Jonathan Keeperman: We Are in a Survival Situation - AmFest 2025 Speech

The Shift from Academia to Publishing

• 🎓 Jonathan Keeperman, formerly an English lecturer at UC Irvine, left academia due to its shift from knowledge acquisition to enforcing narrow political and moral ideas.
• 🚫 The university environment became particularly hostile for conservatives, especially those who voted for Donald Trump.
• 🚀 To counter this, Keeperman founded Passage Press, a publishing company to cultivate and recognize the talents of young writers who felt excluded.

Lessons Learned from Charlie Kirk

• 📚 Keeperman emphasizes Charlie Kirk's appreciation for books and deep engagement with ideas, stressing the importance of consulting source material over secondary interpretations.
• 🤝 Despite being younger, Kirk possessed significant wisdom and know-how, teaching Keeperman the value of setting aside ego and personal disagreements in service of a larger project.
• 🎯 Kirk's focus was on building a "winning machine" by bringing good people together and fostering their strengths, understanding that allies' success contributes to his own.

The Absence of External Saviors

• 💡 Keeperman shares his past belief in "adults in the room" who would magically fix problems, but now recognizes that no one is coming to save us; the responsibility lies with us.
• 🗣️ This realization mirrors Kirk's understanding that the onus is on individuals and the community to take action.

Wisdom from Survival Stories

• 🌲 Keeperman draws parallels between his current political situation and real-life survival stories (shipwrecks, Arctic marooning, bear maulings).
• 🔑 Key lessons from these narratives include perseverance, resourcefulness, and the fundamental assertion of agency: "I am alive, and by virtue of being alive, I have agency."
• ⚡ Success in any fight, personal or political, begins with choosing to do one small thing to improve the situation, rather than succumbing to inertia.

Embracing the Fight

• 🌊 The core message is to consciously avoid being overwhelmed by the enormity of circumstances, whether it's crossing an ocean or tackling national political issues.
• ⚠️ Acknowledging the current "survival situation" in politics, Keeperman urges resistance against despair and laziness.
• 💪 The call to action is to take one small forward step, to "swim back to the boat" every time it flips, and to insist on staying in the fight until the story of survival can be told.