Categorizing altruistic desires as authentic and individualistic desires as ones that are solely promoted by a current economic system ignores the dualistic nature of human beings. The reality is that we share both humanitarian and self-serving inclinations, and the dynamic interplay between the two is essential for a life of awareness. We are free because of the ability to choose in and of itself, not because of what it is we choose to engage in. Odonians, ignoring the darker half of human nature, never have the ability to engage in the very moral deliberation that keeps us alive. Thus, they are never free, and the ease at which they live is the result of simplistic notions of humanity, rather than the transcendent act of living simply. A …show more content…
The members of this community have placed an absolute importance on collective functioning, and in doing so, have forgotten the multifaceted individuals who exist within that community. Avoidance of difference not only affects an individual’s well-being but limits society as a whole as well. When Shevek asks a brilliant music composer why he is doing menial labor rather than working at the music syndicate, he is met with a saddening response, “I don't write the way I was trained to write at the conservatory. I write dysfunctional music … they don’t want to hear it.” In forgoing individual variability, and in doing so as discretely as is done on Anarres, the governing social pressures have robbed the Anarresti of what it means to be human, which is, at times, to be egotistic. Deviations from the normative state—be it in eccentric music, or off-kilter thinking—are essential to a society that moves forward. Putting a halt to the more self-indulgent tendencies of humans, puts a halt to the overall societal progress as …show more content…
Therefore, fostering the belief that the darker sides of human nature, are ones that are solely present in a capitalistic system, rather than intrinsic to all living beings. This belief of altruistic desires as the true nature of human beings, and self-serving desires as apart from such a nature, creates a wall between the Urrasti and Odonians. Such a wall allows the Anarresti to simplistically accept that the desire to act in a way contrary to self-denial is apart from who they are as a brotherly race. Therefore, the Anarresti are never encouraged to grow as individuals, in a type of growth that results from the acknowledgment of our shared flaws and the moral choices we have the ability to make each day. Exacting the choice to live simply, can only be fully autonomous when an awareness of who we are and what we can choose is