In Ayn Rand's 1938 short story, Anthem, Rand explores the life of a young man named Equality 7-2521 in a communist-type state of the "age dark" set sometime in the distant future. The novella follows Equality's struggle to find her identity and purpose in a society that has rejected individualism in favor of collectivism. On March 19, 1944, Ayn Rand wrote a letter in which she stated: “Fascism, Nazism, Communism and Socialism are only superficial variations of the same monstrous theme: collectivism.” Rand's anti-collectivist, pro-individual viewpoint is not only moral, but right. Over the last century we have witnessed the rise and fall of many collectivist states and the atrocities that followed them, such as: the deprivation of the individual in the USSR, the importance of the collective in North Korea and the loss of freedom in China. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay In Anthem there are many parallels to Soviet Russia when Rand fled her homeland (Russia) in 1926, just a few years after the founding of the USSR. The goal of Anthem's Unknown City is to focus on the needs of the collective rather than the individual, which is the same initial principle on which the Soviet Union was founded. When we strip man of his individuality and turn him into a pawn of the collective, we arrive at a moral dilemma and begin to ask difficult questions, such as: why should the individual be more important than the collective? Is the life of the individual really more important than that of the community? In chapter 11 Prometheus proclaims: “For the word “We” must never be spoken, except by choice and as an afterthought. This word must never be put first in the soul of a man, otherwise it becomes a monster, the root of all the evils of the earth, the root of the torture of man by men and an unspeakable lie. We see that, after Prometheus freed himself from the chains of man and understood the value of himself, he asked this question: "I wonder, because it is difficult for me to conceive how men who knew the word 'I,' could renounce it and now know what they had lost. Prometheus knew that we must never value the collective more than the individual because that is when evil triumphs. When we become so desensitized by altruism that we neglect our own needs and desires, we lose the essence of what it means to be human. .In Anthem people are taught that their only purpose is to serve the community since they know what is best. People have no real choice in what they can do with their lives since they are all working to achieve the government's goal. An example of this are the works, while he was still living in the unknown city, Prometheus had no choice in the matter since this is what he was taught to believe he also had almost no interaction with anyone outside of others scavengers besides Gaea, which shows that the "government" doesn't want any interaction between the people beyond their service to each other. The unknown city models a communist-style state in which the “government” has seized the means of production so that all goods and services are designed for the collective and their stagnation. The inhabitants of the city live only to serve one another, this is pointed out to us in chapter 7 when the Likeness 5-0306 says: “And if this were to lighten the toil of men, then it would be a great evil, because men have no reason to exist other than to toil for other men." There can never be any real progress in onecollectivist state since those who progress would be better than their peers. Similarities to this style of government are present in North Korea. The North Korean people's sole purpose (in their eyes) is to serve the public since that is all they know. Those who don't follow this mindset are thrown into prisons that are notoriously just as bad as the Nazi concentration camps. North Korea's dictators have brainwashed people and fed them lies for decades, leading people to believe that the collective is more important than the individual. Over the years, as the world's eyes have been opened to the atrocities taking place on the Korean Peninsula today, people continue to suffer in silence, because that's what's best for everyone. One of the critical themes of Anthem is the loss of freedom, and a perfect example of this would be the Chinese government's suppression of civil liberties. The Chinese Communist Party has been the ruling political party since its inception in 1921 and has been responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in human history such as the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962) and the Tiananmen Square Massacre (1989) . Mao Zedong is the most infamous chairman of the Communist Party as he led the socio-economic campaign, the Great Leap Forward, which led to the deaths of 45 million people in a short span of four years. It was also the social and economic state of post-Mao China that led to the infamous Tiananmen Square protests where at least 10,000 people were killed by Chinese soldiers. In China these crucial pieces of history are being erased as the government controls what people can and cannot see. The Chinese people's freedom of speech and press are completely suppressed, and those who speak out or try to defy the law are routinely punished. In modern Western civilization we all agree that the Chinese people are treated terribly by their government, as most people would believe. that the government should not have this kind of power over its citizens. This belief is emulated by Prometheus' quote in chapter 12 where he states, “In the beginning man was the slave of the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was a slave to his birth, his parentage, his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that man has rights which neither God, nor the king, nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for he is the right of man, and does not exist on earth any right above this right. “ The Chinese government, just like the “government” in Anthem, are oppressors who have stripped the people of their God-given rights to speech, thought and expression and we see this more and more today as the Hong Kong protests rage. Protesters know that once China takes full control of Hong Kong, they will lose many of their freedoms. Over the last century we have seen how collectivist ideologies like communism and socialism have plagued the world in places like: Russia, China. , Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela, Nazi Germany and many others we have witnessed the rise of tyrants and dictators who oppress the masses, eliminate opposition and cause chaos under the guise of “what is best for their people.” Ayn Rand's warnings about the dangers of collectivism are needed now more than ever in today's society. Right now, in the United States, the bastion of freedom in the world, we have elected officials who are actively promoting an agenda she wishes to overthrow the pro-capitalism and pro-individualism system to create a new government/