Anthem By Ayn Rand

Books on Communism and Totalitarianism, part 1

This is my mini Communism and Totalitarianism series of book reviews. I have planned to write my views on the three books which talk about communism and totalitarianism that I have read. The main difference as I have understood between communism and totalitarianism is that the communist society has a few leader or a single party which rules over the people and everything is owned by the community and individuals have no say in it. While in the case of totalitarianism power is in the hands of ruling government or individual and they regulate all aspects of daily life.

I feel lucky to have been born in a country under democratic rule.

 Anthem By Ayn Rand

  The first book I want to write about is Anthem By Ayn Rand. I had read 'The Fountainhead' (review coming soon) by the same author a few months back. I was impressed by her philosophy of objectivism although at some-point I thought it was extreme in its criticism of collectivism or collective action. I wanted to know more about her ideologies hence I picked this short novella by her. Well I got a free ebook from amazon.in/ANTHEM .

Anthem Cover

The book starts with the line "It is a sin to write this". The main character of this book is EQUALITY 7-2521. Yes, you read it right that's his name given by the Home of the Infants. The story takes place in a futuristic society wherein the concept of individualism is completely lost and collectivism is glorified. Plurals like 'we', 'our', 'they' are used to refer to people. The infants born in this society are all raised in a common room. Their main ideology is "We are one in all and all in one. There is no men only the great WE, One, indivisible and forever" 

The book is about loss of individuality in a communist like collective society. The author warns about repercussions of such a society where any desire is considered a sin and forced service to community is glorified. The author was influenced by her early life in Soviet Union.  The society assigns work to people based on their skills and individual can't wish for anything else. EQUALITY 7-2521 was assigned the job of a street sweeper but he wished to become a scholar. He was living in a state wherein he considered himself cursed for wishing to be a scholar when the society ideals prevent individuals from having preferences.

The book traces the journey of EQUALITY 7-2521 who turns against the society and in the process discovers the lost unmentionable times where all people were free to have their own thoughts and opinions. There is also some romance between him and a girl in that society whom he calls the Golden one. At some point he even rediscovers electricity and light bulb which was rejected by the scholars of the society since It was work of a single person and according to them, it can never be better than work of a group of scholars i.e candles(lame?? absolutely). 

At some point the protagonist realizes that the people of the unmentionable times were much more advanced in all aspects including Technology which is being restricted by the current society he lives in. This is what some individuals in modern totalitarian regimes like North Korea might be thinking. I have heard that people in North Korea do not have access to Internet and are being completely isolated from the world. This is what Ayn Rand had warned about long back in her novella written in 1937.

He then escapes from the city and run into uncharted forest and the golden one follows him. They give themselves new names and discover the lost world of unmentionable times where people lived freely.

Finally they decide to live for themselves and have their own thoughts instead of living for the brothers (society). 

Conclusion:

Even though the story is not great some of the ideas presented were worth reading.

Also check out my ratings on Goodreads.( Goodreads)

If you haven't read other posts in the series check this :

Books on Communism and Totalitarianism, part 2

Books on Communism and Totalitarianism, part 3