What were the people who build the Tower of Babel trying to achieve? In their own words the people who settled in Shinar (Babylon) sought to make a name for themselves and to avoid dispersion (Bereshit 11:4).

Focusing on the proposed height of the Tower, "with its top in the sky", the Midrash Rabba identifies the purpose of the Tower of Babel as being to challenge G-d's sovereignty. The Talmud Sanhedrin 109 states that the builders of the Tower fell into 3 groups – 1. one group wishing to ascend to heaven and settle there 2. one wishing to ascend and commit idolatry there and 3. one wishing to ascend and make war against G-d. Those who sought to settle were dispersed by G-d. Those who sought to make war were transformed into ape-like creatures, and those who sought to worship idols had their language confounded. (Ibid.)

The Maharal explains that this brazen attack on G-d showed that the people who were building the Tower of Babel were no longer worthy of the Divine Image (TZELEM ELOKIM) in which they were created. The TZELEM ELOKIM demonstrates the attachment and connection of human beings to G-d. Therefore, the builders of the Tower of Babel were transformed into apes, bereft of that Divine Image, unique to human beings.

The Midrash captures their perverted values. The building of the Tower of Babel became of such paramount importance that bricks became more precious and valuable than human beings. If a person fell to his death during the construction of the Tower, no one paid attention. However, if a brick dropped and smashed, the people wept (Pirkei D'Rabbi Eliezer). By negating the value of the individual, the builders of the Tower denied man's Divine Source and Its attendant holiness. In so doing, they challenged G-d's authority as Creator.

The people who built the Tower of Babel collectively agreed to subsume their individual human dignity for the greater goal of the collective, thus denying their own humanity. This reminds us of modern day Communism. In today's headlines, the cruel crimes against humanity of Asad in Syria and ISIS are made possible by the willingness of a sufficient number of the native population to carry out those murderous policies.

In the end, the plans of the Tower of Babel builders backfire. Ultimately, the people who built the Tower have no name. They are identified merely as a group of people who settled in the Land of Shinar (Bereshit 11:2). The location of the Tower is named Babel, after the people's languages are confounded there, and they are dispersed, but the people themselves remain anonymous, scattered among the nations.

Their plan was "to make a name for us'' (Bereshit 11:4), but they remain nameless for eternity. This is so, because G-d punishes "MIDAH K'NEGED MIDAH'' (measure for measure).