THE JOHN ADAMS SOCIETY

 David W. Downing      Derek Suszko     Christopher T. Wolff     Marina Wolff 
Chairman                    Secretary               Chief Whip                    Chancellor

Please Note: Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Location: Burger Moe’s

“We must assume that we are already artistic projections for the true creator of the world and have the greatest dignity in our meaning as works of art - for only as an aesthetic phenomenon are existence and the world justified to eternity.” ̶ Friedrich Nietzsche

IF POLITICS SPEAKS TO THE BONES, art speaks to the arteries. Intellectual conservatives like to bemoan the lack of taste of the times and the people, but isn’t this just snobbery left over from an aristocratic class culture that is mercifully dead? Who are we to scoff at the “vulgar” taste of the “commons” while the so-called connoisseurs bid millions for their red squares on white canvas or wax eloquent on the musical merits of four minutes of participatory audience coughing? “High culture” is an expensive joke these days, and even the most zealous snob harbors the guilty pleasure of a good beat now and then. We can take refuge in the old masters, but surely we know that Schubert and Milton cannot reach all the people of our age. The people have chosen the expressors of their hearts, and the duty of intellectual conservatives is to meet them on their terms.

The monopoly long held by the Left over “popular culture” is receding and conservatives have a chance to get their vision of life into the consumptive habits of the people. The sea change is already underway. Look at Taylor Swift, an all-American country girl who moves millions of women to a longing for the missed opportunities of young love. Or Kendrick Lamar, the “good” rapper who defies the hedonism and barbarism so long associated with rap. These wildly popular artists (and many more) testify to a great dissatisfaction with the Left’s terrible influence on the culture. For conservatives to flare up their noses at the “low” tastes of the people is pompously self-wounding. No longer can William Buckley glaze his eyes through a reading of Nicholas Sparks or Antonin Scalia desperately try to fill his head with “Il mio tesoro” through a round of “battle rap.” Conservatives lost the culture war because their outlooks on life were so long exiled from cinema, popular literature and the music industry. Now we have a chance to infiltrate these media. If we are serious about loving the people, and improving their lives, we must embrace their sources of meaning. True love for the people must extend to their arts, for only in the arts can we come to understand their souls.

ON THE OTHER HAND: the one thing you can’t be populist about is taste. Western art in all genres has endured a long decline, and submitting to the loss of sublimity is not a hill we can die on. The true worth of a society is measured by the enduring power of its creative efforts. Ancient Athens and Renaissance Italy were climaxes of human life because they produced art that was exalted to all epochs. It is inevitable that politics must bow to the necessity of kitsch, but this doesn’t mean that conservatives have to act like lazy, corporatized “art” has transcendent qualities. Leave the people to their own devices, and instead work to cultivate a reinvigorated high culture of enduring beauty. True conservatism demands artifacts for the ages.

THE CHAIRMAN, perusing the Uffizi gallery in earbuds blasting with grunge, succumbs to a bout of Stendhal Syndrome, and commands the arbiters of good taste to assemble and debate the matter.

RESOLVED: Love the People, Love their Arts

The Debate will be held on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, at Burger Moe’s(back room), 242 7th St. W., St. Paul, MN 55102.

The Chancellor will preside over drinks beginning at seven o’clock p.m. The debate will begin at half past seven. There is no dress code, however gentlemen who wish to speak must wear a tie; ladies are encouraged to adhere to a similar sartorial standard. For those gentlemen arriving sans tie yet wishing to discourse on the resolution, the Purveyor of Ties will keep on hand several remarkable selections. In addition, the Chairman encourages all to join him as early as 6:30 pm for a bite to eat. Let us thank our host location for the use of their room in the most sincere way possible – by spending our money. God Bless Free Enterprise! Questions regarding debate caucus procedures or about the John Adams Society itself may be directed to the Chairman at (651) 485-1699 or the Secretary at (651) 263-6224.