Jamia Mei E. Tolentino
Grade 3 - St. Stephen's High School
20100220
20100219
Filipino-American
by Kristin Cobbs
Being a Filipino-American is incredible. Filipinos are full of culture, history, and love for
their country. Here in America, some people are never proud of their roots and culture.
They do not think about where they come from and their “homeland”. I always hear my
mom and other parents refer to going to the Philippines as “going back home”. Even I, at
school and other places say “I’m going back home” when going to the Philippines. It is
our way of showing where we belong, our true home, the Philippines. Filipinos always
show their love for the Philippines by sending money home and caring about their
relatives. They work very hard, sometimes even all night, to have money to send home to
everyone every month. Even when they know their family here in America needs the
money too, they still work hard to save enough to send home all the time. Some families
in the Philippines become very dependent upon their siblings in America, but that does
not stop Filipino-Americans from helping them. Their love for their family outshines any
greed for money. Always worried if their family has enough food and clothes there, that
when visiting they bring all their old clothes and just two pairs to wear there. They give
away all their clothes in the suitcase to their family before they leave too. A lot of culture
has been brought here from the Philippines. Young ones respect their elders all the time.
We always call someone older than us “Ate or Kuya” and “Tita or Tito”. Even if we have
just met that person for the first time and have no blood relations, we still call them one
of the titles of respect. We never answer back to an adult, unlike many American children
and we always try our hardest to honor our elders. Filipino-Americans show their
relationship with the Philippines through culture and love for home and respecting their
elder.
Another way that Filipino-Americans connect to their homeland is through watching
the Filipino Channel. Providers such as Verizon and DirecTV have the channels, TFC
ABS-CBN and GMA. There, Filipino-Americans always watch shows like the well
known Wowowee. They catch up on all the gossip and watch dramas like Tayong
Dalawa, May Bukas Pa, and Kambal Sa Uma. Some shows help teach the young ones
Tagalog, like Filipino Ka? Sabihin Mo! This teaches them their native tongue. The
dramas give the older Filipino-Americans a link to their past from similarities to their
childhood. They cry when the characters cry, laugh when they laugh and altogether hand
over their feelings to the dramas. In some dramas like MMK, they show the life of a mom
in America. It shows how hard they must work and how some bosses treat them. In
shows like Tayong Dalawa, there are tons of tragedies and happiness. It makes people
cry, laugh and want more than one episode can give. Dramas like May Bukas Pa show
the religion of the Philippines and conflicts also involving families. It shows how close
the Filipinos are to God and teaches Filipino-Americans to be closer to God and their
own families. Wowowee provides fun filled entertainment in our native language to
watch and laugh at. It also includes Filipino-Americans on the show playing the games
with Pokwang, Mariel, and Chokoleit. In addition, when Cory Aquino died, we knew the
exact time and could watch the funeral to pay our respects because of how much she
helped us. We could tell how much our homeland felt for Cory Aquino and their
immense love for their ex-president. She helped change the Philippines and worked so
hard after the death of her husband. Her name, Corazon, means heart in Spanish and
Tagalog. It is the perfect name for a woman as astonishing as Cory. She worked hard to
change the Philippines and People Power, the peaceful revolution full of prayer in the
Philippines, in 1986. Cory was great and we could respect her even if we were here in
America. These TV channels help Filipino-Americans feel like they are back home while
watching television, really connect them to current events, and help them find out so
much about people like Cory Aquino.
One more way Filipino-Americans show how close they are to the Philippines is by
joining cultural dance groups and associations such as FAAP. They have groups all over
the 50 states. In FAAP, we do dances like Sinkil, Tinikling (Slow and Fast versions),
Banga, Pandango Sa Ilow, Maglalatik, La Jota, Bulaklakan, Subli, and Janggay. It really
helps us to understand our culture and feel closer to the Philippines, and our family back
home. We can feel like we are actually back at the Philippines by the way we perform the
same dances that our ancestors did and that our own family still does now. We go back to
the past with dances like Janggay, La Jota, and Maglalatik. We do the national dance,
Tinikling, with pride and understanding of our old country. We sing Bayang Magiliw
with honor and love of that beautiful country. We dance all the dances with the
understanding, feeling the whispers of the past as we do them. We know the emotions
that our ancestors felt as they did the same dances so long ago. We know the meanings in
the songs sung. We understand the Tagalog because in the association we learn it. It helps
to enrich our understanding of our culture and link us with our homeland. We can all feel
close relationships with the Philippines even if we are born in America. Our affiliation
with associations like FAAP really brings us close to the Philippines. Filipino-Americans
have very strong bonds with the Philippines. We bring ourselves close through various
ways, our love, entertainment, our culture, and our history. We try our hardest to stay
close to the country we love. That is what being a Filipino-American is all about; the
honor, the love, and our home.
Being a Filipino-American is incredible. Filipinos are full of culture, history, and love for
their country. Here in America, some people are never proud of their roots and culture.
They do not think about where they come from and their “homeland”. I always hear my
mom and other parents refer to going to the Philippines as “going back home”. Even I, at
school and other places say “I’m going back home” when going to the Philippines. It is
our way of showing where we belong, our true home, the Philippines. Filipinos always
show their love for the Philippines by sending money home and caring about their
relatives. They work very hard, sometimes even all night, to have money to send home to
everyone every month. Even when they know their family here in America needs the
money too, they still work hard to save enough to send home all the time. Some families
in the Philippines become very dependent upon their siblings in America, but that does
not stop Filipino-Americans from helping them. Their love for their family outshines any
greed for money. Always worried if their family has enough food and clothes there, that
when visiting they bring all their old clothes and just two pairs to wear there. They give
away all their clothes in the suitcase to their family before they leave too. A lot of culture
has been brought here from the Philippines. Young ones respect their elders all the time.
We always call someone older than us “Ate or Kuya” and “Tita or Tito”. Even if we have
just met that person for the first time and have no blood relations, we still call them one
of the titles of respect. We never answer back to an adult, unlike many American children
and we always try our hardest to honor our elders. Filipino-Americans show their
relationship with the Philippines through culture and love for home and respecting their
elder.
Another way that Filipino-Americans connect to their homeland is through watching
the Filipino Channel. Providers such as Verizon and DirecTV have the channels, TFC
ABS-CBN and GMA. There, Filipino-Americans always watch shows like the well
known Wowowee. They catch up on all the gossip and watch dramas like Tayong
Dalawa, May Bukas Pa, and Kambal Sa Uma. Some shows help teach the young ones
Tagalog, like Filipino Ka? Sabihin Mo! This teaches them their native tongue. The
dramas give the older Filipino-Americans a link to their past from similarities to their
childhood. They cry when the characters cry, laugh when they laugh and altogether hand
over their feelings to the dramas. In some dramas like MMK, they show the life of a mom
in America. It shows how hard they must work and how some bosses treat them. In
shows like Tayong Dalawa, there are tons of tragedies and happiness. It makes people
cry, laugh and want more than one episode can give. Dramas like May Bukas Pa show
the religion of the Philippines and conflicts also involving families. It shows how close
the Filipinos are to God and teaches Filipino-Americans to be closer to God and their
own families. Wowowee provides fun filled entertainment in our native language to
watch and laugh at. It also includes Filipino-Americans on the show playing the games
with Pokwang, Mariel, and Chokoleit. In addition, when Cory Aquino died, we knew the
exact time and could watch the funeral to pay our respects because of how much she
helped us. We could tell how much our homeland felt for Cory Aquino and their
immense love for their ex-president. She helped change the Philippines and worked so
hard after the death of her husband. Her name, Corazon, means heart in Spanish and
Tagalog. It is the perfect name for a woman as astonishing as Cory. She worked hard to
change the Philippines and People Power, the peaceful revolution full of prayer in the
Philippines, in 1986. Cory was great and we could respect her even if we were here in
America. These TV channels help Filipino-Americans feel like they are back home while
watching television, really connect them to current events, and help them find out so
much about people like Cory Aquino.
One more way Filipino-Americans show how close they are to the Philippines is by
joining cultural dance groups and associations such as FAAP. They have groups all over
the 50 states. In FAAP, we do dances like Sinkil, Tinikling (Slow and Fast versions),
Banga, Pandango Sa Ilow, Maglalatik, La Jota, Bulaklakan, Subli, and Janggay. It really
helps us to understand our culture and feel closer to the Philippines, and our family back
home. We can feel like we are actually back at the Philippines by the way we perform the
same dances that our ancestors did and that our own family still does now. We go back to
the past with dances like Janggay, La Jota, and Maglalatik. We do the national dance,
Tinikling, with pride and understanding of our old country. We sing Bayang Magiliw
with honor and love of that beautiful country. We dance all the dances with the
understanding, feeling the whispers of the past as we do them. We know the emotions
that our ancestors felt as they did the same dances so long ago. We know the meanings in
the songs sung. We understand the Tagalog because in the association we learn it. It helps
to enrich our understanding of our culture and link us with our homeland. We can all feel
close relationships with the Philippines even if we are born in America. Our affiliation
with associations like FAAP really brings us close to the Philippines. Filipino-Americans
have very strong bonds with the Philippines. We bring ourselves close through various
ways, our love, entertainment, our culture, and our history. We try our hardest to stay
close to the country we love. That is what being a Filipino-American is all about; the
honor, the love, and our home.
20100218
20100217
Signs On the Celing
Philippines Today Essay Writing for Students
Entry:
When you are lying on a hard narrow bed, reluctantly inhaling the stink of cockroaches that mingled with the rotting wood of the walls which distance you can easily bridge by simply stretching your arms, staring at the low ceiling and seeing nothing, trying to drown out the banshee disguised as your neighbor just beyond the thin wall, can you ponder about abstract ideas such as nationalism and globalization? The escapists would simply dream of winning the lotto and the things they can do with millions of money, while the non-imaginative ones would worry themselves to sleep, perhaps, subconsciously wishing they won’t wake up anymore. Many Filipinos are in situations like this - hopeless and penniless. This is the average Filipino.
Would the average Filipino think of lofty things like nationalism? Would he speculate and prepare for cultural phenomena called globalization?
Some say that globalization is like a river, rushing, almost impossible to stop. If this is the case, the average citizen would be the tiny stone being carried along, resigned to the aimless, endless, crazy whirl. And some say that globalization is making the world smaller and smaller and smaller. Perhaps until people like us, without affluence or even financial security, will have no more place to hide, our own corner horribly shrinking.
But I say that globalization is just like my ceiling, an expanse of gray but a home to spiders, bumpy, but still enough to build their webs.
Some say that nationalism is a value. But it’s not the first value I would like my children to learn. In fact, I tend to agree with an author who said that patriotism is a form of selfishness and, with our present economic situation, a luxury. Some equate nationalism with dignity and freedom. And many men and women have given their lives for this almost whimsical thing called national identity.
But I say that nationalism is the quality of the thread being used by that spider, the spider on the ceiling.
You see, we are like spiders. We build webs. All kinds of webs. And we build these the way spiders knit their homes - backwards. It moves in circles, automatically producing the material for its web. And since it does not look ahead, it could not avoid a bump. It falls. The web gets deformed, the thread is stretched, thinned, "weakened". And the web-making stops for a while, until the spider is able to go back again.
We find ourselves hitting against such "bumps". For example, the emerging global markets infringe and often overrun the small local businesses. With such a dismal future for any business here, the risk-taking but practical entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs of our country would not think of investing and putting up any income-generating activity. They would migrate. They would rather take risks abroad. Abroad, they would have better chances of leading a more comfortable life. This view is also held by teachers and nurses, who would have no second thoughts in selling their lands and houses here just to pay the placement fee demanded by recruiters. Some of them are willing to become caregivers just to obtain immigrant visas and get out of our country. And they are our highly skilled and well-trained citizens. What if you’re not skilled or don’t have a masters degree? Does this mean that you have no hope at all in escaping this country? There is one quick method about it. It’s also risky. It’s called marriage, that is, marriage to an old rich man - he may be in his sixties but if he’s willing to pay for your fare and get you a fiancée visa, why not? Do anything so that you won’t be a Filipino citizen anymore. Nationalism has weakened.
Wait, we still have our OFWs. They don’t relinquish their citizenship. They also bring in the dollars. They are our heroes. And heroes have nationalism. But aren’t we just deluding ourselves? The OFWs don’t go out because they wanted to show nationalism. They go out, and sacrifice, to earn salaries they can never earn here even in two lifetimes. Our OFWs are not heroes. They are symptoms of a disease that our country had been suffering and ignoring for too many years. They work abroad because our economic situation here cannot satisfy their needs. Just like a spider’s blind attempt to pull itself up and continue building the "changed" web -- the globalization, a different face of globalization.
And sometimes there are other faces of globalization.
Globalization has widened our knowledge of political situations. When you watch the world news, our own problems here become less significant. Why give too much ra-ra on oil price hikes when children in Congo and Uganda are purposely drugged to make them soldiers? Going out to the streets to protest against the Balikatan seemed ridiculous when you are protesting against the same armed forces that fought the women oppressors in Afghanistan.
Perhaps we can solve our own problems here the way they had solved theirs? We can also ask them for help, believing that they can better understand our problems. After all, everything foreign is superior. But, by thinking that the foreign is better, we subject ourselves to a cultural violence. This is also a sure way to self-destruction. And, down the road, we may feel relieved when a country annexes the Philippines as one of its states. This way, we break nationalism.
Can nationalism therefore be practiced this way? Similar to the way a person uses a file in the computer. You can store it and forget about it, even accidentally erase it. Or you can retrieve it and then edit it. You can also move it into another directory or place it in the recycle bin. We can do any these when the situation demands it... when globalization compels us to. This means that globalization can dictate a Filipino on what to do with his nationalism.
But the bumps on the ceiling cannot solely break the strength of the thread. It cannot even stop the growth of the web. The thread, after all, comes inside the spider. Nationalism is inside every Filipino. Though it seems that the only result of globalization is the extinction of nationalism, such will never happen, unless, nature had allowed spiders to run out of thread.
The nationalism within us continuously tries to get out. Though God knows that these days, we are not very proud of our country. There is so little to be proud of. Yet our hearts beat a little faster when we learn that a Filipino wins a gold medal. We stand a little straighter when we hear a Filipino receiving an international award. And we look at each other with unspoken shame when the international media reports a crime committed by a Filipino abroad. Obviously, we care about our being Filipinos. And if we could just do something -- something to help, we would.
We can think of web as our country. And the ceiling where we build our web is dotted with structures of globalization. We bump and we fall. But we do not weaken the thread by thinking that the foreign is better, that the only way to have a better life is to migrate abroad. Why not give our country another chance?
There are still teachers who preferred to teach in small, overcrowded classrooms. There are still nurses who wanted to stay in our inadequately equipped hospitals. There are still entrepreneurs who put up small businesses. They wanted to give our country another chance.
If the thread is severed, the whole web will collapse. It can even choke the one who lives in it. Do you plan to pull yourself up and continue building?
Entry:
When you are lying on a hard narrow bed, reluctantly inhaling the stink of cockroaches that mingled with the rotting wood of the walls which distance you can easily bridge by simply stretching your arms, staring at the low ceiling and seeing nothing, trying to drown out the banshee disguised as your neighbor just beyond the thin wall, can you ponder about abstract ideas such as nationalism and globalization? The escapists would simply dream of winning the lotto and the things they can do with millions of money, while the non-imaginative ones would worry themselves to sleep, perhaps, subconsciously wishing they won’t wake up anymore. Many Filipinos are in situations like this - hopeless and penniless. This is the average Filipino.
Would the average Filipino think of lofty things like nationalism? Would he speculate and prepare for cultural phenomena called globalization?
Some say that globalization is like a river, rushing, almost impossible to stop. If this is the case, the average citizen would be the tiny stone being carried along, resigned to the aimless, endless, crazy whirl. And some say that globalization is making the world smaller and smaller and smaller. Perhaps until people like us, without affluence or even financial security, will have no more place to hide, our own corner horribly shrinking.
But I say that globalization is just like my ceiling, an expanse of gray but a home to spiders, bumpy, but still enough to build their webs.
Some say that nationalism is a value. But it’s not the first value I would like my children to learn. In fact, I tend to agree with an author who said that patriotism is a form of selfishness and, with our present economic situation, a luxury. Some equate nationalism with dignity and freedom. And many men and women have given their lives for this almost whimsical thing called national identity.
But I say that nationalism is the quality of the thread being used by that spider, the spider on the ceiling.
You see, we are like spiders. We build webs. All kinds of webs. And we build these the way spiders knit their homes - backwards. It moves in circles, automatically producing the material for its web. And since it does not look ahead, it could not avoid a bump. It falls. The web gets deformed, the thread is stretched, thinned, "weakened". And the web-making stops for a while, until the spider is able to go back again.
We find ourselves hitting against such "bumps". For example, the emerging global markets infringe and often overrun the small local businesses. With such a dismal future for any business here, the risk-taking but practical entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs of our country would not think of investing and putting up any income-generating activity. They would migrate. They would rather take risks abroad. Abroad, they would have better chances of leading a more comfortable life. This view is also held by teachers and nurses, who would have no second thoughts in selling their lands and houses here just to pay the placement fee demanded by recruiters. Some of them are willing to become caregivers just to obtain immigrant visas and get out of our country. And they are our highly skilled and well-trained citizens. What if you’re not skilled or don’t have a masters degree? Does this mean that you have no hope at all in escaping this country? There is one quick method about it. It’s also risky. It’s called marriage, that is, marriage to an old rich man - he may be in his sixties but if he’s willing to pay for your fare and get you a fiancée visa, why not? Do anything so that you won’t be a Filipino citizen anymore. Nationalism has weakened.
Wait, we still have our OFWs. They don’t relinquish their citizenship. They also bring in the dollars. They are our heroes. And heroes have nationalism. But aren’t we just deluding ourselves? The OFWs don’t go out because they wanted to show nationalism. They go out, and sacrifice, to earn salaries they can never earn here even in two lifetimes. Our OFWs are not heroes. They are symptoms of a disease that our country had been suffering and ignoring for too many years. They work abroad because our economic situation here cannot satisfy their needs. Just like a spider’s blind attempt to pull itself up and continue building the "changed" web -- the globalization, a different face of globalization.
And sometimes there are other faces of globalization.
Globalization has widened our knowledge of political situations. When you watch the world news, our own problems here become less significant. Why give too much ra-ra on oil price hikes when children in Congo and Uganda are purposely drugged to make them soldiers? Going out to the streets to protest against the Balikatan seemed ridiculous when you are protesting against the same armed forces that fought the women oppressors in Afghanistan.
Perhaps we can solve our own problems here the way they had solved theirs? We can also ask them for help, believing that they can better understand our problems. After all, everything foreign is superior. But, by thinking that the foreign is better, we subject ourselves to a cultural violence. This is also a sure way to self-destruction. And, down the road, we may feel relieved when a country annexes the Philippines as one of its states. This way, we break nationalism.
Can nationalism therefore be practiced this way? Similar to the way a person uses a file in the computer. You can store it and forget about it, even accidentally erase it. Or you can retrieve it and then edit it. You can also move it into another directory or place it in the recycle bin. We can do any these when the situation demands it... when globalization compels us to. This means that globalization can dictate a Filipino on what to do with his nationalism.
But the bumps on the ceiling cannot solely break the strength of the thread. It cannot even stop the growth of the web. The thread, after all, comes inside the spider. Nationalism is inside every Filipino. Though it seems that the only result of globalization is the extinction of nationalism, such will never happen, unless, nature had allowed spiders to run out of thread.
The nationalism within us continuously tries to get out. Though God knows that these days, we are not very proud of our country. There is so little to be proud of. Yet our hearts beat a little faster when we learn that a Filipino wins a gold medal. We stand a little straighter when we hear a Filipino receiving an international award. And we look at each other with unspoken shame when the international media reports a crime committed by a Filipino abroad. Obviously, we care about our being Filipinos. And if we could just do something -- something to help, we would.
We can think of web as our country. And the ceiling where we build our web is dotted with structures of globalization. We bump and we fall. But we do not weaken the thread by thinking that the foreign is better, that the only way to have a better life is to migrate abroad. Why not give our country another chance?
There are still teachers who preferred to teach in small, overcrowded classrooms. There are still nurses who wanted to stay in our inadequately equipped hospitals. There are still entrepreneurs who put up small businesses. They wanted to give our country another chance.
If the thread is severed, the whole web will collapse. It can even choke the one who lives in it. Do you plan to pull yourself up and continue building?
20100216
Curing the Climate?
by Chris Knight
“...wild ideas like mirrors in Space, we’re going to consider all of them.” This was a member of the UK parliament describing a select committee investigation planned for 2009 on using engineering to mitigate climate change. It’s becoming a hot topic in the journal Nature, the Royal Society is jumping in with a working group and it’s even in the Natural Environment Research Council’s top 10 things
most likely to affect UK biodiversity between now and 2050 [1].
So what’s the fuss about? Since the industrial revolution, we humans have been pumping vast quantities of greenhouse gasses in general, and carbon dioxide(CO2) in particular, into the atmosphere. This amounts to a vast, if inadvertent, experiment in atmospheric physics. Had this experiment been intentional (and schemes for inducing global warming have been around for a while [2]), it might have been termed ‘Geo-engineering’- manipulating the atmosphere in a way that will affect climate, in this case, globally. The results of this experiment are only now unfolding, but
include substantial and highly damaging global warming. CO2 is a long lived gas in the atmosphere, so even if we stopped emitting it entirely tomorrow, the sort of scenario that could only ever be implemented in a computer simulation, global warming would continue and even increase for years,with all the concomitant effects of rising sea levels on low-lying countries and islands, desertification, modification of arctic habitats and the rest. So is our only option to learn to live with a warmer world- adapt ourselves, our crops, and, to the limited extent of our ability, assist that process for the rest of the natural world? Well, perhaps not. If the problem was a geo-engineering experiment in atmospheric physics, perhaps the solution could be one too...
There’s no lack of ideas. Prominent among them are plans to ‘fertilise’ oceans so as to encourage algae to absorb more CO2. Other options for capturing CO2include artificial trees to collect the gas from the atmosphere followed by sequestering it underground or in deep ocean currents. Carbon CO2 may be the cause, but the effect we care about most is global warming. Geo-engineering could therefore focus, not on CO2, but on warming itself. The greenhouse effect, causing the warming, is an issue with the energy budget- our energy ‘expenditure’ into space is not high enough- the CO2 is keeping the energy in. There’s more than one way to balance a budget, so instead of attacking the ‘expenditure’ side, we could tackle the ‘income’, i.e. the energy the Earth receives from the Sun. If less of the energy coming from the Sun were caught by the Earth, we’d have less to worry about causing global warming, even with higher levels of CO2. There are various ideas for how this could be done, most of which involve reflecting more Sunlight back into space [3].
Reducing global warming by reflecting more Sunlight The Earth, like all objects that are neither perfectly black nor perfectly white, absorbs a proportion of light and other electromagnetic radiation hitting it and reflects the rest. The extent to which the Earth diffusively reflects radiation coming from the Sun is termed its ‘albedo’. The Earth’s albedo is about 0.3, i.e. about 30% of the radiation from the Sun is reflected straight back out into space. However, this average figure comes from a mixture of the different surfaces with very different individual albedos. The sea, which covers most of the Earth has a low albedo, and forest is not much C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 2 higher, at 0.09-0.18. On the other hand, snow and ice can have an albedo up to 0.9. With such a range of different albedos making up the global average, the balance of the different albedo surfaces is crucial to the overall amount of energy coming from the Sun that is absorbed and so can result in global warming. Thus, for instance, melting arctic ice gives a reduction in average albedo and hence increase in the potential for global warming. Geo-engineering approaches to reduce global warming by changing albedo therefore focus on increasing the proportion of the Earth with high albedo, or increasing the albedo of particular elements. Clouds are an ideal candidate in this direction, being relatively easily influenced and potentially having an albedo of over 0.7. Even schemes that enhance the albedo of existing clouds, rather than create new ones, could have a substantial effect. For instance a recent paper proposes a scheme at sea whereby “Wind-driven spray vessels will [...]release micron-sized drops of seawater into the [...] layer beneath marine stratocumulus clouds. [...] When residues left after drop evaporation reach cloud level they will provide many new cloud condensation nuclei, giving more but smaller drops and so will increase the cloud albedo to reflect solar energy back out to space.” [4].
Many other possible schemes are based on the same principle of reflecting back the radiation that would otherwise be causing global warming. These include putting carefully chosen particles higher into the atmosphere (e.g. [5]) and extend to the sort of thing highlighted by the MP quoted earlier, what the eminent Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider has described as ‘Buck Rogers schemes in space’ [6]. One particularly carefully calculated scheme would create a cloud of tiny
spacecraft to act as a Sunshade. As they put it “The concept builds on existing technologies. It seems feasible that it could be developed and deployed in ~25 years at a cost of a few trillion dollars, <0.5% of world gross domestic product (GDP) over that time.” [7] Schemes that actively reduce atmospheric CO2
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 3 Once the Sun’s radiation has made it here and not been reflected straight back into space, there may still be ways of helping it escape again more quicklyand hence reduce global warming. Much of the
current slowing in radiation loss comes down to the CO2 humans have been pumping into the atmosphere, so the most direct route to increasing the radiation loss is actively removing some of this CO2. One of the most successful strategies for removing CO2 from the atmosphere is employed by plants, where, in the course of photosynthesis they capture CO2 from the atmosphere into more complex chemicals in their own cells. This occurs most extensively in some of the simplest plantsmarine
algae. Proposals therefore focus on giving these tiny plants a helping hand in their CO2 capture. A principal thing limiting their activity is the availability of nutrients necessary to growth but generally rare in the ocean. Foremost among these is iron. If iron is added to the oceans ( ‘iron fertilization’) it can produce great algal blooms, which capture large amounts of CO2. Experiments both deliberate and natural have demonstrated that this process does indeed occur, with up to hundreds of thousands of carbon atoms captured for every iron atom added [8]. Similar ideas with less experimental backing include large pipes to draw up nutrient-rich water from lower in the ocean to the surface [9]. Ultimately these schemes aim to transfer CO2 from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. There may be means other than algae of extracting it (such as artificial trees [10]) and there may be other means of sequestering the CO2 in places where it cannot have its deleterious atmospheric effects, such as in geological formations, including those from which the carbon (in the form of oil and gas) originally came. Indeed the process of sequestering CO2 may just as well start directly at the power stations that produce it, an idea finally beginning to receive serious consideration in the power industry [11].
Personal reflections So far we have considered a subset of current ideas for using an understanding of environmental physics to alter the human effects on our physical environment, specifically global warming. Very little has been said about whether these ideas are likely to work or even if they did, whether they’d be a good idea.
There is no doubt that the challenge is serious –the political process for the reduction of carbon emissions is slow, perhaps hopelessly so, with a focus on scenarios (notably 2˚C global warming) that may prove wildly optimistic [12]. There is a strong motivation for politicians to grab whatever tools are to hand, and some of the geo-engineering options mentioned could seem very attractive routes to avoid the thorny issues of CO2 emission reductions and get a technological ‘quick fix’. There is a serious worry that if, like the British MP quoted at the start, politicians get geo-engineering ideas, their eye may stray from the ball of global CO2 reductions, from which we may all suffer: the schemes mentioned are finite- a limited amount of albedo enhancement with a finite lifetime, a definite amount of CO2 sequestered somewhere out of the way, yet human CO2 emissions are indefinite- it is only in the computer simulation that it is possible to stop them entirely- unless
emissions are actively cut, the problem does not go away, indeed unless something drastic is done to emissions as well as any geo-engineering, CO2 will continue to grow (latest figures suggest C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 4 greenhouse gasses rising at an equivalent to ~2.4% per annum increase in CO2 emissions [12]) and
result in an even worse state at the end of any geo-engineering scheme than the beginning. There is then the question of whether these schemes will work- many have received little research. Undoubtedly calls for more research cash are important. However even for those areas that are being researched, neither efficacy nor desirability is obvious. For instance, some of the most direct experimental research relates to ocean fertilization. While some efficacy has been demonstrated , albeit not for the complete process [8-9], iron fertilization has received a rather bad press. Most criticism at the level of it being ‘tampering with nature’ a level applicable to most geo-engineering.Given the degree of ‘tampering with nature’ evident in the original problem (human CO2 emissions), this seems a weak argument. Nonetheless the public is well to be wary- there are real down-sides. The idea of turning low productivity areas into high by means of fertilizers has echoes of the ‘green revolution’ in 20th century agriculture, a process that undoubtedly had huge impact, much of it positive, but being reliant on fertilizers and pesticides, transformed many terrestrial ecosystems into ‘green deserts’ and associated fresh-water habitats into precisely the sort of environments, dominated by algal blooms and toxic to anything else, envisaged in iron fertilization projects. In the
UK, low productivity ecosystems like lowland heath or chalk downland were ‘improved’ by the green revolution and are now, along with many of their specialist species, highly threatened. These systems are well studied, the ocean ecosystems that are candidates for fertilization are far less known and the deep ocean being considered as a location for long-term sequestration of CO2 is one of the least-known habitats on Earth. However, while scientific scepticism is justified, a generalised rejection is no better than a generalised enthusiasm among the multiplicity of ideas currently mooted in geo-engineering. Lovelock has likened geo-engineering to pre 1940s medicine, a period with limited medical tools [13]. It remains to be discovered which geoengineering tools resemble which medical tools. Crude interventions into biological systems, as in iron fertilization, may have most in common with
trepanning - brain surgery with a chisel. Other options, such as developing means to capture and sequester CO2 may have more in common with equally ancient common-sense first-aid, such as stopping a bleeding artery. Others again may be like the basic interventions available in the early 20th century, such as aspirin, that can only tackle a few symptoms, for instance albedo enhancement, which may temporarily reduce global warming, but leaves the underlying cause (raised atmospheric CO2) and its other symptoms (e.g. ocean acidification) untouched. Whatever the putative merits of
the medicines, the ailment is real and, unlike in much pre-1940s medicine, we have a fair idea of the cause, in CO2 emissions, and the ultimate cure, in reducing those emissions. Geo-engineering may soon have a vital role in maintaining the patient without excessive damage though the treatment. However, the ‘medics’ are politicians, not physicists. Healthy debate and sound science are vital
among the scientists to uncover and develop the best ‘medicines’ amid the multiplicity of ideas if the ‘medics’ are to be given their tools. The question is whether this can be done without getting distracted from the treatment itself.
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 5
Notes
[1] For the most recent discussion in Nature see
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081217/full/news.2008.1319.html . For the most tangible
output from the Royal Society so far, see the November 2008 edition of the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society A ‘Geoscale engineering to avert dangerous climate change’, on
which this essay draws heavily. For the NERC ‘Top 25 Challenges to UK biodiversity’ see
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/highlights/2008/biodiversity.asp
[2] Russian schemes have been particularly notable, see Rusin and Flit 1966. Man versus climate.
Central Books Ltd (Translator Rottenberg)
[3] The alternative of moving the Earth’s orbit to a position where it receives less Sunlight in the first
place has been mooted. Even if making nuclear explosions in space could be done in a way that did
the job, there are mercifully few who believe it would be a good idea.
[4]Salter et al. (2008) Sea-going hardware for the cloud albedo method of reversing global
warming Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3989-4006
[5]Caldeira and Wood (2008) Global and Arctic climate engineering: numerical model studies
Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 4039-4056
[6]Schneider (2008) Geoengineering: could we or should we make it work? Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366:
3843-3862
[7]Angel (2006) Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near the inner
Lagrange point (L1) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 17184-17189
[8] For a review of current and future use of experimental work with iron fertilization see Smetacek
and Naqvi (2008) The next generation of iron fertilization experiments in the Southern Ocean
Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3947-3967 For a natural experiment and the source of the Iron:Carbon ratio
figure quoted see: Blain et al. (2007) Effect of natural iron fertilization on carbon sequestration in
the Southern Ocean Nature 446: 1070-1074
[9] Lovelock and Rapley (2007) Ocean pipes could help the Earth cure itself Nature 449: 443 Also
see the arising correspondence: Shepherd et al. (2007) Geo-engineering might cause, not cure,
problems Nature 449: 781
[10] ‘Artificial trees’ as an idea are largely associated with Klaus Lackner, while it has been
widespread in the media there is a lack of formal references, an exception being Lackner et al.
(1999) Carbon dioxide extraction from air: Is it an option? Proceedings of the 24th. International
Conference on Coal Utilization and Fuel Systems. Clearwater, 885–896, Florida, USA.
[11] For the logic behind why carbon sequestration and storage is a potentially useful strategy see
Breeze (2008) Coping with carbon: a near-term strategy to limit carbon dioxide emissions from
power stations Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3891-3900
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008
6
[12] Anderson and Bows (2008) Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000
emission trends Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3863-3882
[13] Lovelock(2008) A geophysiolologist’s thoughts on geoengineering Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366:
3883-3890
“...wild ideas like mirrors in Space, we’re going to consider all of them.” This was a member of the UK parliament describing a select committee investigation planned for 2009 on using engineering to mitigate climate change. It’s becoming a hot topic in the journal Nature, the Royal Society is jumping in with a working group and it’s even in the Natural Environment Research Council’s top 10 things
most likely to affect UK biodiversity between now and 2050 [1].
So what’s the fuss about? Since the industrial revolution, we humans have been pumping vast quantities of greenhouse gasses in general, and carbon dioxide(CO2) in particular, into the atmosphere. This amounts to a vast, if inadvertent, experiment in atmospheric physics. Had this experiment been intentional (and schemes for inducing global warming have been around for a while [2]), it might have been termed ‘Geo-engineering’- manipulating the atmosphere in a way that will affect climate, in this case, globally. The results of this experiment are only now unfolding, but
include substantial and highly damaging global warming. CO2 is a long lived gas in the atmosphere, so even if we stopped emitting it entirely tomorrow, the sort of scenario that could only ever be implemented in a computer simulation, global warming would continue and even increase for years,with all the concomitant effects of rising sea levels on low-lying countries and islands, desertification, modification of arctic habitats and the rest. So is our only option to learn to live with a warmer world- adapt ourselves, our crops, and, to the limited extent of our ability, assist that process for the rest of the natural world? Well, perhaps not. If the problem was a geo-engineering experiment in atmospheric physics, perhaps the solution could be one too...
There’s no lack of ideas. Prominent among them are plans to ‘fertilise’ oceans so as to encourage algae to absorb more CO2. Other options for capturing CO2include artificial trees to collect the gas from the atmosphere followed by sequestering it underground or in deep ocean currents. Carbon CO2 may be the cause, but the effect we care about most is global warming. Geo-engineering could therefore focus, not on CO2, but on warming itself. The greenhouse effect, causing the warming, is an issue with the energy budget- our energy ‘expenditure’ into space is not high enough- the CO2 is keeping the energy in. There’s more than one way to balance a budget, so instead of attacking the ‘expenditure’ side, we could tackle the ‘income’, i.e. the energy the Earth receives from the Sun. If less of the energy coming from the Sun were caught by the Earth, we’d have less to worry about causing global warming, even with higher levels of CO2. There are various ideas for how this could be done, most of which involve reflecting more Sunlight back into space [3].
Reducing global warming by reflecting more Sunlight The Earth, like all objects that are neither perfectly black nor perfectly white, absorbs a proportion of light and other electromagnetic radiation hitting it and reflects the rest. The extent to which the Earth diffusively reflects radiation coming from the Sun is termed its ‘albedo’. The Earth’s albedo is about 0.3, i.e. about 30% of the radiation from the Sun is reflected straight back out into space. However, this average figure comes from a mixture of the different surfaces with very different individual albedos. The sea, which covers most of the Earth has a low albedo, and forest is not much C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 2 higher, at 0.09-0.18. On the other hand, snow and ice can have an albedo up to 0.9. With such a range of different albedos making up the global average, the balance of the different albedo surfaces is crucial to the overall amount of energy coming from the Sun that is absorbed and so can result in global warming. Thus, for instance, melting arctic ice gives a reduction in average albedo and hence increase in the potential for global warming. Geo-engineering approaches to reduce global warming by changing albedo therefore focus on increasing the proportion of the Earth with high albedo, or increasing the albedo of particular elements. Clouds are an ideal candidate in this direction, being relatively easily influenced and potentially having an albedo of over 0.7. Even schemes that enhance the albedo of existing clouds, rather than create new ones, could have a substantial effect. For instance a recent paper proposes a scheme at sea whereby “Wind-driven spray vessels will [...]release micron-sized drops of seawater into the [...] layer beneath marine stratocumulus clouds. [...] When residues left after drop evaporation reach cloud level they will provide many new cloud condensation nuclei, giving more but smaller drops and so will increase the cloud albedo to reflect solar energy back out to space.” [4].
Many other possible schemes are based on the same principle of reflecting back the radiation that would otherwise be causing global warming. These include putting carefully chosen particles higher into the atmosphere (e.g. [5]) and extend to the sort of thing highlighted by the MP quoted earlier, what the eminent Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider has described as ‘Buck Rogers schemes in space’ [6]. One particularly carefully calculated scheme would create a cloud of tiny
spacecraft to act as a Sunshade. As they put it “The concept builds on existing technologies. It seems feasible that it could be developed and deployed in ~25 years at a cost of a few trillion dollars, <0.5% of world gross domestic product (GDP) over that time.” [7] Schemes that actively reduce atmospheric CO2
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 3 Once the Sun’s radiation has made it here and not been reflected straight back into space, there may still be ways of helping it escape again more quicklyand hence reduce global warming. Much of the
current slowing in radiation loss comes down to the CO2 humans have been pumping into the atmosphere, so the most direct route to increasing the radiation loss is actively removing some of this CO2. One of the most successful strategies for removing CO2 from the atmosphere is employed by plants, where, in the course of photosynthesis they capture CO2 from the atmosphere into more complex chemicals in their own cells. This occurs most extensively in some of the simplest plantsmarine
algae. Proposals therefore focus on giving these tiny plants a helping hand in their CO2 capture. A principal thing limiting their activity is the availability of nutrients necessary to growth but generally rare in the ocean. Foremost among these is iron. If iron is added to the oceans ( ‘iron fertilization’) it can produce great algal blooms, which capture large amounts of CO2. Experiments both deliberate and natural have demonstrated that this process does indeed occur, with up to hundreds of thousands of carbon atoms captured for every iron atom added [8]. Similar ideas with less experimental backing include large pipes to draw up nutrient-rich water from lower in the ocean to the surface [9]. Ultimately these schemes aim to transfer CO2 from the atmosphere to the deep ocean. There may be means other than algae of extracting it (such as artificial trees [10]) and there may be other means of sequestering the CO2 in places where it cannot have its deleterious atmospheric effects, such as in geological formations, including those from which the carbon (in the form of oil and gas) originally came. Indeed the process of sequestering CO2 may just as well start directly at the power stations that produce it, an idea finally beginning to receive serious consideration in the power industry [11].
Personal reflections So far we have considered a subset of current ideas for using an understanding of environmental physics to alter the human effects on our physical environment, specifically global warming. Very little has been said about whether these ideas are likely to work or even if they did, whether they’d be a good idea.
There is no doubt that the challenge is serious –the political process for the reduction of carbon emissions is slow, perhaps hopelessly so, with a focus on scenarios (notably 2˚C global warming) that may prove wildly optimistic [12]. There is a strong motivation for politicians to grab whatever tools are to hand, and some of the geo-engineering options mentioned could seem very attractive routes to avoid the thorny issues of CO2 emission reductions and get a technological ‘quick fix’. There is a serious worry that if, like the British MP quoted at the start, politicians get geo-engineering ideas, their eye may stray from the ball of global CO2 reductions, from which we may all suffer: the schemes mentioned are finite- a limited amount of albedo enhancement with a finite lifetime, a definite amount of CO2 sequestered somewhere out of the way, yet human CO2 emissions are indefinite- it is only in the computer simulation that it is possible to stop them entirely- unless
emissions are actively cut, the problem does not go away, indeed unless something drastic is done to emissions as well as any geo-engineering, CO2 will continue to grow (latest figures suggest C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 4 greenhouse gasses rising at an equivalent to ~2.4% per annum increase in CO2 emissions [12]) and
result in an even worse state at the end of any geo-engineering scheme than the beginning. There is then the question of whether these schemes will work- many have received little research. Undoubtedly calls for more research cash are important. However even for those areas that are being researched, neither efficacy nor desirability is obvious. For instance, some of the most direct experimental research relates to ocean fertilization. While some efficacy has been demonstrated , albeit not for the complete process [8-9], iron fertilization has received a rather bad press. Most criticism at the level of it being ‘tampering with nature’ a level applicable to most geo-engineering.Given the degree of ‘tampering with nature’ evident in the original problem (human CO2 emissions), this seems a weak argument. Nonetheless the public is well to be wary- there are real down-sides. The idea of turning low productivity areas into high by means of fertilizers has echoes of the ‘green revolution’ in 20th century agriculture, a process that undoubtedly had huge impact, much of it positive, but being reliant on fertilizers and pesticides, transformed many terrestrial ecosystems into ‘green deserts’ and associated fresh-water habitats into precisely the sort of environments, dominated by algal blooms and toxic to anything else, envisaged in iron fertilization projects. In the
UK, low productivity ecosystems like lowland heath or chalk downland were ‘improved’ by the green revolution and are now, along with many of their specialist species, highly threatened. These systems are well studied, the ocean ecosystems that are candidates for fertilization are far less known and the deep ocean being considered as a location for long-term sequestration of CO2 is one of the least-known habitats on Earth. However, while scientific scepticism is justified, a generalised rejection is no better than a generalised enthusiasm among the multiplicity of ideas currently mooted in geo-engineering. Lovelock has likened geo-engineering to pre 1940s medicine, a period with limited medical tools [13]. It remains to be discovered which geoengineering tools resemble which medical tools. Crude interventions into biological systems, as in iron fertilization, may have most in common with
trepanning - brain surgery with a chisel. Other options, such as developing means to capture and sequester CO2 may have more in common with equally ancient common-sense first-aid, such as stopping a bleeding artery. Others again may be like the basic interventions available in the early 20th century, such as aspirin, that can only tackle a few symptoms, for instance albedo enhancement, which may temporarily reduce global warming, but leaves the underlying cause (raised atmospheric CO2) and its other symptoms (e.g. ocean acidification) untouched. Whatever the putative merits of
the medicines, the ailment is real and, unlike in much pre-1940s medicine, we have a fair idea of the cause, in CO2 emissions, and the ultimate cure, in reducing those emissions. Geo-engineering may soon have a vital role in maintaining the patient without excessive damage though the treatment. However, the ‘medics’ are politicians, not physicists. Healthy debate and sound science are vital
among the scientists to uncover and develop the best ‘medicines’ amid the multiplicity of ideas if the ‘medics’ are to be given their tools. The question is whether this can be done without getting distracted from the treatment itself.
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008 5
Notes
[1] For the most recent discussion in Nature see
http://www.nature.com/news/2008/081217/full/news.2008.1319.html . For the most tangible
output from the Royal Society so far, see the November 2008 edition of the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society A ‘Geoscale engineering to avert dangerous climate change’, on
which this essay draws heavily. For the NERC ‘Top 25 Challenges to UK biodiversity’ see
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/highlights/2008/biodiversity.asp
[2] Russian schemes have been particularly notable, see Rusin and Flit 1966. Man versus climate.
Central Books Ltd (Translator Rottenberg)
[3] The alternative of moving the Earth’s orbit to a position where it receives less Sunlight in the first
place has been mooted. Even if making nuclear explosions in space could be done in a way that did
the job, there are mercifully few who believe it would be a good idea.
[4]Salter et al. (2008) Sea-going hardware for the cloud albedo method of reversing global
warming Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3989-4006
[5]Caldeira and Wood (2008) Global and Arctic climate engineering: numerical model studies
Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 4039-4056
[6]Schneider (2008) Geoengineering: could we or should we make it work? Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366:
3843-3862
[7]Angel (2006) Feasibility of cooling the Earth with a cloud of small spacecraft near the inner
Lagrange point (L1) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103: 17184-17189
[8] For a review of current and future use of experimental work with iron fertilization see Smetacek
and Naqvi (2008) The next generation of iron fertilization experiments in the Southern Ocean
Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3947-3967 For a natural experiment and the source of the Iron:Carbon ratio
figure quoted see: Blain et al. (2007) Effect of natural iron fertilization on carbon sequestration in
the Southern Ocean Nature 446: 1070-1074
[9] Lovelock and Rapley (2007) Ocean pipes could help the Earth cure itself Nature 449: 443 Also
see the arising correspondence: Shepherd et al. (2007) Geo-engineering might cause, not cure,
problems Nature 449: 781
[10] ‘Artificial trees’ as an idea are largely associated with Klaus Lackner, while it has been
widespread in the media there is a lack of formal references, an exception being Lackner et al.
(1999) Carbon dioxide extraction from air: Is it an option? Proceedings of the 24th. International
Conference on Coal Utilization and Fuel Systems. Clearwater, 885–896, Florida, USA.
[11] For the logic behind why carbon sequestration and storage is a potentially useful strategy see
Breeze (2008) Coping with carbon: a near-term strategy to limit carbon dioxide emissions from
power stations Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3891-3900
C. G. Knight, Environmental Physics 2008
6
[12] Anderson and Bows (2008) Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000
emission trends Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366: 3863-3882
[13] Lovelock(2008) A geophysiolologist’s thoughts on geoengineering Phil.Trans. R. Soc. A 366:
3883-3890
20100215
Economic Freedom and Poverty
By Mohamed Ilham B Mohamed Salleh
Raffles Institution (Junior College), Singapore
When William Easterly published his research, comparing the impact of foreign
aid and increased economic freedom on the long term economic circumstances
of countries, critics condemned his implication that aid mechanisms were largely
failures in their present form and derided the need for more market capitalism
(Lawson, 2002). Yet, further analysis of the relationship between economic
freedom and poverty rates did reveal much empirical evidence indicating that the
poorer agents in freer market systems enjoyed substantially higher living
conditions than those in centrally planned economies (Gwartney & Norton, 2008).
Part of the reason, it seems, lies in the increases in overall welfare of a country’s
residents due to freedom in the economy. Therefore, reforms that seek to
liberalize markets in the less developed countries should lead to a decline in
impoverishment levels. While government intervention may still contribute to
poverty reduction through establishment of basic economic security and a
meritocratic environment, the need for a free economy should form the more
crucial aim of such stratagem.
The reason for poverty, a term associated with the low-income bracket and
deficiency of many basic needs (Gwartney & Norton, 2008), stems from the basic
problem of scarcity in economic theory. Since there are limited factors of
production and unlimited wants, the poor are those who get the least of the
national output from economic activity. It is the role of any economic system is to
allocate these scarce resources between their alternative uses, and to do it well.
The free economy, with its markets, uses the price mechanism to do this,
emphasizing pursuit of self-interest as the main driving force behind decisions.
Economic agents may also own private properties and have freedom of choice
as well as enterprise. When properly working, these markets are also
characterized by their low barriers to entry due to high competition and the
absence of externalities. Here, the effectiveness of market liberalization in easing
poverty levels is assessed from a macroeconomic viewpoint, mainly looking at
areas of fiscal, monetary and supply-side policy (Areas 1, 3, 5 in report) albeit
with welfare economics when needed.
The most prominent way in which a free market economy may moderate poverty
levels is through sustained economic growth throughout a country. Such growth
entails an increase in productive capacity in the economy. A general explanation
for observed trends of rapid growth after opening up of economies, such as in
Singapore or Hong Kong, is that the free market economy eliminates heavy
bureaucratic costs, including social obstacles such as corruption, that are needed
to allocate resources otherwise. The automatic nature of the price mechanism is
one in which prices reflect the types of goods in demand and amount of
resources required for their production. Markets tend to a dynamic equilibrium
where quantity demanded is equal to that supplied. Hence, manual methods of
addressing resource allocation issues including price controls and output quotas,
and their administrative costs of maintaining a healthy budget and information
collection, are not necessary in the free economy, leading to less wasteful use of
resources which may be redirected to useful output.
Through facilitation of free trade, there is more exchange between buyers and
sellers in free economies. They swap products they make for those they have
less comparative advantage in, and thus their terms of trade must be mutually
beneficial. In a free market, this will stop only when people get worse off when
they trade, in Pareto optimality. Thus, the skills of the poorest segments of
society are more transferrable in a free economy, as more people may need their
services, increasing their income levels.
Another reason for economic expansions in free market economies is actual
growth due to the high efficiency of price mechanism in allocating resources. As
there is much competition in the free market, firms have an incentive to lower
prices, and will want to maintain their profit-maximizing goals. Thus, their total
costs must be kept low, and firms will necessarily lower costs until they are
productively efficient. Firms also lower prices to be competitive until their price for their last unit is equal to the marginal cost of that unit. Thus firms reduce their unemployment or underemployment of resources in an economy as the more
efficient the firms are, the more profits they will get. This leads to actual growth in the economy, with Aggregate Demand rising as more factors of production may
now be employed. Thus the economy now provides for more people and poverty
may be alleviated.
Evidence of this relationship is abundant in literature concerning poverty
reduction. For example, Botswana, with increased government investment,
enterprise and spending, had a reduced GDP growth rate from 2005-2008
(Grube, 2009). Governments too, have their own objectives of maximizing
electorate wishes, and may be influenced by political lobbies. Likewise, they do
not have full information of consumer demand and may have time lags in
implementing policies. As such, countries which have done away with excess
government interference, such as Ghana, have reaped the benefits of higher
economic growth, and through it, increases in standards of living. Mauritius too,
has had less than 10% below the poverty line since diversifying and privatizing
important industries.
All this economic growth tends to decrease destitution in a nation’s population, by
allowing more people access to higher material living standards and qualities of
life. The dilemma of the problem of scarcity becomes less acute (M Roberts,
2003) as on average, people may afford essential healthcare services and
education, thus reducing the deficiencies of the poor. A rapidly growing economy
can also afford to be more generous to the disadvantaged, as the poor can now
be made better off without the richer being worse off due to increases in overall
income levels. Since 1981, 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty in
China due to rapid economic growth (Lardy, 2002). Although this redistribution
may necessarily require government intervention in the form of a tax structure,
the cause of the growth was primarily a free economy, as elaborated above.
Therefore, reforms may enable governments to decrease the poverty rate. A
critical example of why reforms are needed can be shown in Zimbabwe, which
among other things, raised its money supply, leading to hyperinflation and an
unstable currency. Uncertainty resulted in withdrawing of foreign direct
investment, economic recession, and eventually widespread famine and disease
due to poverty. Since the use of other currencies (small step to reform),
investment may reenter as the climate becomes more stable, although this is
affected heavily by lack of business confidence in the tattered country.
Zambia’s privatization of copper mines (Grube, 2009) since 2006, has also lead
to surges in economic growth patterns, due to private firms seeking to increase
their revenue. Loosening of business regulations has also contributed to the
increase in productivity, leading to lower prices for the copper-refining industry
there and more output for trade, especially with China. Since there is wider share
of ownership, more people have greater stakes in the economy and thus there is
economic growth and decreased poverty. A newly floating exchange rate also
allows for devaluation of its currency to correct its balance of payments deficit
incurred by heavy debt. This allows capital reinvestment to return (Fundanga,
2006).
Detractors might argue that economic growth spurred on by free markets will be
unevenly distributed. However, data from Adams (2003) shows that economic
growth does not affect inequality much, thus results of growth often are spread to
even the poorest sectors. Yet, larger businesses and unions may gain more at
the expense of the others and thus relative poverty may still remain, although
absolutely, it will decrease. Other strategies that are often cited often fail to
recognize this in calling for increased regulation – the poor have more income in
free and rich nations than in unfree ones (Lawson, 2002).
Moreover, time lags are an important concern here. It will take a long time to
realize benefits of growth and lowered poverty. There may be hope in some
countries that once economic growth sets in, a high multiplier and accelerator
may increase the potential of these economies to offset implementation time
costs.
There is also the evident need for intervention when there are monopolies or
oligopolies in poverty-stricken countries. Supernormal profits may not be used
efficiently for research and development purposes and it is often the more
established firms that often tend to increase in size and power, which can lead to
increases in inequality, after deregulation. Governments also need to correct for
inefficiencies which limit the extent of macroeconomic growth through lump sum
taxes on goods and those associated with negative externalities, such as
pollution which disproportionately affects the more defenseless poor.
As Easterly (2001) had mentioned, poor nations do grow faster than rich ones
once economic freedom has been planted. Although there is a need for some
form of mixed economy dependent on the unique circumstances of the nation,
the economic activities should primarily be based on a free market framework to
reap benefits listed here. With increases in living standards, opening of
economies is definitely an effective way to down hardship.
Works cited
Adams, R. (Ed.). (2003). Economic growth, inequality, and poverty : findings from
a new data set. In REPEC (1st ed., Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Easterly, W (2001, Dec). Think Again: Debt Relief. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from
Foreign Policy Magazine Web site:
http://plato.acadiau.ca/COURSES/POLS/Grieve/Debt%20relief%20easterl
y.html
Fundanga, C. M. (2007, Nov). Central bank independence - A Zambian
perspective. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from Bis Web site:
http://www.bis.org/review/r071123e.pdf
Grube, Laura (2008). Economic Freedom: Key to Poverty Reduction. Retrieved
June 1, 2009, from African Executive Web site:
http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=3
641 Lardy, Nicholas R., 2002.
Lawson, R (2002, Jul 3). Economic Freedom Needed To Alleviate Poverty
Around The World. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from CATO institute Web site:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3512
Lardy, N R (2002, Apr 29). The Economic Future of China. Retrieved June 1,
2009, from Asia society Web site:
http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/lardy.html
Raffles Institution (Junior College), Singapore
When William Easterly published his research, comparing the impact of foreign
aid and increased economic freedom on the long term economic circumstances
of countries, critics condemned his implication that aid mechanisms were largely
failures in their present form and derided the need for more market capitalism
(Lawson, 2002). Yet, further analysis of the relationship between economic
freedom and poverty rates did reveal much empirical evidence indicating that the
poorer agents in freer market systems enjoyed substantially higher living
conditions than those in centrally planned economies (Gwartney & Norton, 2008).
Part of the reason, it seems, lies in the increases in overall welfare of a country’s
residents due to freedom in the economy. Therefore, reforms that seek to
liberalize markets in the less developed countries should lead to a decline in
impoverishment levels. While government intervention may still contribute to
poverty reduction through establishment of basic economic security and a
meritocratic environment, the need for a free economy should form the more
crucial aim of such stratagem.
The reason for poverty, a term associated with the low-income bracket and
deficiency of many basic needs (Gwartney & Norton, 2008), stems from the basic
problem of scarcity in economic theory. Since there are limited factors of
production and unlimited wants, the poor are those who get the least of the
national output from economic activity. It is the role of any economic system is to
allocate these scarce resources between their alternative uses, and to do it well.
The free economy, with its markets, uses the price mechanism to do this,
emphasizing pursuit of self-interest as the main driving force behind decisions.
Economic agents may also own private properties and have freedom of choice
as well as enterprise. When properly working, these markets are also
characterized by their low barriers to entry due to high competition and the
absence of externalities. Here, the effectiveness of market liberalization in easing
poverty levels is assessed from a macroeconomic viewpoint, mainly looking at
areas of fiscal, monetary and supply-side policy (Areas 1, 3, 5 in report) albeit
with welfare economics when needed.
The most prominent way in which a free market economy may moderate poverty
levels is through sustained economic growth throughout a country. Such growth
entails an increase in productive capacity in the economy. A general explanation
for observed trends of rapid growth after opening up of economies, such as in
Singapore or Hong Kong, is that the free market economy eliminates heavy
bureaucratic costs, including social obstacles such as corruption, that are needed
to allocate resources otherwise. The automatic nature of the price mechanism is
one in which prices reflect the types of goods in demand and amount of
resources required for their production. Markets tend to a dynamic equilibrium
where quantity demanded is equal to that supplied. Hence, manual methods of
addressing resource allocation issues including price controls and output quotas,
and their administrative costs of maintaining a healthy budget and information
collection, are not necessary in the free economy, leading to less wasteful use of
resources which may be redirected to useful output.
Through facilitation of free trade, there is more exchange between buyers and
sellers in free economies. They swap products they make for those they have
less comparative advantage in, and thus their terms of trade must be mutually
beneficial. In a free market, this will stop only when people get worse off when
they trade, in Pareto optimality. Thus, the skills of the poorest segments of
society are more transferrable in a free economy, as more people may need their
services, increasing their income levels.
Another reason for economic expansions in free market economies is actual
growth due to the high efficiency of price mechanism in allocating resources. As
there is much competition in the free market, firms have an incentive to lower
prices, and will want to maintain their profit-maximizing goals. Thus, their total
costs must be kept low, and firms will necessarily lower costs until they are
productively efficient. Firms also lower prices to be competitive until their price for their last unit is equal to the marginal cost of that unit. Thus firms reduce their unemployment or underemployment of resources in an economy as the more
efficient the firms are, the more profits they will get. This leads to actual growth in the economy, with Aggregate Demand rising as more factors of production may
now be employed. Thus the economy now provides for more people and poverty
may be alleviated.
Evidence of this relationship is abundant in literature concerning poverty
reduction. For example, Botswana, with increased government investment,
enterprise and spending, had a reduced GDP growth rate from 2005-2008
(Grube, 2009). Governments too, have their own objectives of maximizing
electorate wishes, and may be influenced by political lobbies. Likewise, they do
not have full information of consumer demand and may have time lags in
implementing policies. As such, countries which have done away with excess
government interference, such as Ghana, have reaped the benefits of higher
economic growth, and through it, increases in standards of living. Mauritius too,
has had less than 10% below the poverty line since diversifying and privatizing
important industries.
All this economic growth tends to decrease destitution in a nation’s population, by
allowing more people access to higher material living standards and qualities of
life. The dilemma of the problem of scarcity becomes less acute (M Roberts,
2003) as on average, people may afford essential healthcare services and
education, thus reducing the deficiencies of the poor. A rapidly growing economy
can also afford to be more generous to the disadvantaged, as the poor can now
be made better off without the richer being worse off due to increases in overall
income levels. Since 1981, 500 million people have been lifted out of poverty in
China due to rapid economic growth (Lardy, 2002). Although this redistribution
may necessarily require government intervention in the form of a tax structure,
the cause of the growth was primarily a free economy, as elaborated above.
Therefore, reforms may enable governments to decrease the poverty rate. A
critical example of why reforms are needed can be shown in Zimbabwe, which
among other things, raised its money supply, leading to hyperinflation and an
unstable currency. Uncertainty resulted in withdrawing of foreign direct
investment, economic recession, and eventually widespread famine and disease
due to poverty. Since the use of other currencies (small step to reform),
investment may reenter as the climate becomes more stable, although this is
affected heavily by lack of business confidence in the tattered country.
Zambia’s privatization of copper mines (Grube, 2009) since 2006, has also lead
to surges in economic growth patterns, due to private firms seeking to increase
their revenue. Loosening of business regulations has also contributed to the
increase in productivity, leading to lower prices for the copper-refining industry
there and more output for trade, especially with China. Since there is wider share
of ownership, more people have greater stakes in the economy and thus there is
economic growth and decreased poverty. A newly floating exchange rate also
allows for devaluation of its currency to correct its balance of payments deficit
incurred by heavy debt. This allows capital reinvestment to return (Fundanga,
2006).
Detractors might argue that economic growth spurred on by free markets will be
unevenly distributed. However, data from Adams (2003) shows that economic
growth does not affect inequality much, thus results of growth often are spread to
even the poorest sectors. Yet, larger businesses and unions may gain more at
the expense of the others and thus relative poverty may still remain, although
absolutely, it will decrease. Other strategies that are often cited often fail to
recognize this in calling for increased regulation – the poor have more income in
free and rich nations than in unfree ones (Lawson, 2002).
Moreover, time lags are an important concern here. It will take a long time to
realize benefits of growth and lowered poverty. There may be hope in some
countries that once economic growth sets in, a high multiplier and accelerator
may increase the potential of these economies to offset implementation time
costs.
There is also the evident need for intervention when there are monopolies or
oligopolies in poverty-stricken countries. Supernormal profits may not be used
efficiently for research and development purposes and it is often the more
established firms that often tend to increase in size and power, which can lead to
increases in inequality, after deregulation. Governments also need to correct for
inefficiencies which limit the extent of macroeconomic growth through lump sum
taxes on goods and those associated with negative externalities, such as
pollution which disproportionately affects the more defenseless poor.
As Easterly (2001) had mentioned, poor nations do grow faster than rich ones
once economic freedom has been planted. Although there is a need for some
form of mixed economy dependent on the unique circumstances of the nation,
the economic activities should primarily be based on a free market framework to
reap benefits listed here. With increases in living standards, opening of
economies is definitely an effective way to down hardship.
Works cited
Adams, R. (Ed.). (2003). Economic growth, inequality, and poverty : findings from
a new data set. In REPEC (1st ed., Washington, D.C.: World Bank.
Easterly, W (2001, Dec). Think Again: Debt Relief. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from
Foreign Policy Magazine Web site:
http://plato.acadiau.ca/COURSES/POLS/Grieve/Debt%20relief%20easterl
y.html
Fundanga, C. M. (2007, Nov). Central bank independence - A Zambian
perspective. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from Bis Web site:
http://www.bis.org/review/r071123e.pdf
Grube, Laura (2008). Economic Freedom: Key to Poverty Reduction. Retrieved
June 1, 2009, from African Executive Web site:
http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=3
641 Lardy, Nicholas R., 2002.
Lawson, R (2002, Jul 3). Economic Freedom Needed To Alleviate Poverty
Around The World. Retrieved June 1, 2009, from CATO institute Web site:
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3512
Lardy, N R (2002, Apr 29). The Economic Future of China. Retrieved June 1,
2009, from Asia society Web site:
http://www.asiasociety.org/speeches/lardy.html
20100214
Anthem
Adam Perelman, The Harker School, San Jose, CA, USA
In a single, unified essay, explain the meaning of each of the following quotes in the story their and wider significance:
a. “We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it.”
b. “Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two?”
c. “Only the glass box in our arms is like a living heart that gives us strength.”
Ayn Rand’s Anthem presents a man’s transformation from subjugation to triumphant freedom. Prometheus begins by berating himself as “a wretch and a traitor,” not for failure or incompetence but rather for his creative genius (Chapter 1). He mourns, “This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick,” apologizing for his brilliance and comprehending the very fact of his individuality as immoral (Chapter 1). Yet as he strives to forge meaning in his life, Prometheus recognizes the evils of a moral code that defines his ability as criminal and, in its place, embraces the glory of man’s ego. As Prometheus exchanges absolute subordination to the collective for individual freedom, Rand demonstrates that the former leads only to oppression and misery while the latter creates the basis for a fruitful and ultimately meaningful existence.
Prometheus is born into a State that prioritizes the needs of the community over those of the individual. Its policies are superficially effective. None starve, and all are equal; stability has been achieved. This façade of harmony, however, masks a brutal reality. Not only is technology primitive and life expectancy low, but psychological and physical coercion shapes every aspect of the social structure. Prometheus begins his tale as Equality 7-2521, his name itself a symbol of the role society demands of him: a soulless cog in the machinery of the State. The word “I” itself has been banned and forgotten, forcing Prometheus to identify and understand himself only as part of the collective “We.” Government authority even extends over life and death. A program of eugenics determines appropriate couples for mating, and the State holds the right to exterminate citizens at will, as the Teachers explain, “If you are not needed by your brother man, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies” (Chapter 1). The society’s vicious underside comes to the fore when Prometheus, arriving late one night, refuses to divulge where he has been. As retribution for this avowal of his privacy, he faces brutal torture, illustrating that every attempt to institutionalize equality and “brotherhood” rests on ruthless coercion. Society cannot conceive of individual value, so man, the individual, becomes a pawn to be sacrificed callously by men, the collective.
Since the State wields such utter control over every moment and every action, deciding to do something solely because he desires to do so is in itself a revolutionary act for Prometheus. He studies and experiments in an ancient subway tunnel from the Unmentionable Times to fulfill his unconquerable drive to understand his world. Following the dictates of his mind rather than those imposed by society, he separates himself from the crowds who obey simply and unquestioningly. From his covert site underneath the earth, Prometheus contemplates, “We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it” (Chapter 1). He recognizes that the ideas borne of his own mind are valid in and of themselves, that fulfilling his own desires is a rightful aspiration, and that he can act alone, without the help or company of others. With these understandings, he begins his journey to self-fulfillment. Prometheus probes the ancient texts because he “wish[es] to do so,” and by acting only in the name of rational self-interest he escapes the perpetual drudgery of his society to achieve joy, as he writes, “In our heart there is the first peace we have known” (Chapter 1). While the other “thousands who walk this earth” blindly continue their wearisome and meaningless existence, he chooses a divergent path based on individual choice and recognizes its merit.
Prometheus comes to realize that his clandestine life of productive achievement represents the very meaning of his existence. Upon creating a light bulb—far beyond the technological capabilities of his society—he asks, “Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two?” (Chapter 5). His question forces us to confront that there is, in fact, no divide between creative ability and its creation; the exquisite “thread of metal” comprises the physical manifestation of Prometheus’ intellectual genius and, as such, is inextricably tied to his own being. His skill is consummated and becomes tangible as he transforms a simple metal strand into a wondrous invention.
Despite his intellectual growth, Prometheus remains shackled by the notion that he bears an existential responsibility to his society. Thus, he decides to present his light bulb as a gift to the World Council, believing, “They will see, understand and forgive. For our gift is greater than our transgression” (Chapter 5). He recognizes that his effort is positive and can create a valuable “gift,” but he continues to understand the very fact of his individual achievement as a “transgression” that must be forgiven. His offering to the State is an attempt to bargain with tyranny. When he presents his innovation to the Council, however, his last illusion is finally shattered: the officials berate him, “How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers?” (Chapter 7). Because Prometheus’s invention threatens their illusion of absolute equality, the authorities reject it categorically, blind to his genius and to his invention’s tremendous potential.
The Council’s hostile reaction forces Prometheus to recognize that there can be no compromise between individual rights and collective rule, and he renounces his collectivist society entirely to establish his own way of life. As he embarks on his new existence, Prometheus writes, “Only the glass box in our arms is like a living heart that gives us strength” (Chapter 7). Though he is uprooted from everything he has ever known, the light bulb—a symbol of individual achievement, of objective truth triumphing over the reality distorted by his society—reminds him of the power of his reason. Thus fortified, Prometheus realizes that intellect provides him with the capacity to pursue his own happiness, that he need be reliant on nothing but his own ability.
This radical insight empowers Prometheus to realize his potential in its entirety. Unshackled from the chains of “We,” he learns to understand himself as an individual, exulting, “I am. I think. I will” (Chapter 11). Liberated from the oppressive obligation to “love all men” equally, he begins a vibrant romantic relationship with his beloved, the Golden One. And free of the moral imperative to exist solely for the benefit of others, his journey of self-discovery culminates as he strives to fulfill the mandates of his own happiness. Prometheus thus establishes meaning where there was none, reclaiming the fundamental right to his existence.
The jealous gods of ancient Greece hid fire from mankind, shrouding the world in darkness. Just so, the tyrannical code of brotherhood extinguishes joy and creativity in the State portrayed by Rand as in the collectivist societies of our own age. But just as the ancient Titan Prometheus brought the gods’ fire to humanity, his modern incarnation in Anthem ignites the flame of freedom, razing a dark world order and clearing the way for the individual to blaze his own triumphant path.
In a single, unified essay, explain the meaning of each of the following quotes in the story their and wider significance:
a. “We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it.”
b. “Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two?”
c. “Only the glass box in our arms is like a living heart that gives us strength.”
Ayn Rand’s Anthem presents a man’s transformation from subjugation to triumphant freedom. Prometheus begins by berating himself as “a wretch and a traitor,” not for failure or incompetence but rather for his creative genius (Chapter 1). He mourns, “This is a great sin, to be born with a head which is too quick,” apologizing for his brilliance and comprehending the very fact of his individuality as immoral (Chapter 1). Yet as he strives to forge meaning in his life, Prometheus recognizes the evils of a moral code that defines his ability as criminal and, in its place, embraces the glory of man’s ego. As Prometheus exchanges absolute subordination to the collective for individual freedom, Rand demonstrates that the former leads only to oppression and misery while the latter creates the basis for a fruitful and ultimately meaningful existence.
Prometheus is born into a State that prioritizes the needs of the community over those of the individual. Its policies are superficially effective. None starve, and all are equal; stability has been achieved. This façade of harmony, however, masks a brutal reality. Not only is technology primitive and life expectancy low, but psychological and physical coercion shapes every aspect of the social structure. Prometheus begins his tale as Equality 7-2521, his name itself a symbol of the role society demands of him: a soulless cog in the machinery of the State. The word “I” itself has been banned and forgotten, forcing Prometheus to identify and understand himself only as part of the collective “We.” Government authority even extends over life and death. A program of eugenics determines appropriate couples for mating, and the State holds the right to exterminate citizens at will, as the Teachers explain, “If you are not needed by your brother man, there is no reason for you to burden the earth with your bodies” (Chapter 1). The society’s vicious underside comes to the fore when Prometheus, arriving late one night, refuses to divulge where he has been. As retribution for this avowal of his privacy, he faces brutal torture, illustrating that every attempt to institutionalize equality and “brotherhood” rests on ruthless coercion. Society cannot conceive of individual value, so man, the individual, becomes a pawn to be sacrificed callously by men, the collective.
Since the State wields such utter control over every moment and every action, deciding to do something solely because he desires to do so is in itself a revolutionary act for Prometheus. He studies and experiments in an ancient subway tunnel from the Unmentionable Times to fulfill his unconquerable drive to understand his world. Following the dictates of his mind rather than those imposed by society, he separates himself from the crowds who obey simply and unquestioningly. From his covert site underneath the earth, Prometheus contemplates, “We alone, of the thousands who walk this earth, we alone in this hour are doing a work which has no purpose save that we wish to do it” (Chapter 1). He recognizes that the ideas borne of his own mind are valid in and of themselves, that fulfilling his own desires is a rightful aspiration, and that he can act alone, without the help or company of others. With these understandings, he begins his journey to self-fulfillment. Prometheus probes the ancient texts because he “wish[es] to do so,” and by acting only in the name of rational self-interest he escapes the perpetual drudgery of his society to achieve joy, as he writes, “In our heart there is the first peace we have known” (Chapter 1). While the other “thousands who walk this earth” blindly continue their wearisome and meaningless existence, he chooses a divergent path based on individual choice and recognizes its merit.
Prometheus comes to realize that his clandestine life of productive achievement represents the very meaning of his existence. Upon creating a light bulb—far beyond the technological capabilities of his society—he asks, “Are we proud of this thread of metal, or of our hands which made it, or is there a line to divide these two?” (Chapter 5). His question forces us to confront that there is, in fact, no divide between creative ability and its creation; the exquisite “thread of metal” comprises the physical manifestation of Prometheus’ intellectual genius and, as such, is inextricably tied to his own being. His skill is consummated and becomes tangible as he transforms a simple metal strand into a wondrous invention.
Despite his intellectual growth, Prometheus remains shackled by the notion that he bears an existential responsibility to his society. Thus, he decides to present his light bulb as a gift to the World Council, believing, “They will see, understand and forgive. For our gift is greater than our transgression” (Chapter 5). He recognizes that his effort is positive and can create a valuable “gift,” but he continues to understand the very fact of his individual achievement as a “transgression” that must be forgiven. His offering to the State is an attempt to bargain with tyranny. When he presents his innovation to the Council, however, his last illusion is finally shattered: the officials berate him, “How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers?” (Chapter 7). Because Prometheus’s invention threatens their illusion of absolute equality, the authorities reject it categorically, blind to his genius and to his invention’s tremendous potential.
The Council’s hostile reaction forces Prometheus to recognize that there can be no compromise between individual rights and collective rule, and he renounces his collectivist society entirely to establish his own way of life. As he embarks on his new existence, Prometheus writes, “Only the glass box in our arms is like a living heart that gives us strength” (Chapter 7). Though he is uprooted from everything he has ever known, the light bulb—a symbol of individual achievement, of objective truth triumphing over the reality distorted by his society—reminds him of the power of his reason. Thus fortified, Prometheus realizes that intellect provides him with the capacity to pursue his own happiness, that he need be reliant on nothing but his own ability.
This radical insight empowers Prometheus to realize his potential in its entirety. Unshackled from the chains of “We,” he learns to understand himself as an individual, exulting, “I am. I think. I will” (Chapter 11). Liberated from the oppressive obligation to “love all men” equally, he begins a vibrant romantic relationship with his beloved, the Golden One. And free of the moral imperative to exist solely for the benefit of others, his journey of self-discovery culminates as he strives to fulfill the mandates of his own happiness. Prometheus thus establishes meaning where there was none, reclaiming the fundamental right to his existence.
The jealous gods of ancient Greece hid fire from mankind, shrouding the world in darkness. Just so, the tyrannical code of brotherhood extinguishes joy and creativity in the State portrayed by Rand as in the collectivist societies of our own age. But just as the ancient Titan Prometheus brought the gods’ fire to humanity, his modern incarnation in Anthem ignites the flame of freedom, razing a dark world order and clearing the way for the individual to blaze his own triumphant path.
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