Example Of Collectivism In Anthem

Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem depicts a collectivist society in which members are shunned for being different, and are not allowed to act or think as an individual. On a stage set many years in the future, Rand gives the reader a unique insight into her individualistic views in which she highlights the dangers of this collective society through the leaders in Anthem using propaganda, fear, and the restriction of knowledge in order to enslave the minds of their subjects. Through this, Rand is also able to share her insight on collectivism in which she believes that collectivism is evil, nonsensical, and impractical.

First of all, Ayn Rand’s novel exemplifies the ridiculousness and evil contained in a collective society by showing how the leaders of

Perhaps the greatest example of this can be seen when Equality witnesses a man being burned at the stake for speaking the unspeakable word: a word that implies an individual entity of one’s self. Equality “... stood in the great square with all the children and all of the men of the city [and watching the burning of the man at the stake]” (50). Equality and his whole community witness the burning of a man who discovered true individuality in the darkness of collectivism. This burning sent a dark but fiery message to the citizens of this collectivist community because now, the people of this society can be sure that if they rebel against their collective, they will be burned to something less than waste (or suffer a fate of similar caliber). Through such punishment, Rand demonstrates that in such collective societies, leaders must extinguish acts of individualism, and go to far lengths to do so. She makes it abundantly clear that there is no room for individual thinking or speaking in a true collectivist society. Since it is human nature to fear death and for people to think about themselves as an individual, it is evil to sentence people to a painful death for thinking or speaking about themselves instead of the greater good and their brothers. Her inspiration for this probably came from her

For example, all members of society receive a government-sponsored education, and Equality states that he “... learned that the earth is flat and the sun revolves around it … (he also learned to) bleed men to cure themselves of all ailments” (23). Clearly, people in Equality’s society are restricted on knowledge and are taught ideas which are clearly untrue. The leaders of Equality's society enslave the minds of their subjects because, without knowledge, it is very difficult to form an individual opinion and truly be a smart individual; not even compared to one's peers. This all contributes to Ayn Rand’s view that collectivism is ridiculous and nonsensical as well as impractical because everybody’s minds are controlled, and they don’t have proper access to true knowledge. This means that people in Rand’s society do not have much of a chance to progress or regain the progress of the Unmentionable Times or even gain true happiness due to that lack of individual opinions and thoughts. This relates to our real world in several ways. During the rise of communism in the late 19th century and early 20th century many communists started destroying new technology in order to essentially safeguard the jobs and world of the past. Rand exaggerates this restriction on technology and