Tagged: Thomas Fleming

4

Journalists and Other Liars, Part I

Why do journalists lie?  I do not ask this question as a joke with a punchline waiting in the wings or even as an illustration of mankind’s general propensity to lie, cheat, and steal.  My question is intended to go to the heart of what journalism is, fundamentally: a “profession” in which men and women, without any particular skills or qualifications, spend their time at work making and repeating statements that they either know are untrue or, if they are so obtuse as not to know they are telling lies, they should be required to keep silent.

4

America–the Picture Show

In the midst of war and rumors of war, the ongoing soap opera of “The Sussexes” seems hardly worth mentioning, but if–like some future archeologist, holding his news and sifting through the middens of a 21st century….

4

Ancient Vengeance

It is a main thrust of philosophical Liberalism (and of ancient Stoicism) that human beings have a duty to rise above not only animal but parochial and sectarian passions.  Any attempt to justify revenge must therefore represent a step back toward the jungle from which we escaped all too recently.

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Modern Philosophers Against Revenge

No argument drawn from biological necessity would impress philosophers who, since the Enlightenment, have often written as if man were either naturally good or was only weakly endowed with a bundle of propensities known by philosophers as human nature or, by Christians, as “the old Adam.”

7

Gone to Texas

As we drove south out of  Rockford, the blowing snow and freezing rain threatened to accompany us like bad news all the way to Texas.  The snow stopped just beyond Bloomington-SubNormal, Illinois, and we made it to Rolla, Missouri without incident.