Equality 7-2521 Research Paper

In today’s society, denouncing a leader is more common than it used to be as we see in today's politics and everyday life. By denouncing a leader, society critiques them because they do not think of them as humans with the right policies or beliefs. However, every human on earth thinks differently and sees life from a different viewpoint, making everyone discrete. As a result of criticising a leader, a person is simply stating what they think by censuring their leaders who they do not see eye-to-eye with. Equality 7-2521 reviles the leaders in his community, but not directly to their faces. But is it wrong to reject your commanders in chief, or is it right? Should men and women be able to state why they think their leaders are wrongdoers or
is it wrong to do so? In Anthem, Equality 7-2521 is correct to denounce the leaders of his society.
Every human is given the right to freedom of speech and should be able to preach their beliefs, even if it means condemning their leaders. Because he is not saying anything undeviatingly to his authority figures, he is technically not doing anything wrong and he is not unhinged. Also, he does not formulate an immense plan to bring down the leaders of his land, not making him a substantial threat. He makes the effort to make his world better by bringing the invention of electricity to his superiors , however, they reject his genius proposal and declare it as evil because they believe it will ruin distinct industries. Freedom of speech creates impartiality among a people and diminishes the concept of totalitarianism. In spite of that, the world of Equality 7-2521 desires for totalitarianism to continue by not allowing any individual to think they are superior to the World Council. As said by Rand, “What disaster took their reason away from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word ‘We’” (Page 102). In this quote, Rand is showing how Equality 7-2521’s community no longer is a group of individuals, but rather the thoughts of the World Council and only the World Council among everyone’s bodies. Along with the idea of the lack of individualism, Rand states, “What is not thought by all men cannot be true” (Page 73). The majority of the population
and the whole World Council believes that the thoughts of one person cannot be rational or correct because they are the only ones with that specific opinion. Equality 7-2521’s world is highly irrational, whereas he is one of the few rational people besides Liberty 5-3000, or the “Golden One”. Nothing around Equality 7-2521 makes sense and he is suppressed of his rights by the leaders of his world. When he tries to be rational with the commanders of his land, he is subjugated and seen as malice to the ignorant population around him. Equality 7-2521 would agree with the advice given in Ayn Rand’s “How Does One Live a Rational Life in an Irrational Society?”.
In the words of Rand, “One must never fail to pronounce moral judgement”. To pronounce moral judgement is to evaluate or form opinions based on whether or not some action, motive, or person is good. Equality 7-2521 pronounces moral judgement on his leaders towards the middle and end of the novel, just as Rand says one must. This idea of enunciating moral judgement relates directly to the United States Constitution’s First Amendment. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Due to this, Equality 7-2521’s leaders cannot subdue his thoughts and words because that would be considered illegal. Nevertheless, Equality 7-2521’s leaders do not follow a document like the United States Constitution and there are no rules or laws regarding freedom of speech. In Anthem, the leaders of Equality 7-2521’s world do not implement a Constitution-like document because they do not want to give the citizens of society any rights and make them feel like they are more noteworthy than the leaders of society. If normal citizens in their world think of themselves as individuals, such as Equality 7-2521, they
might want to overpower their leaders and grasp their freedoms. As to why others do not speak their minds regarding the Council, the fear of the people keeps them from spreading their true thoughts. To summarize, Equality 7-2521 was faultless in decrying the headmen of humanity because everyone should be entitled to their own opinion and no one should have to keep their perspective bottled up and to themselves. Instead, all people should be able to assess their government because that is the only way that their society will ever grow as a whole. It is unconstitutional and unjust to suppress the words of citizens because it deteriorates the theory of individualism and creates a hostile environment. The meaning behind Equality 7-2521’s name is equality afterall. In using the name Equality, Rand is trying to make the reader open their eyes and see that the main character's role in Anthem was to create equality in society, not totalitarianism.