The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary

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Feature / Fleming

25 Jan, 2016

Properties of Blood, I:.3: The Disappearing Individual, Part D

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Before going on with the argument, let us take our bearing and sum up.  The question on the table in this chapter is whether or not human beings, as moral actors, are primarily individuals–in this or any age.  Enlightened liberalism seems to tell us either that we are individuals by nature or that we ought to be.  And yet, as was pointed out at the beginning of the chapter, the more we harp on individualism, the more we appear to be herd animals.  In earlier books, I surveyed some of the anthropological literature, which shows pretty clearly that, in so-called...

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FF / Fleming

23 Jan, 2016

Ransom Notes, III

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Pastor Brent MacGuire writes in with two questions:   When the enclitic “-ne” is added to a word to make an interrogative, does the stressed syllable, per the law of the penult, get pushed back or does it remain as it did before?  “ah MAHT nay” or “AH maht nay”?  Same question for the enclitic “que.” If you try to check this on the internet, as I did (being away from my library), you will find a good deal of  false information.  In fact, the general rule is that when enclitic particles are added to a word, the word accent has...

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Best Revenge / Feature / Fleming

23 Jan, 2016

Naples AMT 16

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I had only been to Naples perhaps twice, once on my own for a day in order to see the Museo Archeologico, and then for New Years with most of the family 7-8 years ago.  Apart from the Museum and the pizza, I cannot say that I much liked the city for all the usual reasons: It was dirty, there were too many beggars, and the whole place seemed sinking in crime, corruption, and sycophancy. This time, I decided, I should give the city one more chance.  I picked a hotel in the Centro Storico, the Albergo Palazzo Decumani.  The...

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Best Revenge / Feature / Fleming

21 Jan, 2016

Rome AMT 16 Part 2

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Rome AMT 16 Part 2 What do I say about Rome, after a brief visit of three and a half days, that has not been said before by everyone including myself?  What could be more tedious than one of those breathless travel pieces written by visitors to famous places who have faithfully followed their master Rick Steves or The Blue Guide?  If only the gushers would adopt the blank-screen strategy I have recommended, and look at Rome with the fresh eyes of a Martian visitor!  But no, they have to say something significant, which means, in the end, they get...

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Feature / Wednesday's Child

20 Jan, 2016

Wednesday’s Child: The Pursuit of Convenience

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  The story may be apocryphal, but a friend told me the other day that the inventor, for lack of a better word, of the cylindrical paper sachet by means of which coffee bars where cappuccinos cost $5 dispense granulated sugar–thus distinguishing themselves from ordinary coffee bars, where the said sachets are in the more traditional shape of rectangles–took his own life. The man killed himself because he had grown disillusioned, not with mankind generally, but with the small portion of it that was using his invention; apparently, he had envisioned coffee or tea drinkers breaking the sachets in half...

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Feature / Fleming

19 Jan, 2016

Properties of Blood, I.3: The Disappearing Individual, Part C

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The Individual Disappearing in the Rearview Mirror To understand the apparent failure of moderns to attain to full humanity, we have to acquire a context for comparison.  Here, we are fortunate in being able to turn to our highest literary and intellectual traditions.  Friendship is an important element in Shakespeare and Dante; indeed, in Dante’s Commedia the poet is assisted through Hell and Purgatory by a series of friends, Vergil in particular, who have been sent by a lady in Heaven who is afraid that her friend stands in peril of damnation.  When challenged by Cato at the entrance to...

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Best Revenge / Feature / Fleming

18 Jan, 2016

Rome in the Year 16 AMT

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Rome 2016 I I left Rockford with the best intentions.  I was going to write and post a diary of our six weeks (plus a few days) in Italy, even including the boring details of transatlantic travel post -911 or, as I prefer to call it, in the Age of Muslim Terrorism, as in “we left home on January 7, AMT 16. Our brief escape from the Midwestern Winter and presidential politicking seemed doomed from the start.  Jim Easton was kind enough to take us to the Van Galder bus station, where we soon learned that the departure schedule had...

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Fleming

13 Jan, 2016

Properties of Blood III: The Disappearing Individual, Part B

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Atomized Man Rousseau’s delusion (which is also the delusion of the entire liberal tradition and its antecedents in the Renaissance) has had many implications for modern life.  Most obviously, it encourages us to belittle the significance of friends and and kinfolks.  Rousseau himself abandoned his wife and children and repaid the kindness of David Hume by taking out a newspaper advertisement claiming he was the victim of Hume’s persecution.  The archetypal English liberal, William Godwin, wrote an extraordinary novel Caleb Williams, in which he portrays himself as a self-conscious young man, more intelligent and highly principled than any one he...

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All Paid Subscribers / Andrei Navrozov / Feature / Wednesday's Child

13 Jan, 2016

Wednesday’s Child: A Terminal Moraine

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  Last week little brave Norway woke up to the news, sprung on her by the national TV2 channel, that Einar Gerhardsen, who had been her duly elected and much respected Prime Minister no less than three times–in 1945-51, then once more in 1955-63, and again in 1963-65–was, until his death in 1987, a KGB agent.  Recruited along with two members of his cabinet following a state visit to Khrushchev’s Soviet Union, thenceforth the august statesman, affectionately known to his countrymen as the “Landsfaderen,” or father of modern Norway, would answer to the code name “Jan.”  In fact, Gerhardsen was...

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FF / Podcasts / Transcripts

12 Jan, 2016

Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 2: Immigration

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What is the Christian Tradition regarding immigration? How is that tradition related to the way the ancients saw this issue? What’s a responsible and realistic way to examine this important issue in today’s postmodern soup? Dr. Fleming takes on this timeless issue which is on the minds of many, not just in America, but in Europe as well. Original Air Date: January 12, 2016 Show Run Time: 47 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Transcript available now for Charter Subscribers and a la carte purchase. Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation....