Conformity And Social Norms In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Mohammed Zaman
We are living in a era in which technological advances have made many things possible in different areas of science. Medicine is a huge area of research due to the constant struggle for more effective ways of staying healthy all the time. People need to be instantly gratified, and the technology makes it possible. However, people’s need for instant gratification often overlooks the harmful effects of medicine. Not only are health effects overlooked, people are naturally inclined to conform to what they feel is normal. In Ayn Rand’s novel, “Anthem”, people are living in darkness blindly following what everyone else is doing. This goes to show that people have and always will be pressured by conformity and social norms. Pharmaceutical
companies take full advantage of this and continue promoting the wide use of western medicine. Although medicine provides a quick fix to our problems, our health is seriously affected in the future. An article from World of Forensic Science, Medicine, describes the concept of medicine in our times in order for us to fully understand it.
Medicine is one of the most innovative branches of health sciences. It is the practice of finding, treatment, and prevention of different diseases. It includes many health care practices which are constantly changing to adapt to new diseases and our changing environment. Medicine is also used by crime research and is often used to determine the cause of death. Medicine utilizes biology, chemistry, and physics to maintain and restore the human body. The ultimate goal of medicine is to preserve the human race.
Our theories on contemporary medicine were first introduced by the ancient Egyptians.
They started with the concepts of diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Medical researchers of that time period understood that in order to effectively use medicine for the betterment of human health, they needed to use the same methods that modern medicine uses. These findings were further advanced by the Greek who included medical ethics in their research and development of the subject. It was the Greek who developed the Hippocratic Oath which is taken by doctors today. This was during the 5th century. “The practice of medicine goes back to at least 3000 B.C., when the first written medical records appeared in Mesopotamia.” This shows that people were always drawn to the fact of good health and quick methods to achieve
it.
As centuries passed, interest in medicine increased and more research was focused towards it. In 1918, a flu pandemic killed more than 50 million people in the world. This led to the discovery of the correlation between germs and disease in the 19th century marking the beginning of modern medicine. “A number of scientific discoveries, starting from early 1900s with the work of E. Jenner, L. Pasteur, R. Koch, A. Flemming and others, established that microbes are the cause of infectious disease; these diseases can be prevented by vaccinations; and there are drugs that can kill the infectious agents (microbes).” These findings shaped modern western medicine. Science researchers used this new information to focus their studies on anti germ substances which cured many diseases. The 20th century brought with it a new age of discovery within biology, lab technology, antibiotics, and much more. Machines such as the x-ray came into play as well. The age of modern medicine began during the 21st century when advanced research of medicine and drugs took place.
(collectivism, conformity, individualism) Anthem has to do with the loss of individuality in a society where conformity and communal identity are demanded. Equality 7-2521 realizes the significance of his existence only when he comes to understand that he is the centre of his own universe and that his individuality defines his reality. Social norms are group-held beliefs about how members should behave in a given context. Groups internalize norms by accepting them as reasonable and proper standards for behavior within the group. Once firmly established, a norm becomes a part of the group's operational structure and hence more difficult to change. While possible for newcomers to a group to change its norms, it is much more likely that the new individual will adopt the group's norms, values, and perspectives, rather than the other way around. In the time it takes you to read this…oh forget it. The disparaging term instant gratification is often used to label the satisfactions gained by more impulsive behaviors: choosing now over tomorrow. “The need for instant gratification is not new, but our expectation of ‘instant’ has become faster, and as a result, our patience is thinner,” said Narayan Janakiraman, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Texas, Arlington.
A prescription drug (also prescription medication or prescription medicine) is a licensed medicine that is regulated by legislation to require a medical prescription before it can be obtained.
Discovering dangers of prescription drugs after they have been marketed to the medical community and public is common. Generally, 51% of FDA-approved drugs have serious adverse effects not detected prior to approval.1 Each year prescription drugs injure 1.5 million people so severely they require hospitalization. In addition, prescription drugs cause 100,000 deaths annually. With these numbers, how can the public be protected from dangerous
drugs? A recent study in JAMA examined the incidence of serious and fatal adverse drug reactions (ADR) in hospital patients. An ADR is any harmful, unintended, or undesired effect of a drug. This definition does not include drug abuse nor intentional or accidental drug overdose. The results of this study were conclusive: the rate of severe and deadly adverse drug reactions in U.S. hospitals was found to be extremely high—high enough that ADRs ranked fourth, after heart disease, cancer, and stroke, as a leading cause of death in the U.S.
An article titled "Prescription for Trouble" published in "Consumer Reports" in 2006 says that tens of millions of people in the United States are unknowingly exposed to rare, yet harmful side effects from prescription drugs. These risks include heart attack, stroke, cancer and suicide that were unknown, undetected and underestimated during drug trials prior to FDA approval. Many drugs are still on the market. Only some have a "black-box" warning on product labels that communicate the risks.
Harmful effects from prescription drugs is growing, according to Donald Light, professor of comparative health policy at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He says this is because new drugs are tested against placebos rather than existing drugs. Hel also believes that new drugs are twice as likely to harm patients than provide benefits superior to existing drugs, and that the Food and Drug Administration's accelerated review process of new drugs has tripled the number of drugs with safety warnings.
Traces of prescription drugs—including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones—have been detected in drinking water. * American Sociological Association: Toxic Drugs, Toxic System: Sociologist Predicts Drug Disasters * ConsumerReportsHealth.org: Prescription for Trouble * Consumer ReportsHealth.org: Drug Risks the System Missed * "Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Science"; Toxic Effects of Anticancer Drugs; Kamil, N.; Jan 2010 * "Joint Bone Spine"; Toxic Effects of Nonsteroidal Antiinflammatory Drugs, Colon, and Rectum; Thiefin, G.; Jul 2005