E9 - Taking Responsibility

A Socialist Reads Atlas Shrugged

In this episode, Jonathan discusses the scene with Dagny Taggart and the train workers who want to follow the broken signal. Dagny's frustration is based on her response to the indifference that has come up earlier in the book. This part of the scene demonstrates a lot of Dagny's heroic characteristics. Jonathan ties some of these heroic qualities to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the President of Ukraine, taking responsibility for his leadership role during the Russian invasion in February-March 2022. The mention of Jim Taggart's friend as the Division Head scene connects to the tension between loyalty/friendship and the enterprise of larger projects. The conclusion of this scene calls to mind the attraction that humans have to theory in order to have a more "clean" representation of reality.
Today's Moment of Non-Contradiction comes from Reddit.
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 Bialys.

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