Anthem

Well, I read Ayn Rand's Anthem today. In a way, it made me wish that I taught English, as I would greatly enjoy leading a discussion dealing with such content. Nevertheless, I definitely identified with the story having experienced the process of coming out of an evangelical worldview that often stifles free thought and individualism. I'm not quite sure that I entirely agree with Rand's objectivist philosophy. It makes sense to me up to a point; however, I don't think that I would necessarily take it as far as she does. I definitely agee with the concept of reason and its importance as a primary guide in life, yet I cannot completely rule out the supernatural realm. I also tend to struggle with the concept of man being an end in himself and always living for his own sake, always working for his rational self-interest. I do believe historically that man has often sacrificed himself and his rational thought for the wrong reasons, but I cannot rule out that morality often involves living for others or for society. Maybe, it's just my Judeo-Christian American worldview that makes this philosophy difficult for me to completely wrap my arms around, but in my opinion, there are just too many holes that can be punched through it.

From a literary standpoint, I did love the manner in which Anthem was written. When the main character has discovered that there is no way that he can convince the "enlightened ones" of his new found discoveries, he describes his thoughts in a particularly compelling passage that reads,

"We ran blindly, and men and houses streaked past us in a torrent without shape. And the road seemed not to be flat before us, but as if it were leaping up to meet us, and we waited for the earth to rise and strike us in the face. But we ran. We knew not where we were going. We knew only that we must run, run to the end of the world, to the end of our days."

Intrigued and inspired, I went to my shelf and picked up George Orwell's Animal Farm which I am now look forward to reading.