Any Rand's Anthem

5/11/2020

Ayn Rand's Anthem [full text] Audio book Reading: Male Voice & Female Voice

A place to discuss the work of Anthem by Ayn Rand. It is tough to find a quote that doesn't spoil the short read, but...“The word "We" is as lime poured over men, which sets and hardens to stone, and crushes all beneath it, and that which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it. It is the word by which the depraved steal the virtue of the good, by which the weak steal the might of the strong, by which the fools steal the wisdom of the sages. What is my joy if all hands, even the unclean, can reach into it? What is my wisdom, if even the fools can dictate to me? What is my freedom, if all creatures, even the botched and impotent, are my masters? What is my life, if I am but to bow, to agree and to obey? But I am done with this creed of corruption. I am done with the monster of "We," the word of serfdom, of plunder, of misery, falsehood and shame.”
― Ayn Rand, Anthem

5 Comments

Jose Bazaldua

5/12/2020 09:49:13 am

I think this quote means that everyone is equal that no one have the power except God, he is the only that have the power.

Sherer

5/12/2020 10:09:24 am

Hey Jose! Actually, it is a short audio book, linked under the Russian Revolutions page. You can't really comment on the quote until you read/listen to the story. Also, that is not the meaning of the quote...Rand despised communism and was a philosopher of objectivism, definitely was not giving god all the power.

Melody E.

5/15/2020 05:56:08 pm

The Reading
The society is based upon working along a system that is mainly to control an individual’s limit to the world around them. They’re are categorized into this rule of not speaking for themselves and only aligned (or rather equal) to those who are destined the same fate (such as being the ‘Street Sweeper’ job) for their entire lives. Confined in their little world were they are trapped and made to be no freedom to the people’s desires and in turn dreams. This also holds out their progress against their very ancestor as shown by the learning of ‘electricity’ by the speaker. In this reading, reveals an in-depth look of the corruption that society has when equaling out aside their peers and are put into roles that were told by others not by the heart of themselves.

The Quote
Onwards to the quote’s meaning, I felt that the word ‘we’ throughout the anthem is used to define who they are ( as one in a group ). Being one in all the same, people being limited by which they are only been told to be in this society. The corruption of the word ‘we’ symbolize the characteristics of power over certain individuals (who are I think are the School Councils) and forming the idea of having an extra measure of equality to every men who lived. These ‘School Councils’ are created the society of having every men ‘equal’, as in very limited power of their own lives. This lays out to the reader and the speaker himself to be questioning and discovering the truth from which he was blind since the day of his birth. In this case, I for one think the quote itself (or rather the entire piece) to be an in-depth discover of how conformed we are in our own little world and didn’t even realize how much corruption was damaging our seeing into the real world (outside of this town to be specific). In my side of this quote, I felt draw upon thinking that this lays an understanding that tries to encourage us to open the blinds of the government rules and see a whole new world that was left from many years of our ancestors long ago. Altogether, finding yourself as an individual, rather than equaling your own abilities among the people who are known as ‘brothers’.

Final Thoughts
I personally like the story, this is much like the other stories I read recently through the years. The anthem is rather unexpected for me to comprehend, however seeks its message through with a bit of hope and ‘self’ messages and understanding. This lets me deeply understand society a bit with how questioning of corruption we had going on our own society. Not so sure if I portray the actual meaning to this these findings but, hey, it’s fun to listen to it (especially after all these moments happening). Great finding of this Anthem, Mr.Sherer! Not so sure if I’m supposed to be doing this analysis... Anyways, have a good summer.

Sherer

5/18/2020 10:01:26 am

This is Ayn's refute against collectivization as seen in the Communist world following the Russian Revolutions. The use of "we" is to explain the loss of the individual self, and the idea that everyone is just a cog in the machine. Basically, the opposite of our lessons on humanism and the glory of the individual self.

Brenley Nelson

5/18/2020 11:51:41 am

This short story really made me think and dig deep into the “sacred word” Ego. Ayn Rand made me think of how similarly, and yet how different our society functions. In our society, we get told to “be different”, but when we actually are, we get criticized for it. I’ll give an example of how our society is like Anthem’s society. Like when people are vegan. Vegans always have to explain to someone why they made that choice to become vegan, instead of people just excepting their choices and understanding. I decided to share my input/ summary on this short story with my mom. She brought up id, ego, and super-ego. The classification of the word id is basically your human desires and immediate need for satisfaction. The word super-ego plays the needed and moralizing role. The word ego is basically the organized and realistic factor. The ego actually finds the instinctual desires between the id and the super-ego. Just like the quote in the book, “That which is white and that which is black are lost equally in the grey of it.” That quote is basically relating to how the ego has to balance the id and the super-ego, so that one doesn’t take control over the other.

Any Rand's Anthem

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