The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Manzoni This, then, is a bit of the world in which Manzoni lived and played a prominent part. He was born in Milan. His father Pietro Manzoni came from a decayed feudal family and had had married Giulia, the daughter of the liberal legal reformer Cesare Beccaria, whose tissue of cliches on punishment continue to undermine law and order throughout the developed world. . Her father’s daughter, Giulia ran away from Pietro with her lover in 1792 and went to live in Paris among a circle of liberal and enlightened intellectuals. Manzoni’s early life was lived in Lombardia–in Lecco (not...
Donald Trump isn’t the only one who can come up with catchy phrases. The Silicon Valley Sultans long have been brilliant marketers, beginning with the late Steve Jobs, who radiated what was called a “reality distortion field.” That’s how they came up with Net “Neutrality,” even though what they want is not “neutrality” on the Internet, but freeloading control by them. There really aren’t any Good Guys here as both sides involve the biggest corporations in the country, all involved one way or another in attacking our freedoms and basic decency. But here’s what’s going on. In the past three...
Is anyone old enough to remember when it was not quite respectable to be in the news? Of course, the doings of the great and the wise would have to be recorded—the birth of an heir, the discovery of a planet—but, otherwise, it was better not to be noticed by the newspapers, which have always been properly regarded as scandal sheets. And, of all classes of men who had to avoid notoriety, the clergy were at the top, and of all the Christian clergy, the Pope was chief among those who were wise enough to stay out of the...
“Trump has sold us out!” ”It’s all the fault of that Jewish son-in-law of his!” “This sets back the Middle East peace process by decades!” These are just a few of the more moderate exclamations I have heard in condemnation of the President’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and to relocate the embassy. Perhaps they are all right, but I doubt it. While Trump’s manifest trust in his children is a source of possible weakness, it is also one of his strongest qualities. Jared and Ivanka Kushner have certainly played a major role in this administration, but whether...
The French Revolution was a source of great evil. It not only spawned the leftist revolutionary movements that dominated the past two centuries but it also gave birth to the reactionary and rightwing movements that responded to the Revolution. Most of these responses were imperfect, corrupted either by revolutionary ideas or suffering from the temptation to run blindly in the opposite direction. If reason misapplied is dangerous, irrationality is equally dangerous; if globalism is a menace, so is blind nationalism; if atheism and anti-Christian bigotry have deformed the character and values of modern men and women, Catholic obscurantism and fanaticism...
A black pimp in a red velour hat by the name of Ben Okri – black is a statement of fact, pimp is an expression of opinion, conjunction of the two is my constitutional right, and the red velour hat, I admit, is only there for literary verisimilitude – has written a poem for a new art museum called the Louvre Abu Dhabi, which opens next week. “A great story unites us all,” writes Okri, actually a British writer born in Nigeria who has won many literary prizes for his absurd twaddle, “beyond colour and creed and gender. / The...
In this episode of The Best Revenge, Thomas and Garret Fleming, joined by Rex Scott, eat their way through Umbria. Original Air Date: December 4, 2017 Show Run Time: 39 minutes Show Guest(s): Garret Fleming Show Host(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming, Rex Scott The Fleming Foundation · The Best Revenge, Episode 13: Umbria The Best Revenge℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2017. All rights are reserved and any duplication without explicit written permission is forbidden.
In this episode of Surely, You Must Be Joking Dr. Fleming?, Dr. Fleming continues on the theme of “Progress” recently discussed in 2 episodes of Christianity and Classical Culture. Dr. Fleming makes the case that, contrary to popular belief, technological and medical progress have NOT been unqualified benefits to the human race. Original Air Date: December 2, 2017 Show Run Time: 49 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner The Fleming Foundation · Surely, You Must Be Joking Dr. Fleming?, Episode 8: Progress Surely, You Must Be Joking Dr. Fleming?℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation....
Niki Haley is a disaster as foreign policy mouthpiece. One might use of her what Mencken unfairly said of Bryan: “a zany without sense or dignity.” Of course she is a good deal more virile than South Carolina’s distinguished Senator Lindsay Graham, but that can be said of Chelsea Manning. Butching it up for the press in difficult matters of war and peace is exactly what the United States does not need, and her recent ridiculous tirade gave the Russians one more opportunity to ridicule the cynicism–and amateurism–of the US foreign policy establishment. Serious nations do not act like North...
Continuing on the themes from the previous episode, Dr. Fleming goes on to discuss the role of a wall in a city – how does it restrict “progress”? How did Rome, Athens, Paris, and even NYC and Chicago deal with “borders”? What about monuments – and the tearing-down of them – is this “progress”? Is this simply at attack on Christianity? Part 1: The Myth of Progress, Part 1: Christianity and Classical Culture, Episode 17 Original Air Date: December 1, 2017 Show Run Time: 50 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner Christianity and Classical Culture℗ is a...
