The Middle Ages are a period in man’s history not admired for their hygiene, technology, or governmental tactics. This era signifies to most the great rebirth of the classical knowledge of Greece and Rome via The Renaissance. A man of the Renaissance was an artist, a philosopher, a play write, a poet, a king, or a man of his god. Through the passion they held for their work, these men helped to create the artistic and intellectual principals of our modern age. Had their passion not been present, would there be doubt of what pleases the Mona Lisa? Could Shakespeare have made himself immortal at The Globe Theatre? Would the Christian church have survived? Paired with Anthem, it is these questions which lead one to realize the true advancement of the Middle Ages not through technology or logic but the importance of freedom.

The city in which Equality 7-2521 lives is more reminiscent of the Middle Ages than our modern cities.  However, it holds one important difference – an all-powerful government with a strict law policy. In this city of the future, the government has realized that together, man cannot progress. It is only when a man is permitted to exercise free will in order to advance himself that he may teach his fellow men to advance as well. This, of course, poses a problem in the long term restraint of the populace.  Hypothetically, the vast majority of any nation’s populace will, at some point in time, have the desire to rid themselves of their government officials and/or form of government due to unpleasing information provided by the media. Therefore, the only way to prevent mass discontent is to ensure ignorance in the populace. It is for this reason that the government which Equality lives under has choked all free thought, creativity, and individuality.

The commonly understood and unquestioned concept of one great ‘we’ is something that almost certainly would have taken several generations to overpower the many diverse and potentially powerful concepts of ‘I’. However, the society in which Equality is living has no knowledge whatsoever of the former existence of the concept of individuality. By his time, the government knows only that they are to enforce the same laws which their brothers have enforced for hundreds of years in order to retain a comfortable status quo. They do not question their ancient laws, their way of life, nor the motives behind their everyday routine. For example, the men of Equality’s time do not reprimand out of an understanding for why a transgression is deemed deserving of a certain consequence; they merely grasp the concept of an offense and a corresponding punishment, as specified in their volumes of unchanging law. This ensures that no man will even conceive the notion of a punishment being too severe, for the government, and therefore all of mankind, has deemed it appropriate.

            Every once in a while in this society of repetition, comfort, and a stagnant atmosphere of status quo, a child has a rampant and stubborn spirit that cannot be restrained. This child, though physically conformist and attempting to conform psychologically, cannot put from his mind the notion of an individual self residing within his being. Although he may appear to follow each rule and routine meticulously, his mind has learned from birth the joy of the secret transgression of free thought. He may allow his mind to wander, to daydream, or to burn with curiosity. This often would condemn the child for, although he has the desire to learn, it has been ruled inappropriate by mankind for a child to posses such qualities. And so, to abolish all possibility of advancement and therefore inequality, the child will be assigned to a profession completely unrelated to whatever area they are most skilled in.

As a child, Equality 7-2521 possessed each and every one of these characteristics, earning him the profession of street sweeper. However, Equality held within him a secret will to learn from each experience and to figure a means of content within the gloomiest of situations. For this reason, he viewed his ill assignment as an opportunity to gain new perspective and therefore a new form of knowledge. He became aware of the impact of experience, the sexual instinct combined with an equally instinctive need of companionship, and the unwillingness of man to step outside his zone of comfort and into the unknown. It is through his eventual understanding of the differences between his society and the society of the past that he would be able to deduce the flaws in the Collectivist system.

As the book comes to a close, Equality voices a plan to secretly teach other willing men of the concepts of individualism as well as the scientific and philosophical knowledge he has gathered through his acquired ancient literature. Having become familiar with Equality’s characteristics by this point, it is evident that although he has a great passion for the free expression and advancement of the individual, he also retains a stoic observance of moral value. This leads one to believe that he has the ability to guide his own new society to a great Renaissance of individualism while simultaneously encouraging the cooperation necessary to maintain peace and composure within the population. Through his knowledge of both extremes Equality, now Prometheus, would be able to deliver his proverbial light in such a way as to produce the very embodiment of a concept first brought about during the world’s first Renaissance by a man named Thomas More: the concept of Utopia.

Currently Listening Dear Catastrophe Waitress By Belle & Sebastian see related

tonight - masquarade - hellogoodbye and the rocket summer. great show.

this weekend - sleeeeeep.

last night = atlanta bread company and some good good hang out time with Phillippppp. <3 <3 <3 it was pretty, oh....effin' amazing. i am glad we got together because i was getting super depressed over julian, but now i have someone to help me with that. it makes me feel better to have someone that i acctually really really like and want to spend alot of time with to carry me through for however long it can possibly last and until i am close to julian again, which i think might be a while yet. happy happy.