Harrison Bergeron
“Harrison Bergeron” Essay
Throughout history a constant loop has appeared over and over again, a battle that is never won but is put to side and forgotten until it chooses to veer it ugly yet attractive head. This battle is the battle of equality to have happened to everyone who fights to reach an imaginary standard of equality. Equality is never defined and never can be because what equality is to a person is always different. Equality could be where white and black people are held at the same pedestal as if there was no difference in skin color or it could be what was achieved in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” where everybody is utterly equal from intelligence to talents and skills to even the physical appearance of all. Without a true definition to equality it leaves questions yet to be answered; What role should government play in achieving equality, what could the author of the “Harrison Bergeron” to show about today’s society by writing of a society that achieved total equality and etc., but lets look at the two mentioned questions.
“What role should government play in achieving equality?” This is a question of many answers and more than enough variations to each answer. With all these answer there is however one answer that appeals to the popular culturally meaning of equality. The answer is that the government plays a major but limited role in achieving equality. Now let me elaborate on the limitations of the major role that the government would play. As the government would obviously be highly influentially but be strictly limited to influence through promotions, advertisement, and legislation and never physically try to change the population to be the equal. This answer is based on the US government in “Harrison Bergeron” shown here “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” To go into detail on how equal
Throughout history a constant loop has appeared over and over again, a battle that is never won but is put to side and forgotten until it chooses to veer it ugly yet attractive head. This battle is the battle of equality to have happened to everyone who fights to reach an imaginary standard of equality. Equality is never defined and never can be because what equality is to a person is always different. Equality could be where white and black people are held at the same pedestal as if there was no difference in skin color or it could be what was achieved in Kurt Vonnegut’s short story “Harrison Bergeron” where everybody is utterly equal from intelligence to talents and skills to even the physical appearance of all. Without a true definition to equality it leaves questions yet to be answered; What role should government play in achieving equality, what could the author of the “Harrison Bergeron” to show about today’s society by writing of a society that achieved total equality and etc., but lets look at the two mentioned questions.
“What role should government play in achieving equality?” This is a question of many answers and more than enough variations to each answer. With all these answer there is however one answer that appeals to the popular culturally meaning of equality. The answer is that the government plays a major but limited role in achieving equality. Now let me elaborate on the limitations of the major role that the government would play. As the government would obviously be highly influentially but be strictly limited to influence through promotions, advertisement, and legislation and never physically try to change the population to be the equal. This answer is based on the US government in “Harrison Bergeron” shown here “All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.” To go into detail on how equal