Ayn Rand's
Imagine a world where individuality is a sin and men are bred like cattle. Prometheus, the protagonist of Ayn Rand's novella, Anthem, rebelled against the directives of his society. In a time where individualism was punishable by death, and men lived only for the good of their brothers, Prometheus challenged the traditions of anonymity and obsolescence that were the ways of his people. In the wake of unimaginable catastrophe, the dawn of new race of man began- a race infected with the sickness of fear. In this society, "I" was the ultimate sin, forbidden in both speech and action. The only purpose of existence was the great "We", and Brotherhood of men was the only way of life. From birth, citizens have no input as to their upbringing. Each person spends five years in the Home of the Infants, ten years in the Home of Students, after which the Council of Vocations assigns him or her a lifelong career. Prometheus, then referred to as Equality 7-2521, was different from his fellow students at a young age. He was ostracized by those in charge for growing over six f
The Council had manipulated the populace into an unvarying and shapeless system, which operated only around the horror that so consumed them. This angered him a great deal, as he had a longing to be in the World Council of Scholars. For the first time in his life, Prometheus experienced hope for the future. A man referred to as "The Saint of the Pyre" was sentenced to death by fire- his crime was discovering the Unspeakable Word. There was no pain in his eyes in his last moments of life; there was only joy. For Rand, a man's value rests in the originality of his mind as expressed in his work, and the value of his work resides in his personal investment in it, as in Prometheus' invention of the light bulb. In the throes of forbidden love with The Golden One, Prometheus fled the city into the forbidden forest. Because he is without fear, the Council will have no means by which to stop him. Ultimately, Prometheus was given the occupation of a street sweeper. This presented a problem, in that each Council member became afraid to voice his or her individual opinions, and an innovation such as a simple candle led to years of ineffectual debate. Equality discovers in his tunnel that the work of an individual's hands is an extension of the individual's very self, and that the value of the product of this work lies not in the product's benefit for society but in it's own existence as the fruit of the individual's imagination. Men, fearful of the consequences of voicing their opinions abandoned all sense-of-self. This horror is what kept men silent against the tyrannical reformation with which they were faced. Change is inevitable, and men, not men, will again be free to govern themselves.
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Council Scholars,
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Ayn Rand's,
Council Vocations,
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Ultimately Prometheus,
Saint Pyre,
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