In the story "Harrison Bergernon," Kurt Vonnegut confronts the concept of equality by presenting us with a bizarre futuristic United States in which everyone is "equal in every which way (1). " However, these citizens are not born equal—they are born with many talents and weaknesses just as people in our society are. Once they are born, they are then handicapped so that they are equal to the “average” member of society in terms of strength, intelligence, talent, appearance, and any other way possible. I found this story to be thought-provoking and intriguing; it raises some important questions about the notion of equality and the dangers of a society like the one in the story.
The citizens in the story justify the need for each member of their society to be “equal” by asserting that competition and jealousy are all that come from allowing certain people to be better or worse than others. At first glance, this might seem like a fair concern; jealousy and competition are in fact both results of inequality. While we might envy or be jealous of someone better than we are or be frustrated when we lose in competition, these things are naturally part of the world we live in. Inequality, in a way, is what makes a society able to function well and productively. Were we all able only to perform at an average level in every way, we would not have the science, literature, art, music, or culture that we have today. Yes, we envy the talent of the beautiful ballerinas in the world, but we should enjoy watching them just the same. Part of life is looking up to those who are better than us in certain respects, and learning to be content with our own strengths as well. If the citizens in the story were intelligent enough to read these words, they would probably agree. J
Each United States citizen is equal as a result of "the 211th, 212th, and 213th Ammendments to the constitution and the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. (1) " The government mandates that everyone be equal to each other, giving the government immense power over its citizens. Since everyone must be equal, and must be equal to the "average" member of society, there is very little room for the citizens to form views and opinions, and much less room for the citizens to share these views with each other. Even if someone were to form a view or an opinion, no one else would be intelligent enough to understand him or her. Each time George, an intelligent person, tries to conjure up a thought or chain of thought, the device in his ear makes a noise which scatters his thoughts. According to the story, this noise was "to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains. (3)" While it is possible that these Amendments were written for that purpose, they also give the government extraordinary power. This device makes it impossible for anyone to think hard enough to question the government, question the information the press publishes, or question anything really. The citizens simply go about their average, boring lives, unaware of their government. In effect, the government has the power to rule without the consent of its people; surely all they are smart enough to do is simply nod and agree with whatever the government does—if the citizens are informed of the government’s actions at all. Were these Americans able to think intelligently, however, they might actually want to speak out and play a part in what’s going on in the world around them. The government surely cannot allow this though, or they might have a situation like the one with Harrison on their hands.
In the Holocaust, the Nazis executed the T-4 program in which they executed thousands of people who were mentally ill or handicapped in attempt to eliminate these defects in future generations. Such a situation could very easily be carried out in the United States depicted in “Harrison Bergernon.” The government mandates that each person must have average intelligence and physical ability so that everyone is equal to each other. The intelligence and physical ability of the entire society is therefore limited by its lowest performing member. What happens when the government wants to raise the national average? The government could likely get away with simply imprisoning, and even potentially executed anyone who was below their predetermined average in either of these two respects. And no one would be able to question the government’s actions, because they are unable to think about the idea for long enough to do so.
We learn from this story that it is important to embrace your flaws and strengths and to embrace the fact that they are different from anyone else’s. Vonnegut also reminds us to be thankful for our freedom to think, to reason, and to be ourselves. (822)
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On the way to the airport??? What, do you have wifi in your car? I absolutely MUST know what you mean by the title of this post.
As to its content, I don't think we have to worry about "What happens when the government wants to raise the national average?"--In my experience, politicians don't want us to be smarter (regardless of what they say on the subject)--they seem to want us to be dumb enough not to notice that what they're telling us today contradicts what they told us last year (or even last week in some cases). Would reality TV or cable news even exist if we were all smarter people?
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