Så er jeg for alvor blevet færdig med Anthem

Jeg har det sjovt med Ayn Rand: Jeg elsker hendes bøger men får alligevel meget hurtigt nok af dem. “Brudstykker” er nok det ord der bedst beskriver min læseproces, når det kommer til Rand; tit bliver moraliseringen nemlig for meget og alt, alt for forudsigelige.

Hendes pointer er imidlertid gode — og rigtige.

Hendes 2. bog, Anthem, er jeg netop blevet færdig med at læse. Eller sagt mere præcist: Nu har jeg endelig fået læst den i ét væk, fra ende til anden, uden at springe frem én sætning eller én passage over.

Jeg har altid godt kunne lide de sidste to-tre kapitler i bogen. Mest af alt det sidste. Men jeg må nok indrømme, at det andet sidste kapitel, kapitel XI, nok var det der rørte mig mest den her gang. Det er det kapitel, hvor Prometheus har lært det vidunderlige ord “Jeg” at kende.

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

Men også den her passage i sidste kapitel er rigtig god. Den kommer i forbindelse med, at Prometheus tænker over, hvordan menneskeheden nogen sinde kunne være så tåbelig, at den forsøgte at afskaffe individualismen, selvværdet om man vil. Den her passage er virkelig, virkelige, virkelig god:

At first, man was enslaved by the gods. But he broke their chains. Then he was enslaved by the kings. But he broke their chains. He was enslaved by his birth, by his kin, by his race. But he broke their chains. He declared to all his brothers that a man has rights which neither god nor king nor other men can take away from him, no matter what their number, for his is the right of man, and there is no right on earth above this right. And he stood on the threshold of the freedom for which the blood of the centuries behind him had been spilled.

But then he gave up all he had won, and fell lower than his savage beginning.

What brought it to pass? What disaster took their reason away from men? What whip lashed them to their knees in shame and submission? The worship of the word “We”.

1900-tallets kollektivisme, socialisme og fascisme kunne have været undgået. Burde have været undgået. Hvor ville det være dejligt, hvis der ikke var — og fortsat er — behov for bøger som Anthem.