Ayn Rand's Second Objection To Happiness

Ayn Rand’s Anthem starts by Equality 7-2521 saying “It is a sin to write this.”

Happiness is a rite of passage to everyone no matter what cost. It can be extremely difficult to take someone’s happiness away, but it can be done. For example, in the book “Anthem” by Ayn Rand, Prometheus’ happiness is stripped from him in a futuristic society focused around similarity and compliance. Similarly, this unfortunately can happen as we are currently witnessing in Communist countries. Rand describes taking away individuality by forcing everyone to use “we” instead of “I”. However, individuality is the root of happiness. When happiness or individuality is stripped from you, it becomes increasingly difficult to be considered healthy or thriving. When someone finds themselves, they can be truly happy. Although, “Anthem” describes total

“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible and forever.”(19) The leaders of the society in Anthem enforce the idea of all men being one, true equality where all work for the good of their fellow men. In this society no one is capable of being hurt by another's pride or abilities. All people are given the numbing safety of having no talents, no favoritism, and no ego. “Preach Selflessness. Tell a man that he must live for others.”(The Soul of a Collectivist) By being one and the same, everyone is promised a sense of equality, something mankind fights over relentlessly.

In Ayn Rand's story Anthem, the protagonist Equality 7-2521 has a power unlike no other within their collectivist society. One day when Equality was working as a street sweeper, he finds an old abandoned underground railroad tunnel from the Unmentionable Times long ago. This is where he conducts his experiments that fill him with pride and joy. Equality dreams how his new invention that he brought into existence can change the world, but helping mankind is not his true motivation behind his passion to create. Throughout the story, Equality's true motivation is him trying to find his inner self and his identity as an individual.

In Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem, Equality 7-2521 rediscovers electricity. In the collectivist society Equality lives in, it is illegal to conduct such experiments. Knowing his transgressions, what is his motivation for his experiments? Is he right to be motivated in that way? How would the world change if everyone was motivated as Equality was?

To begin, Albert Einstein once said, “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” Curiosity, a desire to know or learn something, must exist in in this world in order for new things to be discovered. In the novel, Anthem, written by Ayn Rand, the male protagonist, Equality 7-2521, lives in a dystopian society in which everyone are forced to learn and think the way the World Council of Scholars want them to. The World Council of Scholars are the smartest people who dictate everything in this society. Equality 7-2521 begins to break away from this conformity, beginning with his encounter with an underground tunnel where he learns of electric light; then he presents his discovery to the World Council of Scholars. The rejection of his discovery leads him to the Uncharted Forest, an area around the city where it is illegal to go, being followed by Liberty 5-3000, his girlfriend, and resulting in finding a house from the Unmentionable Times, or times before the society was created. There are manuscripts from the Unmentionable Times inside that house, that

There's certain benefits to thinking this way though. It's very important to keep one's own happiness and well being at the forefront of their mind. People should not be expected to constantly cater to others. Selflessness is completely overrated. Equality is not wrong to want something for himself, especially after servicing others his whole life. But while Equality's outlooks aren't necessarily bad, there still needs to be balance. If everyone thought only about themselves, society would crumble. People have to rely on each other to an extent, and total selfishness would prevent this. That being said, someone can have selfish moments while still being a good person and caring for others. There doesn't have to be polar opposites when it comes to selfishness versus selflessness. There's so much emphasis on putting others before oneself that people often forget to look out for their own needs, as shown in this book. Ayn Rand successfully captures the negatives of an overrated ideology and presents an unorthodox perspective on the matter.

Tohniiya Yazzie per 1 Be unique in your own way, do not let other people tell you what to do. Anthem is a dystopian society. No one thinks for themselves, and there is no individuality, everyone has to think like a group. The leaders are called Council of Scholars and they tell everyone in the society what to think and do. No one is allowed to be different, and everyone is supposed to be the same, which is expected to make the society equal. Despite government regulations, Equality’s individuality and intelligent characteristics combined lead him to rediscover the lightbulb.

Equality is something people want till people actually have it. Equality often limits a person’s abilities and disables to do something for themselves or inspire themselves. Equality's, the main character in the book Anthem, the primary motivation is proving that he is smart enough to become a scholar. Equality has a right to be motivated in this way since he believes that he can help the society so he is giving into the collectivism. I think that if everyone was motivated in this way, there would be a more progressive society where people sought to improve themselves and society at the same time.

Equality does this by when he first falls in love with Liberty, he is obsessed. However, when his invention is rejected by the council, he starts to realize he doesn’t need to be in a group and in result, starts to love Liberty less. When he understand individuality fully, he becomes very selfish and doesn’t care for Liberty at all and thinks of her as an object. Equality felt he needed to be with a group and with Liberty. Through his journey he discovered that he doesn’t need to be with a group and can be independent. His mindset soon becomes to be very selfish even by ignoring Liberty. Rand gives her theme of selfishness that she believes would benefit us all if we would only try

“We are one in all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever” (Rand 19). How can an individual be a hero in a collectivist society? In The Anthem, a novella by Ayn Rand, the protagonist, Equality 7-2521 is portrayed as an archetypal epic hero. Equality 7-2521 exhibits the characteristics of an epic hero because he is capable of great deeds, he has a nemesis, and he experiences an event that leads to a quest. During the novella, Equality 7-2521 undergoes a journey to express individuality.

Society is fundamentally built upon rigid structure and control using rules to attempt to maintain order amongst a society comprised of many individuals. Inherently rules put at expense the freedom of individuals to achieve personal happiness in order to build a society comprised of more equally achieving individuals. Ayn Rand’s novella Anthem builds a society in which rules restrict all individual freedoms and force a more collective ideal. The rules put in place by the society are meant to make everybody collectively more happy and prevent inherent human subjectivity; however, inherent to human nature, rules can be subjectively interpreted. In contrast to the pre-existing society presented by Rand, Equality 7-2521 seeks

Upon first hearing the story of the fateful night of Kitty Genovese and her brutal murder, the room for speculation on the part of the neighbors seems to be slim. Thirty-eight people chose, during this situation, to see or hear what was going on but then did nothing. One could seemingly argue—and very easily—this is immoral and unethical. This assumption is based on a pre-set societal standard. A standard that was made by people who may not have necessarily ever been in such a situation. Objectively speaking, it is possible, highly likely in fact, this was immoral and unethical but, the situations where one could resist an intervention in such a dilemma cannot be ignored.

Unlike during the Unmentionable Times, when men created “towers [that] rose to the sky,” it is an

Ayn Rand expressed over many years that it is necessary to put ones’ own needs before others. “…who does not grant his love to the weaknesses or the flaws of others, only to their virtues.” being able to exchange feelings between someone, is not a subject of free for all but one of who is worthy of everybody’s own separate needs in mind (Rand, The Virtue of Selfishness 31). Equality focused on his own needs to choose who was righteous of his emotions. “...to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have just been born...honor is a thing to be earned.” Ayn Rand weaves her idea of objectivism and that people choose others relying on their own needs into her connection with Equality. In the beginning of Anthem Equality did not think of himself, but what the society wanted everyone to do as a whole, contrasting towards Ayn Rand’s beliefs (Rand, Anthem 96).When people come to the realization that no one is equal, it is easier to realize that neither are needs, making choices involving circumstances like relationships depend on a person’s thoughts and