In society today, the concept of prioritizing a group over an individual is often the reason to the limitations one faces. By only believing what the community wants them to think, individuals extinguish their personal opinions and ultimately their freedom. In Anthem by Ayn Rand, the failure of prisoners to escape from the prison with weak security through old locks and lack of guards portrays their disability to recognize individuality in their thoughts due to the Council’s rulings, which deters the prisoners to think for themselves and hinders their understanding of escape; however, Equality defies the Council’s standards due to his ability to overcome the thoughts of others.
The lack of security in the jail is the effect of communal thoughts that overpower an individual. In the Palace of Corrective Detention, the “locks are old on the doors and….there is no reason to have guards, for men have never defied the Councils so far as to escape from whatever place they were offered to be” (Rand 25). This argues that when an individual is forced to think what his entire society believes, people are left as pawns to the society without the ability to contribute their own ideas, just as how the prisoners in the prison only do as they are told by the Council and their brothers. The Council operates on the idea that if no one knew what rebellion was, no one would think to defy others, and therefore no one would try to escape. The Council upholds this idea of collectivism, where they only see individuals as people to benefit the entire society, represented by their strict governance in the city for everyone to be the same. This demonstrates how collectivistic thoughts fed from others leaves an individual without the ability to constitute intricate ideas for himself, such as escape from prison. Yet Equality escapes, as he is the epitome of individualism, portraying that one’s ability to follow his own intellect is what leads to progress, and in this case, escape. The thoughts of others forced upon an individual is fundamentally the reason a society and its individuals are left in eternal stagnation.
This idea of the collectivistic thoughts overpowering personal ideas and opinions leading to regress of a civilization is argued in “The Soul of a Collectivist” from Rand’s piece The Fountainhead. Rand says that if you “kill a man’s sense of values,” “kill his capacity to recognize greatness or achieve it,” and “set up standards of achievement given, to the least, to the ineptest,” “you stop the impetus effort in all men, great or small” (Rand 72). Rand argues against the collectivistic approach, based on conformity of its citizens, that brainwashes people to view their personal thoughts as evil. By inflicting this approach amongst men, society eliminates an individual’s motive for achievement and stagnates any improvement. Rand portrays this by creating a comparison between the old locks, lack of guards, and the prisoners to the lack of individual desire to defy the collectivistic thoughts influenced by a society that propagates conformity. By obeying others and eradicating any attachment to yourself, “you stop all incentive to improvement, to excellence, to perfection” (Rand 73). This concept of patronizing the lack of individual ideas gives the prisoners no desire to escape, as they only see to conform with their society.
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The societal effect of collectivism is the primary source of restrictions set on an individual, designed by the concrete ideas expressed by an entire society rather than the combination of individual thoughts. In Communist China, the government places restrictions on media, limiting the knowledge their citizens receive, changing their perception of what is truly being portrayed. Since the government has sole access to the restrictions on media, the citizens are left with an inferior intellectual standard with no contribution or say in what information they are given. This same concept connects to how the Council limits the knowledge of the city, controlling how the prisoners think and act, which eliminates their want of freedom. This collectivist relationship is represented by two groups: the minority and majority. In both cases, the government or the council represent the minority. This small group of people with power have complete control over the knowledge and decide what information they want to supply to the majority, represented by the citizens of both communities. The minority only offers the information they want to give to make the majority perceive only what they want them to think. China’s control of the media leaves their citizens under their power and slaves to the government, which corroborates directly with the hidden supremacy within the “equal society” that collectivism argues it creates. Imposing regulated ideas to the entire society leaves individuals under the control of higher authority.
Anthem demonstrates the effect of absolute obedience in a collectivist society, limiting any original ideas any person has, explaining why the prisoners never attempt to escape despite having the opportunity to do so. This essentially leads to a lack of progress and continuous stagnation. Despite the Council’s attempt to dominate society by eliminating any individuality within the citizens, Equality defies his community’s restrictions by embracing and using his singularity to escape the corruptions of conformity.
