On "Anthem"

The other day I read Ayn Rand’s “Anthem.” Like all of her other novels, it was little more than a piece of Objectivist propaganda. Nonetheless, I would like to talk about some of the concepts discussed in the book.

The basic premise is that society has become so collectivist that people have forgotten the word “I.” The main character, however, wishes to be individualistic, so he runs away from society and lives by himself in the woods. The last chapter, which is the actual anthem described in the title, is about his discovery of the words “I” and “ego.” The book scathingly criticizes the fictional collectivist society and praises individualism. In the introduction, Rand likens any kind of conformism or collectivism to slavery.

I found the whole thing somewhat reminiscent of 1984 or Brave New World, since the lesson each novel is trying to teach is very similar. Here, though, the lesson is more extreme—BNW speaks out against consumerism and conformism and 1984 against fascism and false revolution, but Anthem seems to be against any kind of government whatsoever.

Rand’s description of a collectivist society, though chilling, seems very unrealistic to me. The society is technologically backwards, which seems a bit ironic, since more advanced technology could be used to achieve a great amount of control. However, examples such as China show that Rand may be on to something.

The whole concept of forgetting the word “I” was very intriguing to me. I could not help thinking of it as a thought-experiment to prove the Saphir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic determinism). 1984 explores a similar idea, but in less detail—the government plants to use the “newspeak” argot to control how people think.

I would also like to take a moment to talk about Objectivism in general. Here is a short dossier of Objectivist ideas:

Metaphysics: Objective Reality, or the idea that reality exists independently of the human mind. Objectivism states that the purpose of the senses and consciousness is to perceive reality, not create it.

Epistemology: Reason, reason, and more reason. Rand rejects mysticism and skepticism, and it holds perception, combined with reason and rationality, is sufficient to achieve knowledge. 

Ethics: Objectivism rejects any kind of determinism, but it also rejects the concept of a soul. Instead, it states that human beings have a conscious mind that possessed free will. In terms of ethics and morality, Objectivism holds that the only concrete form of morality is that which is required to ensure man’s survival, not only physically but also as a rational being. Beyond that, the only morality, according to Rand, is self-interest. In other words, man is an end, not a means. I also suspect that Rand has a personal bias against moral systems that stress altruism, since she highlights this point in the book’s introduction.

Politics/Government: Objectivism states that a concept such as “the State” has no moral value whatsoever. Rand also argues that no man can force his values on another, and physical force is discouraged, except in self-defense. Man’s political purpose, according to Objectivism, is to interact with others independently, like traders. Laissez-faire capitalism is also strongly encouraged, since it allows people to interact in this way. Thus, Objectivism is strongly against any kind of collectivism or socialism.

Naturally, I reject most of these claims. The whole philosophy is based on a few assumptions, and since I am a skeptic I do not agree that these assumptions are true. However I can see how Rand came up with this philosophy, since she grew up in Soviet Russia—the invidious Russian political system angered many during her time.

This is probably not the last time I will be talking about Objectivism here, as I look forward to reading more of Ayn Rand’s books.