Save The Date:
September 22-23, 2023 in Cleveland, OH
Milton Friedman, a founding member of The Philadelphia Society, observed that turning the intellectual tide away from the romance with Marxism is the “essential element in strengthening and preserving a free society.” He argued that creating the intellectual foundations for a free and ordered society would require contributions not only from economists but also from “sociologists, historians, novelists, playwrights, etc.” This cultural turn was in part a response to the rise of the New Left in the second half of the 20th century. Thinkers of the Frankfurt School, such as Herbert Marcuse, helped advance the Gramscian strategy of developing a new cultural hegemony to displace the cultural hegemony of the “bourgeois.” Thus began the Left’s long march through the institutions, which sought to break down the cultural influence of prevailing religions, scholarly establishments, and civic mores.
The contest between the New Left and the increasingly politically oriented Conservative movement in the U.S. has left us with deracinated institutions and unmoored individuals. Can we turn the tide in the battle of ideas? Can we restore or re-imagine the institutions that will best protect and promote human flourishing? This conference will challenge us to consider the needed responses to cultural Marxism, which will include attention to the inseparable relationships between a nation’s economy and its culture.
More information forthcoming. Please contact Charissa Reul for more information.