A First Impression to Anthem by Ayn Rand

Just before I went to bed 6 hours ago, I decided to search for an audiobook to listen to. I found one that intrigued me the most, Anthem by Ayn Rand. There are biases that I have towards her, first, just because she’s one of my favorite thinkers. Second, is that I am familiar with her works, despite the fact that I can not say that she’s actually a great novelist. However, her idea is what draws me to read her works Ayn Rand advocates objectivism, that sees a man(a person) as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. Ayn Rand’s work often voiced out anti-communism and more to personal/individual liberty. Her works are praised among libertarians and she even gained ardent followers, the objectivists. In recent years, there are also institutes that do research on objectivism and even a non-profit think tank with the same name. If you are interested in the school of objectivism or just want to explore something new, Ayn Rand’s work is a must read. More so, after reading a few chapters of Anthem, I think it’s easier to digest than fountainhead or atlas shrugged. In the following part, I will show you a bit of an exception and my reading/listening reaction to it.

After the first few minutes of listening to the anthem, I was dazzled and amused. Based on that story, anyone that 6ft tall is frowned upon because others aren’t 6ft tall and they are different. Being smart was also frowned upon just as it said, “This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick. It is not good to be different from our brothers, but it is evil to be superior to them. The Teachers told us so, and they frowned when they looked upon us. ” from Ch.1. Anthem Ayn Rand

In this dystopian society, they also put the “state” above all. As classic as it is for Ayn Rand, you can notice right away that she’s writing this as critics for collectivism and the state. This is much like 1984esque but a bit more emphasizes on personal liberty and individualism.

Then, later I found that this work can be found for free over gutenberg.org. I am leaving you the link Anthem, just in case you are interested in reading this 12 chapters book. When I checked on twitter, apparently this book was recommended for grade 9 reading in the US. From what I gathered, they disliked it. But to my brain, it just shows the difference between reading materials and teachings that they have and what I experienced. The teachers were to even teach such complex matters even in grade 9. Compared to the education we received, we didn’t even get to read English novels. We were still stuck doing quizzes, solving question problems and English grammar. There was a little room for us to read things that helped us to think critically about the world. So, I wasn’t that exposed to many of these works at school but just because I love visiting libraries, I get to read some of these books. I will be sharing more of my complete analysis soon. Stay tuned if you’d like to read it too.