In Auden's "The Unknown Citizen," why was the citizen unknown?

This poem is told from the point of view of state bureaucracies that consider people as numbers or statistics rather than unique individuals. This particular person is unknown because he is a complete conformist to social norms. There's no reason for the state to know his name, because he poses no threat and is interchangeable with millions of other people. He does everything he is supposed to do and is completely well adjusted: "He worked...

This poem is told from the point of view of state bureaucracies that consider people as numbers or statistics rather than unique individuals. This particular person is unknown because he is a complete conformist to social norms. There's no reason for the state to know his name, because he poses no threat and is interchangeable with millions of other people. He does everything he is supposed to do and is completely well adjusted: "He worked in a factory and never got fired ... he was popular with his mates and liked a drink." He buys what he is told by advertisers to buy:  a phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire." He holds whatever are the "popular opinions" at the time.

The poem, written in 1939 soon after Auden moved to America to a society that seemed complacent to him, works as satire in two ways. It satirizes and pokes fun at a government that reduces people to statistical norms, but it also makes fun of the people who conform, never think for themselves, and never rebel. The unknown man is anonymous because, in the end, he never does anything to make himself stand out.