"Anthem"

I just finished a really interesting short story by Ayn Rand. For those of you that don't know, my sister has challenged herself and anyone who wants to join in the fun to read "Atlas Shrugged" (it's over 1000 pages of tiny writing). I decided not to read it along with her, but I was intrigued by her comments on it and on seeing the movie of part one of Atlas. So I read "Anthem."

It's a dystopian novel that was published in 1937 in England. Mankind has entered another dark age and collectivism prevails. Everything is done "for the brotherhood." You go to school for a few years, then the council decides where you will work and you do that for the greater good. Procreation is set aside for just making babies and the children never know their parents - you are raised by the society. It took a while to get used to the writing because for most of the book the word "I" is missing. There is no individual. Eventually the main character discovers the self along with electricity and love and all kinds of other things that were missing in this society.

First of all, Ayn Rand is brilliant. She is native Russian but wrote in English and the prose is just beautiful. I've never been one to really care about that kind of thing until recently and now I really appriciate it. Second of all, I was impressed with the way that she is able to point out the wrong in both methods of thinking. Thinking about only the self is what got society into trouble in the first place, but thinking only about others prevents progress.

I'm reminded of this film my mom brought home from her library the other night. It's called "2081" and is based off the short story by Kurt Vonnegut. In that story, everyone is handicapped in order to make everyone equal. They are watching a ballet and it's awful because none of the Ballerinas are the best of the best. There is one man who fights against it and he shows up and keeps the one cellist who plays with feeling and the one dancer who is fearless and does a beautiful pax de deux before they come in and shoot him on national television. He gets everyone to understand how handicapping people prevents exceptional performances and feelings and then shows the government who placed the restrictions on them in the worst light so the people hate them.

Society doesn't work when we try to keep everyone equal. We aren't all equal, but that is what is beautiful about the world. People who fail at math can write beautiful poetry.