Fear Of Technology In Ayn Rand's Anthem

What would society be like without the technological advancements and discoveries we have today? In the novella Anthem people fear technology and science. The government and most citizens don’t want anything to do with technology. Technology is primitive and is progressing at a slower speed than present day. The government brainwashes children at a young age to fear creativity and curiosity to ensure that nobody will try to make their own inventions. The government doesn’t want people to be more intelligent than them and along with that fear the Unmentionable Times. Technology in Anthem is feared among the cities’ citizens and is progressing at miserably slow speeds. The government doesn’t want technology to be released incredibly fast and you can tell from the text that they are trying their best to the slow progression. For an example in the text it says, “It took fifty years to secure the approval of all the Councils for the Candle, and to decide upon the number needed, and to re-fit the Plans so as to make candles instead of torches.”(Page 43) …show more content…
In the Unmentionable Times, I would assume that technology was even more advanced than what we have as of present day, with everybody inventing new things rapidly. Something probably happened with technology during the Unmentionable Times which caused people to fear technology and science. This caused the world’s leader to think about a way to save their citizens and they most likely came to the conclusion that the best way to restore humanity would be to get rid of technology and start from scratch. Along with that the world’s leaders most likely decided the best way to stop technology from advancing was to get rid of individualism as a whole. That is why the government does not like technology and has tried their best to stop it from progressing; because they don’t want what happened in the Unmentionable Times to once again