Ayn Rand's Anthem - Perils of collectivism
Of many books that we read only some books kindle and rekindle our
thought processes. Ayn Rand's Anthem is one such book. Many of us know
that author Ayn Rand is known for not only her famous books like fountainhead
and Atlas shrugged but also for her philosophy Objectivism. A theory which gives
primacy to individuals rather than the collectivist mind set. The collective mindset
is, I strongly believe, by and large encouraged by many of the religions and
dogmatic concepts like Marxism. Ayn Rand wrote this novel in her very early days
which incidentally becomes the theme of her later day philosophical moorings.
I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals,
and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities.
- Ayn Rand.
The fascinating thing about this book against collectivist ideas is that it is
pitted against the far more popular concept like Marxism (in those days and even
now in many intellectual circles) which primarily deals with communism or in
other words, collectivist society. The idea that came to my mind was, as
individualistic this objectivism concept is at variance with all the principles of
collectivism including religious ones. I think all religions essentially tend to
negate self and promote selflessness on the part of individuals. Similarly,
the Marxist school of thought, which some scholars would try to define
as an extension of religion's collective humanist idea told in a different way.
In that context it is very pertinent to note here that that Marxist philosophy
is more similar to that of many religious concepts in so far as the concept
of self denial is concerned. Though it may seem preposterous for some of
the readers to agree to this, they must understand that I am trying to analyse
this from a new thinking line i.e from an individual perception.
Ayn Rand escaped out of Stalinist USSR when she was twenty one
seeking better fortunes for exploring her talent in USA. As a budding creative
artiste she must have felt constricted and wanted to escape from the shackles
of the then USSR I feel, the horrible living experiences of young creative Rand
in a Collectivist society would have tempted her to write a novel like anthem.
The story is woven around a society where individuals have no place
and collective will is imposed on all the members. There is no place for
individual aspirations and the destiny of all is decided collectively. The
protagonist of the story is a smart youth named Equality 7-2521. He finds a
tunnel, a lonely place accidentally and pursue his research on electricity
clandestinely (this was written in the 1930s please remember) and after weeks
of work in the tunnel in his spare time,he discovers electricity and bulb. In the
meanwhile, the hero met his heroine a Golden one who is a proud peasant
girl near the secret tunnel.
He was entertaining ideas to showcase his discovery Electric bulb to
the world council. But before that he was caught for being late to his allotted
work and was incarcerated for that. He had shown his invention to them asking
for atonement.The council, instead of doing that, got very angry. They
confiscated his materials and threatened him with death penalty and destroying
his electric bulb..
Somehow Equality 7-2521 escapes from the council finds a no man's
land an uncharted forest and his heroine also followed suit. There, they lived
together. Now they are at liberty to do what they liked..
This is the crux of the story 'Anthem'. The reason why I wanted to
write about this story is the concept of the story and the lessons we take.
What I understood is that human spirit is uncontrollable. Whatever you do
it will only try to do everything of his/her own free will. Only that is natural.
I think, Ayn Rand wanted that to convey to readers as she suffered at the
hands of the so called communist experiment. As we have seen earlier, in my
opinion, this story is the inspirational basis for writing a theory like objective
individualism for the author in her later years.
Some people are of the opinion that pitted against Marxism a societal
collective idea as a solution for problems plaguing the human kind, this gives
a diametrically opposite view of freewill of the individual mind. As far as I know
Marxist thought does not give any leverage to individuals and the thrust is on
the macro side. Here, like eastern thoughts, Rand gives the utmost importance to
individuals. Comparing her theory, Marxism and Eastern Indian thoughts are
subject matter of another discussion.
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