Ayn Rand's novella Anthem introduces the reader to what she calls a Collectivist society. This society that she creates in the story is based on the direction that she felt society was heading when she wrote it in 1937. In the Author's Foreward from the Student Centennial Edition (circa 1946), she says she believes that most of society already is as she portrays it in Anthem. Rand was against this type of society and...
Ayn Rand's novella Anthem introduces the reader to what she calls a Collectivist society. This society that she creates in the story is based on the direction that she felt society was heading when she wrote it in 1937. In the Author's Foreward from the Student Centennial Edition (circa 1946), she says she believes that most of society already is as she portrays it in Anthem. Rand was against this type of society and wrote these stories to show how society infringes on the rights of the individual. Hence, the motto on the Palace of the World Council (probably representative to the League of Nations from Rand's time) represents that Collectivist thought. It states the following:
"We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE,
One, indivisible and forever" (19).
The first line means that every individual lives for the community. No one lives for his or her own goals. The goals are all about everyone existing for the whole. The second line verifies that by saying that an individual man does not exist except for being a part of the community. Along with that existence comes the duty to serve the community before oneself. Finally, the third line suggests that the community should not divide itself and they plan on living this way forever.
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