The Role Of Technology In Ayn Rand's Anthem

A collectivist society where individuality is punishable by death and all men are viewed as “all in one and one in all… indivisible and forever”; herein lies the world of Anthem, an atypical yet discomforting dystopian world (Rand 19). Like most dystopias, the government is oppressive and tyrannical, hiding behind a false veil of fairness and equality. Different is the retrogressive development of technology, which can be described as primitive at best. The stark contrast between this portrayal and other dystopias highlights the impact individualism has on the progression of technology in society. Ayn Rand’s Anthem implies that invention inherently encourages the development of the individual and technology thrives when independent thought is present.
During his time in the Home of the Students, Equality exhibits a love for “the Science of Things” that sets him apart
The world in which Equality and his brothers live is one of the future but more closely resembles one of the past. Technology is scarce if even present, evidenced through Equality’s awe at the recent inventions of glass and candles, which are commonplace in the twenty-first century. (24). As proven by events prior to the timeline of the novel, the lack of complex technology is due to the lack of individual thought. Equality hints of a past with “wagons which moved without horses and of the lights which moved without flame”, a past called the “Unmentionable Times” where men were permitted to speak the “Unspeakable Word”: ego, latin for I, the ultimate form of individual expression (19) (49) (105). The correlation between the existence technology and the encouragement of individualism is far too obvious to deny: free thought is what allows invention to exist. Their belief that individuality is a sin prevents the society from developing any further