896 Rand, Ayn
Rand’s emphasis on the “individual,” totally
“man-centred” focus often raises the question of
a human’s relationship with other people in the
immediate context of his or her life, family, neigh-
borhood, and the larger context of state and nation.
Rand’s view is that community in any form must
exist only to further the individual human potential.
The individual cannot be subjugated to some larger
purpose that goes against the essential spirit of man.
The so-called common good, or larger purpose
(or whatever ideal by which the individual is denied
the right and freedom to exercise free will), must in
fact be recognized as a form of degeneracy. Rand has
the protagonist of Anthem proclaim in no uncertain
terms that it is through such false pretexts that “the
depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the
weak steal the might of the strong, by which the
fools steal the wisdom of the sages.”
Rand firmly supported the individualism that
Anthem projects. She was highly critical of the “total
collectivism” that certain forms of social organiza-
tion, such as communism, espoused. Her attitude
toward such questions emerged out of her philo-
sophical views, generally labeled objectivism. She
believed in reason and rational egoism, and sought
objective reality in metaphysics. She believed that
individuals must choose their values and actions
solely by reason. The individual, she maintained
must operate alone, not subjugating himself or her-
self to others or subjugating others.
For Rand, the state existed merely to provide
protection to citizens through police and military
from criminal aggression from within and foreign
aggression from without. The state machinery must
exist as a “necessary evil,” but it must exist only at
the minimalist level. It should be responsible for
maintaining a system of justice through laws and
courts to determine guilt or innocence and to resolve
disputes among individuals. A resolute defender of
individual rights, Rand believed the government
machinery existed only to defend those rights.
Rand wrote philosophically rich fiction. Her
novels propound her essential views with the com-
mitment and intensely logical reasoning of a phi-
losopher. She was influenced by Aristotle’s Organon
(“Logic”); by several ideas of Nietzsche; by John
Locke, who promulgated the idea that individuals
“own themselves”; and more generally by the philo-
sophical thought of the Age of Enlightenment and
the Age of Reason. Her sociopolitical stance upheld
laissez-faire capitalism and the American values
of rational egoism and individualism. Her intense
interest in reason led her to denounce mysticism
and religion as obstacles in the path of human
happiness.
For Rand, then, the individual and society
have an inescapable connection, but the interaction
between the two must be so fashioned as to lead to
the enhancement of the individual potential.
Gulshan TanejaoppreSSIon in Anthem
Oppression finds a sharper, more vivid delineation in
Anthem than it does even in the later, better-known
novels of Ayn Rand. Its stark simplicity of design
and form and a relatively narrower narrative objec-
tive as an expression of its authorial intent convinces
the reader of the reality of the evil as a nightmare
does even after one wakes up.
Oppression has been variously described as the
use of power to silence or subjugate one group of
people or category—to privilege or empower the
oppressor, who appropriates force, authority, or
apparently commonly acceptable social norms in
order to gain control. When institutionalized, as in
a dictatorship, it may take the form of systematic
oppression. Racism, sexism, and other sociopolitical
prejudices are examples of it.
Anthem goes a step further and projects a society
in which the members are completely convinced of
the justness of their predicament. They consider their
state of existence as an ideal form of life achieved
through superior historical effort. This internalized
oppression is one of the most horrifying forms of
social existence that Rand delineates through the
fable of Equality 7-2521 and “The Golden One,”
the two main characters in the novella.
The events in Anthem take place at some future
date when humankind has entered another dark age
as a result of the evils of irrationality and collectiv-
ism. Technological advancement is discouraged,
when it is allowed to occur at all. The notion of
individuality has been allowed to wither away. The
word I has been eliminated from everyday speech.