Objectivism Portrayed in Anthem

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Objectivism Portrayed in Anthem Ayn Rand once defined Objectivism in four words: metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. These, seemingly unrelated, schools of thought characterize Objectivism, and are made examples of in Anthem. The story is a hymn to man’s ego, says Leonard Peikoff concerning Anthem (Peikoff VI). A man’s ego is a sacred to Ayn Rand and those who live their life by Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism. Born in pre-revolution Russia, Rand experienced firsthand the many social downfalls of the soviet creed, such as collectivism, fascism, and socialism. Her beliefs contain an “I” before “we” mentality. Objectivists despise religion in accordance to the philosophy of metaphysics. Metaphysics, in itself, accepts fact for fact. Rand says “Reality, the external world, exists independent of man’s consciousness, independent of any observer’s knowledge, beliefs, feelings, desires or fears…” (qtd. The Ayn Rand Institute 1). Consciousness, therefore, is to distinguish reality, not to fashion or form it around a personal belief. Consequently, Objectivists reject all forms of a supernatural or any beliefs unfounded in fact. In the quote below Rand explains why she rejects religion outright, and she believes man himself deserves the attention: Just as religion has preempted the field of ethics, turning morality against man, so it has usurped the highest moral concepts of our language, placing them outside this earth and beyond man’s reach. “Exaltation” is usually taken to mean an emotional state evoked by contemplating the supernatural. “Worship” means the emotional experience of loyalty and dedication to something higher than man… But such concepts do name actual emotions, even though no supernatural dimension exists; and these emotions are experienced as uplifting or ennobling, without the self-abasement required by religious definitions.
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