John Kersey
Educationalist, musician and clergyman
Nobility, chivalry and honours
Full list of recordings with track details
Books, articles and related material
Criticism of recordings and books on music
My work in contributing to public debate on culture and society is inevitably seen as political in nature. However, I belong to no political party and maintain a strongly independent and critical stance concerning the current British political system. The schools of thought with which I am most frequently identified are radical traditionalism, traditionalist conservatism and paleolibertarianism. I am a passionate defender of Western civilization and of the Western Christian tradition, and notwithstanding a very wide international outlook both personally and professionally, a lover of my native Britain and its people. I oppose globalisation and corporatocracy, and for many years have argued against British membership of the European Union.
I trace the most important aspects of my intellectual development regarding cultural and political awareness to my short but formative period of postgraduate research at Cambridge. It was at this time that I first encountered the ideology of the Cultural Marxist Left in depth, and in a hegemonic manner. In my strong reaction against these ideas, I was forced to think carefully about what I believed and why. I emerged from the experience as a committed traditional conservative critic of the post-1945 intellectual consensus and an open opponent of postmodernism and moral relativism.
These conclusions, combined with the narrow specialism, bureaucracy and political correctness prevalent in much of contemporary academia, compelled me to acknowledge my essential polymathy and reactionary, Romanticist outlook, and consequently to pursue a high degree of autonomy in my academic work and my professional life generally. I was particularly influenced by the cultural writings of Sir Roger Scruton, who has discussed his experiences as a dissident conservative academic within the British university system, and who has said that there is "no such career in England as that of an intellectual Conservative". I determined that rather than becoming another unhappy dissident, I would seek an alternative: to support and create traditionalist institutions outside the system, and often internationally, that offered the prospect both of freedom and of disruptive innovation, and to work towards the creation of a counter-establishment.
That counter-establishment includes support for secessionism and for new country projects. In respect of the latter, I am actively involved in Royal Belarus, a monarchist and traditionalist movement that began among Belarusian nationalists in exile during the Soviet years. New country projects seek to establish sovereign territory (which could potentially be anywhere in the world) as a basis for building a society according to a particular political, ethnic or ideological set of aims.
As a radical traditionalist, I believe in the small-scale organization of human society through neo-feudalism and in the dominant influence of landscape, indigenous cultures and natural hierarchies. Two key essays summarize my ideas. In "Preserving the substance of a nation: the role of a traditional conservative counter-establishment" (from a speech given to the Traditional Britain Group Conference in 2013) I explore the need for traditionalists to build their own institutions that enshrine their culture and beliefs. In my 2014 essay "Can aristocracy and its feudal roots offer a prospect and model for secessionist solutions to the present crisis in Britain?" I advance a neo-feudalist view of the future.
I have often argued in favour of high culture and believe that the disappearance of high culture from our public discourse and everyday life is a tragedy with disturbing consequences. This is not to imply that I do not enjoy or take an interest in low culture, but that I regard the difference between high and low culture as significant and do not wish to see the low vaunted at the expense of the high.
I also take an academic interest in British political thought of the Right during the 1930s, and in particular the work of the English Mistery and the English Array under the 9th Earl of Portsmouth and others. These traditional conservative movements emphasised monarchism and feudalism, and advocated ruralist ideas that prefigured several modern environmental concerns.
I am a Vice-President of the Traditional Britain Group, and have been an invited speaker for the Group on a number of occasions, most recently at its Annual Conference in 2018. For several years I was a council member and Director of Cultural Affairs of the former Libertarian Alliance, until its dissolution in June 2017.
drjohnkersey(at)gmail.com
Abbey-Principality of San Luigi
Apostolic Episcopal Church
Career Consulting International
European-American Extension College
European-American University
OXCEL
Romantic Discoveries Recordings
Royal Belarus and the Belarusian Patriarchate
Traditional Britain Group
Western Orthodox University
Other John Kersey sites
John Kersey on Soundcloud
John Kersey on YouTube
Academy of Saint Cecilia
Australian Society of Musicology and Composition
Österreichische Albert Schweitzer Gesellschaft
Collegium Heraldicum Concordiae
Curwen College of Music
Freundeskreis Hoch- und Deutschmeister, Mannheim-Baden
Guild of Musicians and Singers
Imperial House Leopardi of Constantinople
International Music Examinations Board
National College of Music and Arts
Norman Academy
North and Midlands School of Music
Ordre de St Georges de Bourgogne
Pontificia Accademia Tiberina
Presidential Service Awards
Religious and Military Order of the Knights of St Catherine of Sinai
Royal House of Maharaja Adinda Aranan
Royal Order of St Stanislas
St Cecilia School of Music, Australia and New Zealand
Sultanate of Baloi
Unia Polskich Ugrupowań Monarchistycznych
Victoria College of Music
Fellowship of the College of Violinists
Traditional Britain Group Conference 2018
Honorary Fellowship of the Guild of Musicians and Singers
Review of 2017 Chingford recital
Arnold Harris Mathew and the Old Catholic Movement in England 1908-52
Joseph-Rene Vilatte (1854-1929): Some aspects of his life, work and succession
Piano recital in Chingford
European-American University Press (5)
Recitals (4)
Romantic Discoveries Recordings (32)
Traditional Britain Group (8)