Individualism Exposed In Anthem, By Ayn Rand

In Ayn Rand’s novel Anthem , Rand discusses issues of Individualism and the problems that lie within it. A young man named Equality is curious about the world around him. He battles the society around him and tries to discover his own individuality. He is threatened with death by the society who now despises him. In the end, Equality finds his happiness and justifies that personal happiness is the goal of life. Just like Rand’s Equality trying to rediscover individuality, John Stuart Mill in his book On Liberty argues about the individuality of mankind. Near the beginning of the book, Mill states his thesis of Individuals having the right to thought. He continues, arguing that the right of thought is not unique to one person nor another in …show more content…
In the world we live in, government does not dictate how our society works. Government can help regulate and enforce the rules that society wants. For example, there is protest for equal rights in regards to the female body , dubbed “Free the Nipples” movement. It is a very small percentage of Americans who even support this cause, let alone know it is an actual movement. Ninety-nine percent of society supports to keep the laws how they are, to leave “public indecency” at the definition it is at. The supporters for “Free the Nipple” have the right to peacefully protest , as established earlier. However, they do have to stay in the confines of the law. These individuals have the liberty to express their opinion. However, because of the Tyranny of Society, any woman who does show her breasts in public is condemned to the appropriate punishment as determined by the laws the people have agreed to. John Stuart Mill said: “If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.” In Mill’s opinion, it would be wrong to condone these woman for showing their breasts. They are doing no real harm to the society or to another individual. Society is simply restricting their ability to be happy and content with themselves. Mill sees nothing different between government restricting individualism and society restricting it. Like the society and government in Nineteen Eighty-Four are indistinguishable, Mill see them as one and the same. Not that society and the government are the same. He simply sees the consequences of restricting individuals through society or government are the