E27 - The Old Watchdog and the Silent Presence

A Socialist Reads Atlas Shrugged

This episode begins with Jonathan examining how people typically make decisions about who is deserving of empathy and who is not. This episode's close read starts with the scene between Dagny and the "old watchdog." Jonathan examines the social class evocations called up by the identification of the old watchdog having an "air of breeding" about him. Dagny doesn't want to discuss what she calls her personal torture -- what is she referring to? Jonathan offers an answer: the riddle of why some people seem to give up on life. This connects to the pervasiveness of fear, and fear-based shame, in our society. Jonathan then observes the similarity in tone and meaning between "who is John Galt?" and the phrase "it is what it is" in our time. Chapter 3 ends with Eddie Willers revealing a lot of information to the strange unnamed interlocutor, "the silent presence." Of the various things mentioned by Willers, Jonathan focuses on the admiration of workism and the setup for an act of sabotage against Dagny that comes in the next chapter.
My five themes to explore in this podcast's close read of Atlas Shrugged are:

1. What is human nature?
2. Straw-man arguments and their impact on the world Ayn Rand creates.
3. Dagny Taggart as a true hero.
4. How empathy can be de-legitimized.
5. What is Capitalism and what is wrong with it?

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Learn more about Jonathan Seyfried at their website, https://jonathanseyfried.art
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The intro/outro music was composed by John Sib.
The podcast theme image was created by Karina Bial.

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