Obedience In Ayn Rand's Anthem
To live in a world with no opposition, no opposing opinions, perfect obedience among citizens must exist. Creating laws that grant permission and forbid all other opinions can help lessen opposition. Also to avoid the problem of opposition one can provoke fear. The leaders in Anthem create a world that works as a single unit to completely cut out any chance of rebellion. The leaders set up a system that forces the brothers to work as a single unit. The work system works in a way where the Council of Vocations assigns each person a specific job. This keeps society running smoothly so nothing will remain undone. This also equals out the job opportunities, eliminating competition and qualifications. People obey the idea of existing as a single unit because they learn this method during their youth and strongly believe in it: “We are one in a all and all in one. There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible and forever” (19). The leaders use the saying to describe how no man can stand alone. The community works as a single unit, almost like parts of a machine where each man works a gear, completing the specific task assigned to it.
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They take it to the extreme and put fear everywhere: “There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of the streets. Fear walks through the city, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and non dare to speak it” (46). The citizens can feel the fear but they seem to not know exactly what they fear. People may not know what they fear because they leaders keep so many things secret (mainly about life and the ancient times) that fear just comes from natural instinct. The leaders lack the ability to remove this instinct so they create fear to take over the instinct; the leaders own a corrective detention where citizens go if they do something not permitted. The citizens adapted to the sense of fear and hardly remember its
They take it to the extreme and put fear everywhere: “There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air of the streets. Fear walks through the city, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and non dare to speak it” (46). The citizens can feel the fear but they seem to not know exactly what they fear. People may not know what they fear because they leaders keep so many things secret (mainly about life and the ancient times) that fear just comes from natural instinct. The leaders lack the ability to remove this instinct so they create fear to take over the instinct; the leaders own a corrective detention where citizens go if they do something not permitted. The citizens adapted to the sense of fear and hardly remember its