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Ayn rand objectivism eassay
Ideas from anthem by ayn rand
Ayn rand objectivism eassay
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College Application Paper The small book was only about the size of my hand and the dirty yellow pages smelled of both smoke and dust. The pages didn’t stand out to me on their own, but what they read did: “Religion is a primitive form of philosophy that seeks to answer the unanswerable questions of the world.” The quote stopped me from reading further. I set the book down and the title, The Romantic Manifesto, looked unapologetically at me from the top of my dimly lit night stand. “Wow,” I said aloud to myself. I had just finished Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged and decided to read one of her nonfiction books. I found Atlas Shrugged to be an amazing book, my new favorite. I have never thought so hard after reading a book as I did after …show more content…
It was a look that said, “well what did you think it was?” She understood this, yet still considered herself to not be an atheist. I looked at her confusedly. How could someone agree with a statement like that, but still despise it at the same time? It was at this moment that I decided I needed to admit to myself that I am an atheist.
“I do not believe in God,” I told myself inside my head, expecting something to happen. I expected the hand of God to part the clouds, reach down into the car and slap me across the face, but it didn’t. Nothing happened. It suddenly felt as if a giant weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. Though that may sound a little cliche, it is still very true. I suddenly felt that I was starting over, that everything that happened prior did not matter and that I was free of any guilt I may have felt while I considered myself to be a Christian. The most amazing thing is that I could successfully challenge my entire view of religion with one simple sentence. I considered myself to be very dogmatic, and I hardly never took into account any opposing views, whether fact or
Imagine a world where people are only expected to live up to 45 years old. In today's society, there are countries that experience this. In the novel Anthem, by Ayn Rand; there are many factors like lifestyle, government, medicine, and education that lead to this. There are a couple of ways where the world in the novel is similar and different to today's society.
Ayn Rand, in Anthem, illustrates a futuristic, socialist society. In the novel, Rand destroys any sense of individuality and describes the social setbacks endured after living ‘only for the brotherhood’. The individual person fails to exist and is but a ‘we’ and recognized by a word and a series of numbers rather than a name. Additionally, she describes the horrors encountered within this different system of life: from reproduction methods to punishments. Through the life of Equality 7-2521, Rand demonstrates a person’s journey from obedience to exile in this socialist society. Throughout the entire novel, Rand criticizes Marxist theory as she demonstrates socialism’s failure to suppress revolution, thwart material dialectic, and its detriment to humanity.
According to Dictionary.com freedom means “the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint.” Freedom. What does freedom mean to you? Even though freedom means the state of being uncontrolled by another, or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint, I believe that freedom means being able to accomplish what you desire and when you desire it without anyone saying anything, by reason of the comparison and contrast of our society and the society in the book Anthem by Ayn Rand, the negation of the word freedom, and synonyms of the word freedom. I believe that you should accept the consequences of the actions you take when you have your “freedom” as well.
In Ayn Rand’s famous, or in some circles, infamous, story Anthem, the differing ideologies of objectivism and collectivism are pit against each other. With objectivism being so tight knit and different from the society in the book, it seems that it would be almost impossible to truly follow in its entirety. However, Anthem, as a whole, doesn’t violate the ideals of Rand’s philosophy of objectivism.
The society in Anthem is a very collectivist society, thus a single individual’s health and survival might not be as important as with an objectivist “society”. However, the society in Anthem does address health and survival in a collectivist way. By having the Old Ones not work and “the State take care of them” this society deals with one of the biggest health problems, old people (7). This society takes a socialist method of health care and the State provides for all of the Old Ones which shows how they are meeting the needs of health and survival. The society takes a different approach on survival. Because of the strong collectivism, individual lives do not matter and “there are no men but only the great WE”, as long as the WE survives any one person can die and the society will not care (3). Anthem’s society takes survival to mean the survival of the whole not the individual. This shows that society is not needed for the individual’s survival, as not only does this society provide little individual health care, Equality 7-2521 in the later part of Anthem is easily able to
In Ayn Rand’s novella, Anthem, children are often seen living apart from their families. Unfortunately, it’s not their choice, but society is set up such that they are made to live apart. Children are forced to live like this because dictatorial leaders are committed to collectivism. Collectivism is an emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity. Leaders enforce the separation between parents and children in order to maintain collectivism and ultimately have complete control over the children. You and I do not exist; government deems it so. We are one, a single body functioning for the collective good of society. Ayn Rand’s Anthem speaks to this collectivist doctrine while highlighting the implicit contradictions that impede its successful implementation.
The values at risk in Anthem are not merely those of the central luminary; they are the ostensible values of an entire civilization—our own. Our society is founded upon the notion of individual rights; its existence, as Ayn Rand depicts, cannot be conceived on any other grounds. Anthem, Rand’s dystopian novella, is about us, and about what will happen if we do not follow alongside Equality 7-2521 and Liberty 5-3000 in their discovery of the importance of individualism.
In a society, at what point does uniting to benefit the greater good suppress one’s right to possess individuality? The social and political construct of utmost unity is called collectivism, or the practice of emphasizing a whole picture rather than each individual component. The common theme of collectivism versus individualism is prevalent within the novel Anthem by Ayn Rand, wherein the individual motivations of the members of society are suppressed without their knowledge. While contributing to the greater good may have its appeal, one must learn that for this to be possible, individual sacrifices are necessary. The ultimately collectivist society depicted in Anthem is justified by its rulers through ideas of
Many people have trouble being apart of a society. These troubles come from trying to fit in, which is also known as conforming. Another trouble is trying to express one’s own style with one’s own opinion. This is a trouble due to the fact that many people have the fear of being frowned upon when being the black sheep of the group if one’s opinion does not correspond with other opinions. This is where one’s own sense of who they are, individuality, and trying to fit in, conformity, can get confused. A nickname for conformity is “herd behavior” which is the name of an article where the author relates animals that herd with people that conform. Many people have a different philosophy of this topic which will be expressed in this essay. An important
The word collectivism often makes people cringe. Overall, there is a general fear of not being able to make personal decisions in America. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, collectivism can be defined as; emphasis on collective rather than individual action or identity (“Collectivism”). In Anthem, Ayn Rand describes an extreme collectivist society. Although Anthem’s society seems extremely surreal, aspects of its collectivist society closely mirror today’s society.
It is a rare conception where a human being is completely and utterly alone. One problem we tend to overlook due to our primitive ideals of staying as a group, is the fact of us becoming solely to that group. In the book Anthem ,by Ayn Rand, a man named Equality 7-2521 sees this problem evolve and how it becomes a nuisance to his society. The book has made me open my mind up to the ideals of doing things for yourself and not always for those around you. The feeling of the story showing a world where many are brought down for being unique and talented hurts me as I imagine a time where all are mere specs of the world. The book hits the hard points of what can easily go wrong with our society if we decide to go over the line. I can see a life
Richard Wright, in his essay “Discovering Books,” explains how reading books changed his outlook on life and eventually his life itself. The first book that widened his horizons was an overtly controversial book by H. L. Mencken. I have a story not so dissimilar from his.
“I use people for the sake of what I can do to them. It’s my only function and satisfaction. I have no private purpose. I want power. I want my world of the future. Let all live for all. Let all sacrifice and none profit. Let all suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop. Let all stagnate. There’s equality in stagnation. All subjugated to the will of all” (668). Quoted by Ellsworth Toohey, the antagonist of The Fountainhead. Toohey is the representation of the collective, a group where individuals have no characteristics of being an individual, where people act senselessly as a whole. This book may have been published in 1943, but its philosophical value and meaning have not changed nor become irrelevant. The problems presented in Rand’s novel are just as prevalent today, decades after the setting.
The book, Unleashing Opportunity describes human flourishing in different ways always starting with a question of what is the problem? What dose Flourishing mean? Flourishing is to develop rapidly and successfully. The author then describes the conditions of where the problem is manly occurring for human flourishing? We should also ask the question as a Christian want can we do to encourage a society to thrive? Throughout the book the author describes common good as a community as everyone being on the same page. I am breaking down this reflation paper by different chapters because human flourishing is different depending on the situation.
Well that was fun, but really now. During my flight through light, which really was euphoric, I had thought something, it was and still is something I would never think. I thought something roughly along the lines of, “Please save my God.” I thought this about a few seconds before I woken back into consciousness. I had said this without a second thought; it just happened. This is the reason why I will never judge anyone who believes in any religion, god, or anything else that relates to that. But that doesn’t necessarily mean I will or will not.