Anthem by Ayn Rand

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Anthemby Ayn Rand

• Background Information
• 9th grade Language Arts

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Ayn Rand

• Born in Russia in 1905
• Educated under the Communists
• Experienced firsthand horrors of totalitarianism
• Form of government in which political authority
  has absolute and central control over all aspects
  of life. Individual thought, political and
  cultural expression is suppressed for the good
  of the government.

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Ayn Rand

• Moved to America in 1926
• America represented her individualist philosophy
• She embraced the potential of the individual to
  thrive outside of governmental control

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Review Question

• Where was Ayn Rand from?
• Bosnia
• Russia
• England
• Europe
• Asia
• Why is it important to know shes from this place?

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Review Question

• Why did Ayn Rand move to the USA?
• The Russians made her because she would not
  conform to their government
• She was a refugee from communism
• She chose to move to the USA because she believed
  in its values as a society
• She had family here and had nowhere else to go

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Anthem (1937)

• Novelette about the essence of collectivism
• Political principle of centralized social and
  economic control
• Theme The meaning of mans ego
• Individual is swallowed by collective (group)
• People have to accept the societys ideas for the
  totalitarianism to take control
• Lives of people in a totalitarian society are
  depressing
• However, the individual can triumph over it!

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Review Question

• What is collectivism?
• The idea that we should all work together towards
  a common good
• The idea that a society is made up of many
  different types of people, all of whom are
  necessary for the society to function properly
• The idea that politics and society should be
  under central control and everyone should believe
  the same things

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Anti-Utopian society

• A UTOPIA is a perfect society
• An anti-utopian society shows the world presented
  in a way it should not be.
• Anti-utopia meant to scare you by showing how
  bad it could be
• Anthem presents a collectivism as the worst
  possible society
• Anthem suggests that economic progress depends on
  freedom
• Anthem suggests that the uncoerced mind is the
  source of technology, prosperity, and progress
• Philosophic issues are raised in the book and are
  dramatized through action

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Collectivism

• Collectivism means the subjugation of the
  individual to the group whether to a race, class
  or state does not matter Ayn Rand
• An individual is owned by the group
• No right to private existence
• No right to pursue own happiness or own property
• Individual only exists as part of a group
• Worth is determined by service to the group

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Individualism

• Individualism regards man every man as an
  independent, sovereign entity who possesses an
  inalienable right to his own life, a right
  derived from his nature as a rational being
  Ayn Rand
• Every man is an individual and has the same
  rights as every other man
• Does not mean that everyone can do whatever they
  feel like doing

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Think about it

• Do you think collectivism is necessarily a
  bad/evil thing?
• Do you think individualism is always a good
  thing? How might it go wrong?

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Selflessness

• No one has a self in collectivism individuals
  are interchangeable
• It is wrong to disagree, to have independent
  thoughts
• Self-assertion is forbidden
• Creats sub-human society What makes human
  beings human is having a self Ayn Rand
• Selflessness requires that you abstain from
  thinking and obey your master without question

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Note

• Rands idea of selflessness means losing your
  self/ego/identity literally being without a
  self
• We generally think of the word selflessness as
  a good thing the opposite of being selfish
  giving yourself up to help others
• Keep both definitions in mind!

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Egoism

• Concern with ones own interests
• Ambition, wanting things for yourself, wanting to
  learn, wanting a career that makes you happy,
  loving someone, thinking for yourself
• For Ayn Rand, the self is like a god its your
  highest value, the source of what is good in life
  on Earth!

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Question

• Do you think of EGOISM as a good thing?
• Yes
• No
• Sometimes

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Note

• Ayn Rand uses the word EGO the same way as the
  word self having an ego is having a sense of
  your importance as an individual to society
• We usually think as someone with an ego as a
  bad thing someone who is full of themselves or
  selfish.
• Again, remember both definitions while were
  reading Anthem, keep Rands definitions in mind.

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Free Will vs. Determinism

• Free will means people can make choices, make up
  their own minds, make decisions, and direct their
  own lives by the ideas and values they adopt
• Determinism is that people are by nature in the
  grip of forces beyond their control