Cambridge’s hysterical reaction to a Hitler impression

Last week, the Cambridge Union hosted a debate on the motion ‘This House Believes there is no such thing as good taste.’ During the debate, the prominent and respected art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon made the point that humans have an instinctive feeling for what is beautiful and what is repellent. There are obvious, undeniable examples of good and poor taste. To demonstrate this, he staged a long impersonation of Hitler’s views on ‘degenerate’ modern art. His parody included many offensive and racist comments of the sort you would expect from Der Fuhrer.

Graham-Dixon’s argument was clear, even if his impression of Hitler was shaky and his presentation somewhat eccentric. Everyone would agree that Hitler, in his striving for pure, Aryan forms of art, demonstrated poor taste as well as moral evil. Indeed, Graham-Dixon’s impersonation was itself an example of poor taste. And so if we can all agree that there is such a thing as poor taste, then logically there must also be such a thing as good taste.