The “Being There” series of videos on the Maurin Academy’s Political Philosophy YouTube channel and podcast is now complete. You can find the entire series at this playlist as well as on any podcast platform (just look for Political Philosophy with Dr. Laurie Johnson).
Jerzy Kosiński (1933–1991) was a Polish-born American novelist known for his unsettling explorations of identity, power, and deception. He survived World War II as a Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Poland, emigrated to the United States in 1957, and rose to prominence in the 1960s and 70s as a writer of both fiction and social commentary. His novels, such as The Painted Bird (1965), Steps (1968), and Being There (1970), won acclaim for their stark, allegorical style.
Being There is about a simple, unknown man who is catapulted in four days to the stratosphere of American power. A cloistered garden, Chance has spent his life isolated at a Washington, D.C. estate, knowing the world only through gardening and television. When his benefactor/keepr dies and he is forced into the outside world, his literal, garden-based remarks about growth and seasons are misinterpreted by businessmen, politicians, and media figures as profound economic and political genius.
Chance’s blankness, coupled with his incredible good looks and social connections, makes him a screen onto which others project their own hopes and ideas. The novel critiques the emptiness of modern media culture, the superficiality of political leadership, and the ease with which charisma and image can be mistaken for substance.