Blog Four

Question 1.) In my opinion, I would not want to live in that society. Everyone is expected to be the same and live up to the same standards. The quality of live their is not long. The elderly are basically treated like nothing, and have nothing to live for once they are old. The country is not ran by an elected president but, more of a dictatorship council. The people are encouraged not to get married and have personal relationships with others. To my knowledge, there is not a lot of technology. I don't know to much about the education but, I dont think it was to important in this society.

Question 2.) I think this book is set in the past. I feel that way because of the society and how there is not a lot of technology.

Question 3.) In Ch. 3 an awesome discovery was made and that discovery was electricity. Electricity is a great thing to have and it would've opened many doors for this society. I would've used electricity in these ways:

1.) For central lighting (meaning instead of using candles and torches they would have total electric)

2.) For cooking (stoves and ovens)

3.) For central air

4.) For telephones if they had them


Question 5.) I think the reason behind the council's rejecting Equality's invention was very dumb. The council wasn't ready to move into the future and use electricity. To me the greatest fear the council had was, moving into the future and progress that was being made.

Anthem Questions

Question 1) To live in a society were there is no "I" would be hard. It would be hard because you would have no individual rights. I there were no individual rights then I would wonder how could there be group rights.

Question 4) I think the unspeakable word is transgressor. The word transgressor means to commit an offense by violating the law. Transgressor is not used in that society because that was taught to go by the government laws. Meaning that they have no individual voices and that if they spoke out then they would be breaking the law.

My Opinion of Anthem

Question A: I feel there is no such thing as a collective brain because people should think individually. No one can think for someone else they need to make their own choices. I don't think Peikoff's opinion would have changed because no matter what a person doesn't think collectively. If computers were to have all the knowledge in the world, I still don't think it should replace a human's brain. I think having a global brain can only bring forth more issues. Meaning that if computers were to become to intelligent humans would have to fight to stay alive.



Question B: I think what Ayn Rand is trying to say is that she knows what she wants in life and that's what makes her an individual. The possibilities she is discussing is, the fact that people are being considered a collective brain because they can't decide what they want in life.



Question D: I think what Peikoff meant was that America is finally thinking for itself. Not only are we thinking but, making decisions to write or speak about what we feel. In some ways my opinion of individualism differs because I think that people today are not expressing thier own opinions. America today is following the government and not making correct decisions that will bring a better future. China's collectivisim was seen by the way China handled the production of goods during the 2008 Olympics. China took control of the tainted food and made sure that farms didn't produce food that was going to make people sick.

Just My Opinion

"Man's Rights" discussed lots of individual rights and why people should have them. Two of those rights were the rights to property and action. The most concentrated right was the right to life. Also in this essay, Ayn Rand wrote about capitalism and how it is needed to uphold the law.

In the essay Collectivized "Rights", there was a certain key point that compared it to "Man's Rights". That point was the fact that most of the Collectivized "Rights" essay was based on "Man's Rights". Meaning that Ayn Rand based her rights of how society should be on the individual rights of man. For example, "just as a man needs a moral code in order to survive, so as society needs moral principles in order to organize a social system.

In my opinion there wasn't much contrast between the essays. I feel that way because the Collectivized "Rights" essay was based on individual rights. All in all, I found both essays interesting and I would like to read more of Ayn Rand's work.