Dealing in Disappointment: Ayn Rand, Anthem, and the Possibly Bitter Future

1
Dealing in Disappointment Ayn Rand, Anthem, and
the (Possibly) Bitter Future

• Feraco
• Myth to Science Fiction
• 23 February 2009

2
The Curtain Rises

• Your Building a Better World assignments
  indicate that the class has reached a consensus
• A better world is more internationally united,
  less impoverished, and peaceful
• Its stocked with people who both care and
  understand more about themselves and others
• Its not hard to dream of such a world
• It hews fairly closely to our classic utopian
  views
• but its incredibly hard to make that dream a
  reality (due to both internal and external forces)

3
The Wisdom of Top 40 Radio

• None of you think that it will be easy to improve
  our world
• All of you recognize that improvement and
  progress is still needed
• Therefore, the class agrees that the world needs
  improving
• Yet Anthem cautions us to essentially be careful
  what we wish for cause we just might get it.
• What arises in the wake of our attempt to improve
  something that seems functional?

4
The Future Freaks Me Out!

• The society Rand creates equates
• independence with chaos
• love with instability
• privacy with sinfulness
• mediocrity with perfection
• Its a hypocritical culture, with ideas that
  dont even make sense when you examine them more
  closely

5
The Future is Incompetent?

• The governing body is so terrified of
  individuality that theyve eliminated I from the
  lexicon
• Yet pronouns remain!
• We essentially equals I
• If it functions the same way, you eliminated a
  letter instead of an idea (the truly dangerous
  thing)
• Language is a human invention
• Why not eliminate all sense of possession,
  especially since no one seems to own anything?

6
Sin and Power

• Moreover, after the Council eliminates I, it
  perplexingly gives citizens a powerful reminder
  of the possibility of individual action by
  defining sin (or at least defining individual
  actions as sinful).
• If you can do the former, why contradict it by
  introducing the latter, especially when youve
  already eliminated religion?
• What does sin mean to a non-believer?
• Everyone is supposedly equal, yet there are
  hierarchies everywhere
• Members of the Council of Vocations have more
  power to choose a mans profession than he does
• Its hard to imagine a person who would prefer to
  be a street sweeper instead of a scholar if given
  the opportunity to choose between the two

7
When Good Ideas Go Bad

• The ideas the civilization supposedly treasures
  seem utopian on the surface
• Everyone gets the same educational experience
• No one has to live in substandard housing
• Everyone shares a unified system of values
• No one needs to live in fear of outside violence
  or crime
• On paper, this should be a peaceful, thriving
  society of enlightened and successful people
• Instead, its a system thats been co-opted by
  the people charged with maintaining it
• It now holds its citizens in bondage (via
  philosophical control, one of our dystopian
  hallmarks) in order to benefit an extremely small
  class of elites

8
The Darker Side of Revolution

• If Rands message seems somewhat cynical, it is
• Our brightest hopes and best intentions will
  ultimately be crippled by corruption,
  incompetence, laziness, and fear
• Understand that her family was laid low in the
  wake of the Bolshevik Revolution
• Fairly or not, the young Rand learned to
  associate the revolutionary desire for communal,
  equitable living with the ugliness shed seen
  perpetrated upon the people she loved most
• In her eyes, agitators for fairness,
  self-sacrifice, and the strength of a community
  served only to steal from those who most deserved
  to succeed in order to coddle those who least
  deserved the help
• She understands the Sheriff of Nottingham

9
The Function of Truth

• Its easy, then, to understand why Rand creates
  this society in Anthem that seemingly runs so
  counter to her personal philosophy
• It is, in part, the expression of an old pain
  that still haunts her
• On the surface, she and the society she creates
  seem to stand for many of the same things
• For example, both prize the power of truth to
  influence mens actions
• But Rand treasures absolute truth and reason,
  whereas it (it being Anthems society) prizes
  stability through rewritten history and selective
  teachings
• For Rand, truth ultimately leads humans towards
  betterment, even if these truths disturb us at
  present
• For this society, all men must agree that
  something is truthful in order for it to be so
• In other words, truth is less important than
  agreement, and its seen as harmful if it
  interferes with that harmony

10
The Authors Legacy

• Rand condemns these types of perversions of
  principle and philosophy throughout her career.
• She made a lot of money while trying to teach
  people to see the world her way.
• An institute bearing her name continues to work
  in an effort to spread her ideas to new
  generations.

11
Become What You Hate

• Yet readers and critical thinkers must wonder
  whether Rand risks falling victim to the same
  trap that bedeviled Anthems society
• After all, her philosophy advances the idea that
  theres only one correct way to think which is
  essentially philosophical control, albeit without
  the actual application
• Objectivism specifically denies skepticism,
  denies faith, and denies altruism all attitudes
  that help distinguish our thought processes from
  one another
• By devising a manifesto of thought that labels
  each of the above as worthless, isnt she trying
  to convince others to agree with not just her
  conclusions, but with her entire mode of
  thinking?

12
Become What You Hate, Part II

• Is her ultimate goal to inspire a world of
  Objectivists and does she believe we can have a
  successful world where people still disagree with
  her?
• Think of how she characterizes those who disagree
  with her (the Councilors) in Anthem
• Objectivism, by design, seems to be incompatible
  with opinion itself
• It states that truth is truth
• Its our job to recognize truth rather than shape
  it through our interpretations
• By taking this stance, is Rand unconsciously
  undermining the very principles to which Anthem
  owes its existence?
• Is she any more accepting of alternative modes of
  thinking than Anthems Councils?

13
We Pause to Consider

• These are tricky questions to consider, because
  Rands gone, and her defenders and proponents
  cant really stand in for her
• But its critical to understand this text in the
  context of its authors philosophy and personal
  history, and these issues are key to
  understanding the philosophy thats being
  advanced
• After all, the text ultimately exists to teach a
  concept, which is why it was originally called
  Ego its been repurposed as an anthem (or ode)
  to mans self and his capacity to reason.

14
The Page as Mirror

• Rand clearly fancies herself as a sort of
  literary Equality
• In theory, she, like him
• Possesses the intelligence (or genius, in his
  case) necessary to see through societys lies to
  discover the truth
• Has the guts one needs to spread those
  uncomfortable truths for the good of society
  (rather than cower silently while staying safe)
• Chooses to associate with those who agree with
  her
• As mentioned in your presentations, Rand sees
  Equality as the embodiment of all that were
  capable of as individuals
• Hes able to throw off his fetters and achieve
  greatness with no help whatsoever

15
A Failing Helping Hand

• But it must be noted that Equality does have help
• The help of an incredibly poorly-executed
  society, the kind that builds a prison and
  somehow doesnt think to guard it
• This, too, seems odd
• This society supposedly has the power to rise up
  and unite the world, to erase history and I
  from our minds
• How can it be so incompetently run?
• How can Equality be the first to successfully
  resist it?
• (The Transgressor was captured and killed)
• This is actually another of Rands points that
  were easily conditioned to accept that which
  isnt true and isnt perfect, and that we deny or
  dismiss our instincts (as Solidarity and
  Fraternity do) in order to go through life more
  easily

16
Convince Yourself to Accept the 5

• Picture the following hypothetical scenario
• Our lives are rated on a scale ranging from 1 to
  10
• 1 representing a completely hopeless, joyless
  existence
• 10 representing near-deification
• Lets say youre a 5
• I give you a choice You can continue living as a
  5 for the rest of your days, or you can take a
  risk and flip a coin
• Heads means you win, and youll live an 8-rated
  life
• Tails means you lose, and youll live a 2-rated
  life
• Do you stay where you are, or do you flip the
  coin?

17
Rolling the Die

• Lets pursue a different hypothetical
• Depending on the choices we make and the plans we
  form, we can build ourselves safety nets that
  make risks less dangerous
• In this scenario, your plans have left you with
  more options so instead of a coin flip, you get
  to roll a four-sided die
• The sides are marked 2, 4, 6, and 8
• Do you roll the die, or do you remain a 5?
• What if youre married?
• What if youre a parent?

18
Why Roll the Die?

• The more we have, the more risk-averse we tend to
  become
• No one wants to doom their child to a 2-rated
  life when they could have provided a 5
• Equality takes the die and rolls it (by going
  into the tunnel), but thats because he has
  nothing to lose
• Hes already a 2 at best and 1 at worst
• He has nothing to make him happy (since he hasnt
  made contact with Liberty yet)
• Hes working a job he hates as penance for a sin
  he doesnt really believe is wrong
• He wakes up every morning knowing hes capable of
  more, yet feeling awful
• The only thing worse than this existence is
  death, and one could argue that such an
  occurrence might actually be preferable for
  Equality
• So he rolls the diethen he rolls it again, and
  again, and againlucky for him, the die seems to
  favor him!

19
Into the Wild

• Eventually, Equalitys choices leave him in the
  Uncharted Forest
• The Forest initially represents confusion and
  fear
• It turns out to be a refuge
• Equality doesnt get lost in the Forest so much
  as he finds his way through his own thoughts once
  hes out from under societys thumb
• He understands himself better in isolation, which
  is why he makes a home in the house he discovers
  in the trees
• Hes away from society, and hes never been better

20
Blinded by Visions

• Ultimately, Rand argues that this society doesnt
  work because it holds people like Equality down
  in order to settle for a uniform mediocrity
• (It also drives them into the metaphorical
  Forest, but well concentrate on one area for
  now)
• This is illustrated most clearly in the sequence
  where the Scholars reject the lightbulb Equality
  constructs
• Those in power choose expedience over advancement
  (why have bulbs when everyone has candles?)
• It becomes clear that these people have
  stagnated, and that theyve been blinded by their
  utopian visions.

21
Forging the Stuff of Dreams

• This points to the single biggest obstacle to
  utopian creation
• Namely, its very easy to propose ideas, but much
  harder to shape the realities those ideas demand
• Our actions have consequences, and even the ones
  we take with the best of intentions often have
  unexpected outcomes
• Dystopias are chronicles of the unintended
  consequences of mans pursuit of perfection, the
  destructive ripples of his attempt to build a
  better world ?

22
Dont Let It Happen Today

• Rand constructs a society that violates every
  principle it holds because its easy to see how
  this can happen
• Again, due either to corruption, incompetence,
  laziness, or fear
• It takes work to make this work
• Yet if were going to achieve our potential as
  human beings something you feel we havent done
  yet, whether its from a technological or
  philosophical standpoint we have to put in the
  work
• Anthem proves that the stakes are too high for a
  society to dream big without planning for the
  practical implementation of that vision

23
Back to the Better World

• We spoke in class about similarities between your
  better worlds and about how difficult itll be to
  create them
• Many of you dream of a united world, but does
  this dream necessitate the death of religion,
  language, or even culture itself?
• Think of the wars weve fought over cultural
  differences (with respect to values), let alone
  the innumerable conflicts between practitioners
  of different faiths
• Take these away, and all well have left to fight
  over are resources
• Its so easy to wish that things like war
  couldnt happen any morebut how heavy is the
  cost were willing to pay for peace?

24
Unintended Consequences

• Many of you also dreamed of a restructured class
  system, but failed to explain how the state of
  living for the lower class would be improved
• For example, how are you encouraging others to
  serve the needs of the poor better than they
  currently are?
• Some of you posited different criteria for
  constructing classes not so much replacing the
  class system as reforming it
• Yet stricter class divisions seem to carry
  unintended consequences as well
• If its not simply a matter of accumulating
  wealth any more, does identity theft diminish
  or rise?
• Finally, how do we deal with former prisoners
  the rehabilitated members of society?
• Do we give them jobs at your parents expense to
  keep them from falling back into the cycles that
  landed them in jail to begin with?

25
When Schoolings a Luxury

• Many of you made education mandatory, but failed
  to explain how we should begin to turn around our
  school system
• How do we
• Rebuild broken campuses?
• Staff urban classrooms with competent
  instructors?
• Perhaps most importantly, how do we convince
  people to be instructors to begin with,
  especially in fields like mathematics and science
  (where skilled thinkers can earn far more in the
  private sector without being forced to put up
  with students, particularly those who have no
  inclination to learn)?
• For that matter, what do you do with
  home-schooled children?
• How do we provide more stable funding for our
  schools?

26
Dont Worry!

• Im not saying this to be critical I promise
• In fact, Im pointing out the opposite
• Good ideas can come from anyone, and Im trying
  to encourage you to start thinking outside the
  box
• (If you do what youve always done, youll get
  what youve always gotten)
• So I want you to start thinking about practical
  solutions to problems youve never seriously
  attacked before
• After all, if the Reality Check proved anything,
  its that youll own these problems before you
  know it

27
In Closing

• Ultimately, Anthem can be any number of things
• It can serve as your introduction to Objectivism,
  a philosophical system you may enjoy or admire
• Im trying to use it as a rallying cry for you to
  begin thinking about civic issues schools,
  labor, influence, health, rights, etc. in
  concrete terms, rather than as abstract things
  that youll get around to dealing with someday,
  or hoping to never need to deal with at all
• Or it can just be a boring, oddly-written book
  written by a woman whos been dead for decades
• (Dont let it become that last one.)

28
and Beyond

• Were going to start debating civil issues the
  ones pertaining to the Equalities in our
  society
• Ultimately, were trying secure a better future
  for ourselves and our children without falling
  into the dystopian trap
• The first one on the docket is near and dear to
  me education.
• How should we deal with Equality as a student in
  our society?
• Should we segregate him and place him on an
  Honors-level track, thus robbing him of
  experiences with a variety of other people the
  very people hell someday work with?
• Do we hold him back, normalizing him with the
  rest of his class?
• How should we treat our students as thinkers, as
  learners, and as human beings?
• Should we take a unified or differentiated
  approach?
• Should we push you, or pull back and let you
  learn at your own pace?
• Should we be strict or relaxed?
• Should we have a narrow focus or use a survey
  approach?
• And how do we provide opportunities for everyone,
  instead of just for the gifted and beautiful?
• (These are just a few of the questions well
  pursue.)