wallington quickly reveals, the Trevelyan notion of artistic expression was mostly satisfied by collecting dolls’ houses and preserving such family arcana as Lord Macaulay’s top hat and shaving kit. But there was one Trevelyan—admittedly a Trevelyan by marriage—who liked to move in artistic circles. Lady (Pauline) Trevelyan, née Jermyn, Sir Walter’s no doubt long-suffering wife, liked to play with the Pre-Raphaelites, and it was she who persuaded Sir Walter (who, left to himself, would have done nothing of the kind) to put a roof over the central quadrangle, and create a large central room. She...
In this, my second communication from Munich, I solemnly promised myself to steer clear of politics, notwithstanding that history looms so large in my window – modern parlance for the computer screen – it nearly obliterates thought. And so, as the president of France prepares to bend his knee to Moscow in a ludicrous pantomime of Henry IV’s Gang nach Canossa, I can only repeat Hamlet’s “But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” The reason I came to Munich in the first place was to hear a recital that my wife was giving with the remarkable German...
Fox News commentators do not often make an intelligent criticism of President Obama’s foreign policy. They are usually content to point out the obvious—that Obama is misguided—while offering alternatives that would hardly work any better. Nonetheless, the neoconservative establishment was right to express outrage in February, when then-State Department spokesperson Marie Harf declared on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC program that defeating ISIS in the long-term will require addressing the “root causes” of terrorism, such as lack of jobs and poverty. This statement was palpably absurd, but it also reflected the consensus of the American and European ruling classes, a consensus that...
In this origin episode of the podcast, Dr. Fleming discusses the importance of studying a dead language in general, why this particular “dead” language is so vitally important for those focused on the patrimony of the West, and provides some practical points and names some possible texts for study. Original Air Date: November 25, 2015 Show Run Time: 26 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner The Fleming Foundation · Latin, Episode 0: Latin’s Dead, so Why Study It? Transcript available now for Charter Subscribers and a la carte purchase. The Fleming Foundation Presents Latin℗ is...
Love and Hate in the Cities of Man Shall I tell you the little story of Right-Hand-Left-Hand—the tale of Good and Evil? …H-A-T-E…It was with this left hand that old brother Cain struck the blow that laid his brother low! L-O-V-E!… See these here fingers, dear friends! These fingers has veins that lead straight through to the soul of man! The right hand, friends! The hand of Love! Now watch and I’ll show you the Story of Life. The fingers of these hands, dear hearts! –They’re always a-tuggin’ and a-warrin’ one hand agin’ t’other. (He locks his fingers and writhes...
Back in 1834, while still in India, cousin Charles Trevelyan had married Hannah Moore Macaulay, sister of Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, the great Whig historian of England and author of The Lays of Ancient Rome, who was then a member of the supreme council of India. What a combination! Their only son, who inherited his father’s baronetcy, was Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Bt. (1838–1928), in his day a major Liberal politician strongly in favor of reforming the House of Lords, of giving women the vote, and—true to family principle—total abstinence. He published the life and letters of his...
“How to live well in a dying age” is an old theme for the founders of The Fleming Foundation, and in this podcast series, Dr. Fleming and his friends will be exploring a variety of ways of living creatively and escaping the melancholy that seems to afflict so many conservatives and reactionaries. This series will explore some of the minor arts of living, from wilderness cooking to writing poetry, making beer, and watching old movies. Nil desperandum. That is Latin for “Despair not!” Original Air Date: November 24, 2015 Show Run Time: 32 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show...
The Wrongs of Rights