The Fleming Foundation Cultural Commentary
Military Duels Frontiers and unsettled times attract reckless men, who are going to shoot it out, one way or another. The pretense that Abilene after the War Between the states or the Chicago ghetto of today can be run according to the rules of an Oxford College can lead only to anarchy and the death of law-abiding people who are minding their own business. Where a community maintains a civil order, most men will be content to keep the peace most of time, relying on the forces of the law for protection and redress of injury, except on the exceptional...
A recent Claremont Review of Books article by the obviously pseudonymous Publius Decius Mus, “The Flight 93 Election,” has created quite a stir in the conservative universe. The article is a vigorous defense of Trump and Trumpism, and has been touted widely by Trump supporters. Rush Limbaugh read it aloud on his radio program. It has even inspired its own hashtag, #IAmDecius, but it has also generated a very vociferous reaction from anti-Trumpers. This National Review article by Jonah Goldberg contains links to several of the critical responses. Decius is one of the minds behind the now defunct Journal of...
First, the one homework submission. Vince Cornell sends in: It is inevitable what we face. What we did once treasure we must now break. But first must we state our causes plainly. That this divide did arise from just cause Be assured, for we declare with one voice That our lives, our liberty, and our joy Are those goods which we must of our own secure. Britain, it was you that did bar our way, Cruelly depriving us of our base rights. Destructive became your rule over us, And we now do form our own government Building it upon those...
According to a virtual reality rag called The Hollywood Reporter, both Stephen Spielberg and Harvey Weinstein are planning separately to base one of their schlock movies on “the true story of the kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.” Their true story is “about a 6-year-old Italian boy who in 1858 was taken from his Jewish parents by police and raised [sic!] Catholic.” The villain in the piece is Pope Pius IX, who will be played—if Weinstein has his way—by Robert de Niro! “Are you looking at me? Are you looking at me?” It’s too bad the Christophobic Christopher Hitchens has left...
I have known many rich people in my lifetime and had ample occasion to remark upon what seemed like an endless spiral of personal tragedies they invariably suffered. As a Christian, I always found this unfair. The rich are supposed to be thoughtless of God and careless of the salvation of their souls – with eternal anguish their likely posthumous lot – but here on earth their existence is meant to be cushy, replicating or evoking the serenity of paradise. Instead it looked like their future suffering unto eternity was merely a continuation of their present sorrows in this earthly...
Reading the leftist responses to Hillary’s condemnation of us “deplorables,” I was struck by the uniformity of tone. They run the gamut from self-righteous astonishment to self-righteous indignation. Occasionally, they tip their hand: People who use “politically correct” as an insult, they say, are bigots, and so is anyone who thinks there might be something amiss with affirmative action, open immigration, same sex marriage, and men in women’s clothing hanging out in the girl’s locker room. There is a curious contradiction in the American “liberal” mind. On the one hand, they are “all about” (an expression worth a few pages...
Though they are one of America’s distinctive creations, Jerks have been observed throughout history. Meet one from 17th century France, described by one of the most acute observers of human folly, Jean de la Bruyère: Gnathon lives for no one but himself, and the rest of the world are to him as if they did not exist. He is not satisfied with occupying the best seat at table, but he must take the seats of two other guests, and forgets that the dinner was not provided for him alone, but for the company as well; he lays hold of every...
This piece appeared in the first number of revamped Chronicles, in May 1985. Some readers found it alarming at the time. It now seems quite moderate, though many law-and-order neoconservatives would still deplore the call for self-help. We take too much for granted in America. Whenever we have a problem, we assume that somebody else is paid to solve it, somebody from the government. All the ancient burdens of the human flesh—poverty and envy, greed and arrogance—have been turned over to one or another bureaucratic agency. We sleep better at night knowing that somewhere someone is busy making life...
In this episode of From Under the Rubble Dr. Fleming reflects on the recent burkini controversy in France and its implications for so-called “religious freedom” both in the Old World and the New. Original Air Date: September 12, 2016 Show Run Time: 39 minutes Show Guest(s): Dr. Thomas Fleming Show Host(s): Stephen Heiner The Fleming Foundation · From Under the Rubble, Episode 6: Burkini Ban From Under the Rubble℗ is a Production of the Fleming Foundation. Copyright 2016. All Rights are Reserved.
Defining the Duel The word duel is often used loosely to mean a fight between two men or even any competitive conflict between men or beasts. The historian Victor Kiernan has written an entire book on European dueling without ever, apparently, figuring out what a duel actually was. Let us begin by setting aside such metaphorical usages as “dueling egos,” “dueling banjos,” and “dueling roosters,” and restrict ourselves to violent encounters between two human antagonists, who may or may not ne accompanied by allies who may simply insure fair play or even take part in the action. If we are...
