"Anthem"

I recently read a book: "Anthem" by Ayn Rand. It is amazing how people just have to do the same mistake over and over again, starting with Adam. Why not learn from mistakes of others?

The books describes an anti-utopia. People live in a society where single person's thoughts or desires are given no importance and even prohibited; it's collectivism of the Soviet Union, only hyper-ed, of course. People are named with a combination of a few names (such as Solidarity, Brotherhood, Revolution, etc.) and number, for example Equality-1579. And when they speak or think of themselves - it's alway "we", not "I". The main character of the book learns of how sick it is though he was brought up in that society and knows not of anything different. It's liberating and exciting experience... but it brings to an ugly result (which the author clearly does not see as ugly). Here are some excerpts from the last pages of the book, and they were painful to read:

Whatever road I take, the guiding star is within me; the guiding star and the loadstone which point the way. They point in but one direction. They point to me.

I know not if this earth on which I stand is the core of the universe or if it is but a speck of dust in eternity. I know not and I care not. For I know what happiness is possible to me on earth. And my happiness needs no higher aim to vindicate it. My happiness is not the means to any end. It is its own goal. It is its own purpose.

I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debt from them. I ask none to live for me, nor do I live for any others.

And to earn my love, my brothers must do more than to have been born. I do not grant my love without reason, nor to any chance passer-by who may wish to claim it. I honor men with my love. But it is a thing to be earned.

And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect...

Then I shall build a barrier of wires around my home, and across the paths which lead to my home; a barrier my brother will never be able to cross.

... As I stand here at the door of glory...

And now I see the face of god, and I raise this god over the earth, this god whom men have sought since men came into being, this god who will grant them joy and peace and pride.

This god, this one word:

"I"

My home will become the capital of a world where each man will be free to exist for his own sake.

The sacred word:

EGO

Oh, how ugly and sick this is...

As Father Stephen carries through, the human is not supposed be be alone, and the salvation is not personal. The whole mankind is one body and needs saving/is being saved by our Christ. Too bad Ayn did not, as it seems, learn this during her lifetime here. I hope she does learn it "up" there and it's not too late for her, somehow...

As an atheist who rejected faith as antithetical to reason, Rand embraced philosophical realism and opposed all forms of what she regarded as mysticism and supernaturalism, including organized religion. Rand wrote in her journals that Christianity was "the best kindergarten of communism possible." Rand also argued for rational egoism (rational self-interest), as the only proper guiding moral principle. The individual "must exist for his own sake," she wrote in 1962, "neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself."

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_Rand)

Let us love and follow Christ, forgetting ourselves and serving others.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

Blessed Nativity to all!