Anthem. Ayn Rand.

Anthem
Ayn Rand
New York: New American Library. 1946.

Why read it? Novel. An antidote to the culture of melding the individual into the group.

The world of the future—a collectivist future.” Flat emotionless prose. Short, simple words. Sentence structure seems to be simple. Not much variety in sentence structure. Not many complex sentences.

The sacred word that unites society is “WE.” Man must live and work, not for himself, but for others. To be alone in this world is a crime, a great transgression. The protagonist comes to realize that the really sacred word is, “I,” “Ego.”

“Anthem” means a choral composition involving a sacred text.

The protagonist sets up a counter-anthem to “We”: “I” or “Ego. Human beings are spiritless. They are beaten down, living in fear. They may not, in any way, deal with ideas, others’ or their own.

In a sense this book is a corrective for the desire to make the goal of education social good and is the antithesis to the practice of encouraging group cooperation as opposed to the emphasis on individualization in the 60s. Raises the question of the role of the individual vs. the role of cooperation in society. Can’t have one to the exclusion of the other. Don’t know what the author is referring to when she says, “Compulsory labor conscription is now practiced or advocated in every country on earth.” Probably socialism.

Best sentences:
“I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and then I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey.”

“There is nothing to take man’s freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”

“I am, I think, I will.”