Collectivism vs. Individualism in Anthem

Collectivism and Individualism are what all political parties, tags, and ideals boil down to: those who want someone or some idea to follow and desire a set of rules so as to maintain order, and those who feel oppressed with too much control from the government, society, etc. and place freedom at highest regards. In the case of Anthem, we are presented with a reality where Collectivism is the dominating philosophy of the world and we see the main characters evolution to an Individualist way of thinking. For all people to be content, an equal balance of the two is ideal. Although, it is nearly impossible to be dead centre equal and all places on Earth lean to one side or the other, so the historic question is which side is better to lean to? Having an excess of anything is never good, whether it’s too much junk food or too much time playing video games, there are always consequences to being gluttonous. This is relevant to government and society as well, because both Collectivism and Individualism can have disastrous outcomes if taken too far. Discrimination will occur in both cases, because being different from the leaders represents a kind of defiance to them and a potential threat to their power which must be squashed. It is easy to recognize this in Collectivism, since one of its main principles are that all people are equal and should be the same so as to maintain that equality. People are persecuted for being different regardless of whether they can help it or not, and Equality who is 6 feet tall and is taller than most men, resulting in him being shunned by teachers and leaders for having this burden of uniqueness “There is evil in your bones, Equality 7-2521, for your body has grown beyond that of your brothers.”(33). Similarly, when Individualists start to value their views and opinions above others, they will persecute those who think differently from them because it’s not the ‘right way’ and the others present a threat to that person’s