John Kersey is an interdisciplinary historian whose work spans the three principal areas of music, education and traditionalist Catholicism, in particular those movements that developed as a result of the First Vatican Council of 1870. The author of several books, he has also recorded over 100 CDs as a concert pianist, including the first recordings of several unfinished works by Beethoven. He is currently President of European-American University, which operates in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and specializes in bespoke educational solutions for high achievers. His professional work is combined with voluntary service within the Church, in which he is ordained and has responsibility for a Traditional Catholic community. He writes and blogs for the Libertarian Alliance.

Talk – ‘Preserving the substance of a nation: the role of traditional conservative counter-establishment'

When the destruction of the substance of a nation has progressed so far that its institutions and processes are under the permanent ideological sway of the Left, what options are left for traditional conservatives? Many who are politically active believe that a change of government, with the backing of a popular mandate, will be enough to reverse the cultural shift that has transformed Britain during the past half-century. However, the task at hand is much more intractable than this, and political action at a national level is in fact the last stage in implementing a reactionary agenda that must start at the grass roots if it is to overcome the residual opposition that now exists at every level of modernist culture. In this talk, radical traditionalist and paleolibertarian John Kersey details the obstacles to a return to Traditionalist principles and advocates the role of a Traditionalist counter-establishment as the most effective vehicle for survival and growth within the current adverse climate. Drawing on ideas from such thinkers as Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Julius Evola, Roger Scruton and fellow speaker Sean Gabb, he explores the way forward for those aristocrats of the soul for whom spiritual and intellectual resistance must become a way of life.