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Who are you, our brother? For you do not look like a Scholar.
Collective 0-0009 feels surprised by Equality 7-2521’s sudden appearance at the house of scholars and questions why he has come. Equality 7-2521 seems notably out of place because he doesn’t look like a scholar, which arouses Collective 0-0009’s suspicion. Collective 0-0009’s reaction to Equality 7-2521 demonstrates the way people in this society remain hyper-focused on conformity and appearance.
“Yes,” said Collective 0-0009, “we have much to say to a wretch who have broken all the laws and boast of their infamy!”
After Equality 7-2521 makes an impassioned presentation of his lightbulb, Collective 0-0009 appears horrified and disgusted rather than impressed. Collective 0-0009 calls Equality 7-2521 a wretch for breaking the laws of the collective, which dictate that any discoveries should be made by consensus of the council of scholars, not by individuals. Such a judgment operates to stifle and suppress any one person from rising above the rest, an act that could topple the social order.
How dared you think that your mind held greater wisdom than the minds of your brothers?
Appalled, Collective 0-0009 questions Equality 7-2521’s arrogance. He views Equality 7-2521’s claim that the discovery of lightning is his own as morally repugnant. In the World Council, all intelligence and knowledge spring from the collective, not from the individual mind. One who claims otherwise breaks the law.
“What is not thought by all men cannot be true,” said Collective 0-0009.
Collective 0-0009 makes a false statement in an attempt to keep control. Collective 0-0009’s position as leader of the World Council of Scholars makes him the highest spokesperson on matters of thought in this society, which makes his proclamation especially damning. Such an idea makes a powerful statement on how communism not only stifles but is inherently antithetical to intellectual progress.
“The thing,” they said, “must be destroyed.”
After some debate, Collective 0-0009 decides that the collective must destroy Equality 7-2521’s lightbulb, as the invention seems dangerous. Such an idea highlights how communism stifles advances in thought and halts technological process. Collective 0-0009’s order doesn’t represent the failure of individual people themselves to embrace new technologies but the collective’s.
