Read the excerpt from Anthem. But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate. I wonder, for it is hard for me to conceive how men who knew the word "I," could give it up and not know what they lost. Based on the excerpt, it can be inferred that the narrator believes that the Council took men’s freedom from them. men surrendered to conformity and gave up their own freedom. men had freedom all along and did not realize it. the Council led men to think they were free to choose their destinies.