Essay On Collectivism In Anthem

Ayn Rand authored Anthem about 20 years following the occurrences of the Russian Revolution in 1917. In addition, the misdoings and ills of the Soviet regime under the leadership of Josef Stalin contributed in influencing Rand’s insight of the significance of collectivism. The USSR shared a common belief that Communism, which can be explained as an extreme side of socialism, would assist the citizens by collectivizing numerous aspects of their existence. The collectivist principles made an assumption when people serve one another to the best of their ability, every person living in that society mutually benefits (Johannessen, 32). Nonetheless, in Russia, the rise to power by the Communists had been blood-spattered as well as entangled with totalitarian principles in the pretence of socialism. While numerous contemporary philosophers argued that the Great Depression had minimal effect on the Soviet Union as evidence of the efficacy of Communism in addition to others presupposing that Soviet Communism had turned out to be repressive because of lack of proper leadership. Rand sums up that there were inherent flaws in collectivism, and this is what she undertook to make known in Anthem.

According to Equality 7-2521’s society, the principle of collectivism has overcome more capitalist regimes in the Great Rebirth. Consequently, every facet of society is incorporated into a firm state system. For instance, the school system programmes the children of certain state with the viewpoint that rather than living to satisfy their self desires, they should live entirely for their fellow community members. This philosophy parallels the Soviet use of the term “comrade” to refer to a fellow citizen (Peikoff, 4). This leads to a highly dystopian...

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...onflict. The minimization of groupthink makes people to be extra willing to make and articulate new ideas that help the team grow. Indeed, people living in an individualistic culture display more creativity compared to those from a collectivist culture. It enables them to concentrate on their strong points without getting afraid that they will be punished because of deviating from the set standards. It is this conflict of thoughts that creates competition that improves business as well as develops an efficient society. The author explains this using this quotation, “Know what you want in life and go after it. I worship individuals for their highest possibilities as individuals, and I loathe humanity, for its failure to live up to these possibilities” (Rand). What she means here is that an individual can attain anything if he or she maximizes his or her potential.