Robert Tracinski is the author of the book, So Who Is John Galt, Anyway?: A Reader's Guide to Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Tracinski also writes the Tracinski Letter and Symposium at Substack, and he is a columnist for various other publications. This is the Self in Society Podcast #26.
Time Markers
00 Intro
1:22 Would Any Rand be more concerned with today's "woke" anti-capitalist left or religious ethno-nationalist right?
6:06 The collapse of fusionism; Rand's influence on conservatism
9:50 Are Objectivists on "the right?"
11:47 Trumpists and Putin apologists among Objectivists
15:35 Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump as Atlas Shrugged villains
19:50 Open vs. Closed Objectivism
25:53 Ayn Rand as a liberal
29:32 Today's conservative right as anti-liberal
35:33 Problems with the welfare state; a baseline of life-serving values
43:54 Why a reader's guide to Atlas Shrugged
46:07 To what degree are Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk Randian heroes?
51:04 And Rand vs. the Stoics
59:53 Parental love
1:05:29 Should we be optimistic about America's future?
1:10:17 Wrap-up
One article of Tracinski’s I found helpful is “Which Way, Western Man?” He also wrote, “Ukrainians Are Nobody's Pawns.”
In 2016 I wrote an article, “Ayn Rand Is the Anti-Trump.”
PopeHat has the parody of Trump.
Sherri and Robert wrote, “10 Amazingly Enjoyable Things About Having Kids.”