How Ayn Rand's Dystopian Novella Anticipated Cancel Culture

08/04/2020

Recent legislators, activists, and education reformers have promised to lead us into a new world of equity. No longer will some groups have a different lifestyle from others. No longer will some groups have a different education from others. There will be reform or else, Hawk Newsome warns, "we will burn down this system and replace it."

For a preview of these glories, we have only to open Ayn Rand's Anthem. In this dystopian novella, collectivists achieve their ideal by burning cities and books, then implementing central planning. Now everyone is equal: equally poor, equally housed, equally limited in what they can say and do and think.