Irrelevance. This word hopefully comes to mind when discussing the involvement of Ayn Rand’s Anthem in the infamous “lightbulb controversy.” The book may include some aspects of the attempt to pass the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, because trying to take away the right of choice for a company will naturally spark up thoughts about individualism, thus bringing up Ayn Rand and her ideas. However, her unique political views bring up multiple controversial topics, connect very little to the main subject, and are only made to appear worse when used incorrectly by people like Paul Rand.
Any mention of Ayn Rand or any of her objectivist ideas will not go unnoticed. Her outlook on how the world should be run has been an ongoing topic for many years, and just by reading the
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The protagonist, Equality 7-2521, rediscovers electricity and the incandescent light bulb. His society rejects his discovery, due to their fear that it will destroy their routine way of life. He then runs off into the forest with his only friend, where he discovers something important, the long lost word, I. This starts the connection between the protagonists way thinking and Ayn Rand, the reason people attempted to integrate the book into the argument for light bulbs. Equality 7-2521 states, “I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others. I covet no man’s soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.” As Equality comes to this realization, he perfectly ties back his new ideas to Ayn Rand’s. This goes to show, Anthem was written to stress her political views along with individual rights. People like Senator Paul Rand fail to see this, even though it is clear that the new light bulbs are meant to help the environment and save energy, not be mistakenly interpreted as an assault on our citizens individual