Being selfless is a trait that is seen by practically all religions and cultures as admirable, worth aiming and striving for, and praiseworthy. The selfless are viewed as “good” people or even considered “saintly.” Pride and self-conceit are frowned upon, and people with those characteristics are frankly quite annoying to be around. No one likes a know-it-all or show-off or braggart. They tend to live for themselves and make very few friends. Yet for some strange reason, Ayn Rand loves the idea of an inflated ego and writes all of her books for the purpose of worshiping the self and tearing into humility, service, and selflessness. She has written nineteen award-winning books all revolving around these ideas, featuring either extreme pride or extreme selflessness and the effects of these qualities. Rather like many today who argue for either faith or works, Rand sees it as there is selfishness or selflessness, there is no middle ground or ability to have a balance of both. Of the two, she finds selflessness the bigger evil. Anthem focuses on extreme selflessness and why it is so evil. While the story, layout, and genre of her book Anthem is perfectly beautiful, hooking, and finely crafted to make the reader think and feel, the underlying theme and my own personal beliefs make me reject Rand’s ideas as dangerous.
The community-centered society that Anthem takes place in demonstrates Rand’s distaste for selflessness and what she thinks it leads to, in a enchantingly horrifying way. The intriguing story, unique first person narrative without conjunctions or personal pronouns, and futuristic dystopia is crafted in a beautiful and stylistic way that makes it hard to put down or not get emotionally involved with her world. The way it is written, the audience can see society going that way eventually, which pulls them in, connecting them to the main character, and making them hate the selfless system in play. Her theme is much more subtle than in her other books. While other books of Rand’s, such as The Fountainhead, blatantly attacks humility and service as self-destroying, Anthem takes a much softer approach and quietly attacks selflessness by removing the idea of “self” altogether. Rand describes a society with no words for “I,” “me,” “mine,” or “self.” There is only “we.” It is the community as a whole that dictates each person’s job, way of thinking, and purpose in life. The individual does not matter. The short sentences, the simple language, the fear of the readers of being “no one” hook the audience and draw them into this world of extreme selflessness and begin forming a fear in them of being a nobody lost in the service of others.
“It is forbidden, not to be happy. For, as it has been explained to us, men are free and the earth belongs to them; and all things on earth belong to all men; and the will of all men together is good for all; and so all men must be happy…[yet] it is not good to feel too much joy nor to be glad that our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us if we live or die, which is to be as our brothers will it.” (Page 46-7)
I feel that this fear of the extreme that Rand is instilling with her captivating stories and subtle, but not really subtle theme, could be dangerous if taken to heart by the readers, as they then swing to the other extreme of “selfishness.” It is human nature to turn and run in the opposite direction of what we fear. The fear of being consumed by the masses, the rules established by them, and the requests to fill the needs of the hurting, can lead to wanting to rise above the others and live putting them aside.
I know of too many cases of men and women who spurn society and do not care about others; they hold on to pride and worship none but themselves. Their ego comes first. This has led to too much neglect, pain, abuse, and crime. Someone very close to me was raised by a verbally abusive father who cared more about being right, first, successful and in charge than about his wife and children. Another worked with a boss who cared very little of the many hours his employees were working or bad conditions they worked in as long as he was making millions and spending as little as possible on employee wages. I know multiple good, intelligent, hardworking people who are homeless and cannot get good jobs because of the prejudice and pride of employers.
I understand that while thinking of others first does have a place, having a sense of self also has it's place. Putting yourself second to every other need can indeed be harmful and wear out an individual until there is little left. But just as there can be faith with works, i know that selflessness and selfishness are not mutually exclusive. It does not have to be only the extremes that Ayn Rand describes. There needs to be a balance in all things. There is so much need, suffering, and hurting he world, that if selflessness andputting others before yourself keeps getting put down and treated as something to be avoided, as Ayn Rand's Anthem does, the hurt and injustice in the world could increase drastically.
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