I had written this for Ayn Rand’s Writing Competition. Although I didn’t win, I am nevertheless proud of this essay. Below are the topics and the essay.

The people in the society of Anthem are taught to live by certain principles concerning what is good and evil, right and wrong. Do you think those who adhere to these principles are happy or unhappy? What lessons do you draw from this about how we should think about morality today?

In Anthem, Ayn Rand presents a City in which religion, law, and education coalesce and work in concert to systematically ingrain its citizens with Collectivism—the principle that supports the idea that individuals must sacrifice their humanity to serve the society. This idea is best summed up by the City’s motto, displayed over the entrance to the Palace of the World Council: “We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great We, One, indivisible and forever” (19). Through such apotheosis of the “We”, the City recognizes its citizens only as a collective group, not as individuals. Furthermore, it eliminates the word “I” from society and kills anyone who utters the Unspeakable Word. Through Collectivism, the City tries to dismantle individuals of their creativity, emotion, and reason, the very faculties that would make them human. Reduced into mindless robots, the citizens obey orders and perfunctorily perform tasks asked of them. Anthem, through the examples of Equality 7-2521, the novel’s protagonist, and other characters, makes it apparent that selfless beings are doomed to suffer only unhappiness. Yet, many contemporary governments and leaders still spin the lie that selflessness is a virtue. 

One may argue that “ignorance is bliss” and thus the citizens should feel happiness. It is admittedly true that their indoctrination begins early in life and that the citizens are ignorant of knowledge that could reveal Collectivism as a hoax. As soon as they are born, they become institutionalized at the Home of Infants, where they learn to suppress their emotions by getting punished for fighting. Then, from ages five to ten, at the Home of the Students, they train to suppress their emotion, creativity and reason, instructed that thoughts that differ from those of others are evil. Upon turning fifteen, each citizen gets assigned to a job, which they must accept and mindlessly perform for twenty-five years. Finally, at age forty, they retire to the House of the Useless where they must die on or before their forty-fifth birthday. In theory, these fully indoctrinated citizens should feel nothing, but they live in fear. They are afraid that the Councils might suspect their inability to suppress their creativity, emotion, and reason. This is evident in Equality 7-2521’s pointing out that his brothers “are silent, for they dare not speak the thoughts of their minds. For all must agree with all, and they cannot know if their thoughts are the thoughts of all, and so they fear to speak” (47). Thus, as Equality 7-2521 observes, “[there] is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of the streets. Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare to speak.” Unfortunately, such fear exists not only in fictional worlds but also in reality. Even now, in North Korea, China, Cuba, Laos, Syria, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, and many other countries, the government demands individuals to suppress their creativity, emotion, and reason and punishes them for expressing ideas that go against the government’s ideology. 

Oppressive governments, including the one in Anthem, generally forbid emotion, creativity, and reason because the three faculties allow mankind to perceive the world from the perspective of the self, which jeopardizes most oppressive governments’ ideologies. Through Anthem, Rand demonstrates how the ideology of Collectivism systematically makes humanity miserable. First, while mankind often finds happiness in meaningful relationships, the citizens in Anthem cannot build such relationships. No one has a friend or a lover. In fact, men are forbidden from thinking about women, except during the Time of Mating, when the Council of Eugenics assigns a man to a woman to spend one night solely for the purpose of mating. Equality 7-2521 cannot even say that he and International 4-8818 are friends or that he loves Liberty 5-3000, for Collectivism forbids him from loving anyone more than others. Second, mankind can often derive happiness from engaging in activities the heart desires, but the citizens in Anthem cannot pursue such activities. For example, despite Equality 7-2521’s desire to study and International 4-8818’s desire to draw, the two characters must accept their Life Mandates as Street Sweepers. In fact, Equality 7-2521 views his assignment as punishment for having been born with the “curse” of “a head which is too quick” and “superior to [others]” (21). Third, Collectivism enslaves and hinders individuals from making progress by shackling them to all others. For instance, the Council rejects Equality 7-2521’s light bulb, a significant improvement over candles, the City’s only source of light at night, claiming that “[what] is not thought by all men cannot be true” and “[what] is not done collectively cannot be good” (73). Although the Council’s claim that the invention of the light bulb is a “crime”, it is a lie (72). The fact is that the Council decides to sacrifice both Equality 7-2521 and the light bulb to hide the fact that an individual’s achievement can triumph over that of the collective. While such a decision may temporarily protect Collectivism, it ultimately yields regression of humanity. 

Unfortunately, it is not just the leaders in oppressive societies but also in democratic societies that often demand individuals to sacrifice the self and their achievements. This is because many mainstream religious and philosophical teachings emphasize the virtues of altruism, or selflessness. Thus, in some cases, even horrifying acts are carried out under the justification that it could benefit the collective. One example is the US Navy asking seventeen and eighteen-year old boys to help shorten World War II by becoming human subjects in the mustard gas experiment. In other cases, just as Equality 7-2521 gets persecuted, individuals are sacrificed to protect false beliefs. The most notable example is Galileo Galilei, the Italian scientist who was persecuted for supporting Nicolaus Copernicus’s heliocentric model, which directly contradicted the Catholic Church’s belief that placed Earth at the center of the universe. What is most shocking is that many leaders confuse what is good for a collective with what is good. For instance, Otto Adolf Eichmann, a member of the Nazi party, was tried in Jerusalem for war crimes. He pleaded not guilty, claiming that he simply carried out orders as a Nazi officer and that he obeyed the laws of the nation and protected his citizens. In fact, he used Collectivism as his defense. These examples prove that law, religion, and education are often not the best moral compasses. Rather, according to Rand, mankind should question them, learn to see true reality, and act in the best interest of themselves without causing harm to others. Mankind can only determine what is right and wrong for the self by acquiring such selfness, or selfishness as Rand puts it. In Anthem, it is as Equality 7-2521 becomes aware of the self that he begins to see Collectivism as the evil that causes mankind’s misery. Ultimately, upon discovering the word “I” and becoming fully aware of himself, he aspires to achieve his own happiness by doing what he thinks is right— taking on the burden of enlightening and liberating humanity from Collectivism, just as Prometheus defied other gods to enlighten and liberate mankind by bestowing it the gift of fire.