Fiction & Social Philosophy: "Anthem" by Ayn Rand

Let me start with what I wrote over at Goodreads:
Anthem by Ayn Rand




I first read this book in the seventh grade and found the concepts to be a good mind trip. I am re-reading it again via listening to an audible version of this story.


I recommend ignoring most of the Monkey Collective members' reviews. To be fair, it is not the most literary in style; read it for the concepts. Just as collectivism can be a false god, so can an obsession with individualism become a false god. Again look at the concepts, especially now that the USA is continuing down the path of overweening Statism. This story is essentially an "argumentum ad absurdum" (sp?), if we extrapolate current trends we might devolve to the society depicted in this story. Oligarchic corporate fascism is not much different from Statist Collectivism in its effects, so this story is still relevant because the individual is demeaned for the sake of some oligarch or committee.
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There are some great passages in this book which I will append to this post, so stay tuned. But I will leave my 0.085 readers to consider the following from the beginning section of this novella:

Quote:

We were born with a curse. It has always driven us to thoughts which are forbidden. It has given us wishes which men may not wish. We know that we are evil, but there is no will in us and no power to resist it. This is our wonder and our secret fear, that we know and do not resist.

We strive to be like all our brother men, for all men must be alike. Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted:

"We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE,
One, indivisible and forever."

We repeat this to ourselves, but it helps us not.

Unquote.


Here is another small passage:

We, Equality 7-2521, were not happy in those years in the House of the Students. It was not that the learning was too hard for us. It was that the learning was too easy. This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us.

And here is another:

The Teachers had said to us all:
"Dare not choose in your minds the work you would like to do when you leave the Home of the Students. You shall do that which the Council of Vocations shall prescribe for you. For the Council of Vocations knows in its great wisdom where you are needed by your brother men, better than you can know it in your unworthy little minds. And if you are not needed by your brother men, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies."