Posted on 01/31/2019 3:46:14 PM PST by Chickensoup
I absolutely agree with you.
I try to read things that will challenge me.
Enjoying listening to Jordan Peterson now.
It is hard to believe how prescient Chronicles was in writing about the culture war, the threat of mass 3rd world migration, the peril of Islam, and other things that are front burner today.
Chronicles featured a number of old Right writers, paleocons, and they were targeted by neoconservatives who smeared them as racists, xenophobes, and accusations that usually come from the left. David Frum and Dinesh D'Souza were two opportunists who were playing that game, trying to enhance their own MSM cred by throwing conservatives under the bus.
I haven't read Chronicles in years, not because I found anything wrong with it, but just that I stopped subscribing to anything. Don't know if it's as good a read as it once was.
Chronicles is one of the few old Right, paleocon magazines. Can’t imagine how you found it to be Leftist.
and Sam Francis.
Roger Kimball edits The New Criterion. He has no connection with Chronicles, which last time I read it was edited by Thomas Fleming.
Chilton Williamson had been National Review’s book editor in the Reagan years. He was one of the first to leave National Review, and of course landed at Chronicles.
Chronicles was covering mass immigration, legal as well as illegal, and National Review was heading in the Open Borders direction that did so much to wreck it.
Srdja Trifkovic has roots in the Balkans, and he was writing about the simmering civil war in the wreckage of the old Yugoslavia when no one else was paying it any attention.
I recall him saying something along the lines of there being three ethnic groups there, Christianity and Islam that were further divided along various sect lines, and that everyone held grievances about things from 1,000 years ago.
Even if you were born there you could hardly figure out who would be fighting whom.
Even National Review used to publish articles by monarchist writers, at least while Buckley was still alive and in control of his senses.
Monarchy is not uncommon in European conservatives and NR used to feature several of them.
Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn and Stephen Tonsor would probably have been two.
“and Sam Francis.”
Yes, I can’t believe I forgot the greatest one of them all!
Chronicles at one point even had Noam Chomsky writing articles for them. (he claims to be Libertarian, in reality he is very Red)
Thomas Fleming was the editor when I read the magazine. (I learned later that there are 2 well known Thomas Fleming’s. Very different.) At first I thought a lot of it, but that did not last.
I like well informed people, but am not drawn to have much confidence in “intellectuals”. They tend to call my type, “cracker barrel philosophers”.
Imagine being called a cracker?
“Srdja Trifkovic has roots in the Balkans”
At the time I read Chronicles, they did a very good job with the Balkans issue, which was noteworthy for the period. It was some time in the 1980’s, probably early 80’s.
I studied the Balkans for a time. Had a close friend who worked for my father-in-law who stayed in Europe with the Military after WWII. He spoke fluent Arabic and told me many tales about things that allowed him to do. He was a truly great guy. He was almost as close as family with my in-laws. Was always at family gatherings for the holidays. His parents were Lebanese Christians who immigrated to the US. If it is of any interest to you, I’ll send you his Obit. He had an amazing background.
Yeah, Srjda’s column was basically the only place that I read anything about the Balkans at that time. It wasn’t in the news yet, the civil war hadn’t yet erupted.
He did a good job of explaining the complexity of the society there. Another case of Chronicles being ahead of the curve.
“Chronicles at one point even had Noam Chomsky writing articles for them.”
I remember that now that you mention it. It was amusing in a way, Chomsky is to the left of Bernie Sanders. He is a legitimately important scholar in the world of linguistics in spite of being a Commie.
I began reading Chronicles while Tyrmand was still there, but most of the time Fleming ran the show. The “other” Thomas Fleming is a very good historian and I highly recommend his book on the forgotten history that led to the Civil War... “A Disease In The Public Mind”... a great read if you’re a student of The Late Unpleasantness.
The ‘cracker’ sobriquet was originally applied to Old South Floridians for the sound the bullwhip made when they were herding cattle. Even today Florida has one of the biggest cattle industries in the country.
I agree with those who say that Sam Francis was predicting the Trump rebellion 20 years before it happened. ‘Middle American Radicals’.
The vile little Dinesh D’Souza succeeded in hanging a ‘racist’ smear on Francis and wrecking his career. And the stress of that could have contributed to Sam Francis’ much too early death.
Thanks for the explanation. It’s clear you know the magazine and people behind it.
I fell out with them about the time Fleming was going to a church (might be in Falls Church) where a major traitor shared his place of worship. I think they were both member of some group at the time.
Did not blame the Church, there is no known connection of Fleming and the other guy. But I grew weary with the focus of the magazine. I had flirted with Libertarianism at that point and when I actually met a “Big L” Libertarian, that ended it for me.
Yes, I remember that part of it. They had writers who understood the Serb issues. I read history of the Serbs from a number of books. Some still in my library.
Cracker barrel Philosopher Doesn’t that refer to the barrels that much was shipped in during the nineteenth and early 20th century?
A cracker barrel was a barrel that the local men sat on at the local store (which often was a gathering place) with perhaps a card or checkers game going.
Sort of like the gatherings of men at the gates in the Bible?
I had not realized that about d’sousa. Do you have a link? I would like to read more.
I followed Chomsky in Z Magazine and of course the Nation and the Progressive.
In some ways I could see how some of his writings would fit in at the older Chronicles.
I also subscribe to it and read it (that’s two!).
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