Inventions In Ayn Rand's Anthem

Dying in your 40’s. Relying on candles. Manual Labor for everything. This is the reality of Anthem. Almost all technological advancements were lost during a time we cannot mention. After these times, there has been an effort to keep them at bay and eradicate all evidence of its existence in order to keep the society in control. Anthem’s technological primitiveness is due to the fear of the science and technology and its lack of progress is due to the loss of individuality. Inventions are not easily accepted into the society. In Anthem, there is a set process for allowing a new invention into society. It is a very long process that takes a long time. For example, the candle took fifty years to be approved and then, to re-fit the Plans. These Plans appear to be like the constitution, a set of rules, and amending them isn’t an easy and quick process. These plans have a very powerful influence in Anthem
During the unmentionable times, people lavished in inventions such as trains, lightbulbs, clocks, and many other luxuries we take for granted. Then a supreme and powerful being, the World Council, wrote the Plans. In addition to writing these Plans for the society, they also abolished almost all science and technology that time had. It is as if they set the clock back a few thousand years. With this purge comes the oddities of the society. The House of the Useless has people who only live up to their 40’s. The lack of scientific advancements in medicine and health cut the life span of the people in Anthem’s society by half. If the World Council needed to purge humanity’s advancements it would conclude that they fear these advancements of breaking the delicate, brainwashed society. Science seems to have a liberating, awakening effect as shown by Prometheus. This abolishment can be pinpointed to fear of dissolution of the society and suppressing of the few liberating methods still