“Over the portals of the Palace of the World Council, there are words cut in the marble, which we repeat to ourselves whenever we are tempted: We are one in all and all in one.
There are no men but only the great WE, one, indivisible, and forever.” - Anthem
The often-used phrase, “There is no “I” in team”, encourages cooperation with others while trying to win a game, or when accomplishing any number of other projects. There are, in fact, times when collaboration and combining of forces help reach desired ends. But solo ventures, without the control of others, can also bring societal gains. There’s a reason too many cooks in the kitchen end in a spoiled result, and why we sometimes believe that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. While some will be content to sing in the choir, there will always be those who are resolved to march to their own drum.
In politics, there was a time when one’s long-standing family preferences and personal beliefs determined one’s party affiliation. By the 1980s, however, a new political approach took root, one of a socially composed class of minorities who were joined at the hip by their mutual oppression: a victimhood coalition centered mainly around blacks and women, and later included Hispanics, LGBT, Muslims, et al. This new ideological alliance went well beyond bread-and-butter issues, to include guaranteed wages, a minimum standard of living, a home, and any other imaginable want and need. Consequently, identity politics over individual rights began to shape (and corrupt) the Democrat Party.
In Ayn Rand’s 1946 fictional novel, “Anthem”, Rand takes a futuristic look at civilization following the “Great Rebirth” of a nation that wiped out the notion of “I” and replaced it with the sanctimonious “We”. It is a tale of conformity and control over men and women when individual rights and personal choices are removed. Equality 7-2521 (a character in the book) longed to be a scholar but instead was appointed a street sweeper by the Council of Vocations. I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler alert to tell you, that Equality 7-2521 had the last laugh. “Anthem” was Rand’s hymn of praise for man and his ego and reverence for his own self-interest.
Ayn Rand immigrated to the United States in 1926 at the age of 21, fulfilling a dream to live in “the only moral country in the history of the world”. Rand became enamored with the West after watching movies from her native Russia. She saw the Manhattan skyline as a symbol of enterprise and invention, a true “monument to man’s mind”. Raised in the shadow of Communism drove Rand’s love of America and its Declaration of Independence, a nod, she saw, to the sovereignty of the individual. America was the first nation to give power to the people, and not the government. There would be no group rights assigned in a land where the individual reigned supreme. The Founders were intellectual thinkers, like Rand, and entrepreneurs that established capitalism as the economic system that would make men free. The last century has seen a constant attack on these freedoms, from both inside and out. Domestically, the welfare/warfare state has increasingly strangled liberty, while on the international stage, more trouble looms.
In 2020, The World Economic Forum began advancing an initiative called The Great Reset that seeks to consolidate power and rebuild the world economy using the COVID-19 pandemic as a trojan horse. A new world order created in the image of a small group of global elites would put more power into the hands of a few. The goal is certainly to place less focus on individual nations, and more emphasis on building international systems. The coalition's to-do list is filled with idealistic concepts like mutual progress, environmental justice, the public good, and equitable outcomes. These goals are to be realized by coordinating taxes, regulations, and fiscal policy. Their objective is a permanent reset to capitalism by establishing a sustainable new Industrial Revolution more to their liking. Ceding American power to international agencies that don’t hold our founding principles is contrary, and dangerous, to our birthright as free people. These criticisms are not conspiracy theories. We only need to look to Britain, who not so long ago, Brexited themselves from the European Union, for even less ideological reasons.
Understanding the authoritarianism of the Bolshevik’s occupation in Russia, Rand saw trouble for her new adopted country. Men need independence to succeed and prosper. Men need to be free to use their intelligence, ability, and ambition to create and fulfill their idea of happiness. Capitalism has repeatedly demonstrated that it is the best way to make men more equal, by equality of opportunity, not outcomes. Rather than surrendering our independence to a global authority, we need to return to our own revolutionary roots and relearn the wisdom and superiority of individualism.
Rand once said, “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.” Identity politics only protects specially recognized minorities. Yet, everyone needs to be protected from mob rule at one time or another. The Constitution did that by constructing a system of government that defends us all from the tyranny of the majority.
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