Harrison Bergeron And All The Troubles Of The World

Inessa Baustad Oostindie
Block G – Ms. Vadacchino
Nov. 19 – Dec. 2, 2014
The Impossibility of Equality and Humanity’s Mutual Existence in Society
What is the key to a perfect, equal, yet just society? There may not be one. Both Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” and Isaac Asimov’s “All the Troubles of the World” are short stories that satirize societies which are based on the goal of equality but which reveal deeply inhumane and unequal restrictions and practices. The bureaucratic and technological means of restricting the exercise of reason and development of ethics or memory in society in both stories suggests that it is impossible for an equal and humane society to exist.

Reason is humanity’s tool for interpreting, integrating, evaluating,
and manipulating an individual’s knowledge, ideas, and facts. In “Harrison Bergeron” and “All the Troubles of the World”, the natural exercise of reason by humans is repressed by both the bureaucratic and technological methods. The handicappers and Handicapper-General reduce people’s abilities in order to meet those of the lowest common denominator or in other words to be “equal in every which way” and to keep people “from taking unfair advantage of their brains” (page 176); whereas Multivac and its dependently arranged government imposing the right and the wrong in the society stops choices from resulting in consequences before they are made. Both societies are problematic and inhumane because although these methods cause equality in the society that is impossible otherwise they also reject the only way humans can fully comprehend their existences. As reason is the fundamental foundation for a person’s comprehension, comprehension allows humans to make choices, choices provide consequences, without reason the development and evolution of humanity is stunted. Harrison Bergeron himself makes this clear when he rebels in order to become and experience his full potential.

The development of memory in the societies of 2081 and Multivac is limited by both the Handicapper-General and the Government in control of Multivac as they both censor the news and events that occur.
In “Harrison Bergeron” the bureaucratic government uses handicappers to scramble and blast the thoughts of some people and causes them to lose perspective in order to calm civil unrest and to equal and match an individual to the lowest common denominator. In “All the Troubles of the World” Multivac warns the government in time for them to stop crimes and other inconvenient activities to keep the public at ease but also to give everyone equal chances in the society. Memory is crucial for reason to exist; in fact both rely on each other to exist, reason on memory to facilitate facts from fabrications, and memory on reason to give people the common sense they need to make decisions. Without memory a person cannot live up to their full potential and could not try as it would be impossible for them to learn anything. The public in 2081 even suffer from a short term memory loss because of this – as seen when George and Hazel cannot remember that their own son, Harrison, was executed on television while they watched. In the case of Harrison Bergeron it may actually be decent for them not to remember, but when did the government decide that it was “okay” to do this? To block the death of a child from the public’s memory when no one was given the choice to remember is unjust and
unequal. In this way people are dehumanized to a certain extent, the society in 2081 is not perfectly equal and is revealed to be incredibly deficient of humanity.

To be truly equal is to live up to the societal potential.
When a society’s development of reason, memory and evolution is stunted this creates an inhumane society. In both Multivac’s society and the society in 2081 the societies are not only inhumane but immoral. The handicappers and Multivac’s power used in enforcing ethics in these societies are problematic as the people are told by the government what is right or wrong and in Multivac’s society they go as far as determining what occurs and affects the lives of the public. It is human to grapple with right and wrong and to develop an individual’s own moral compass, this is impossible when in both short stories people are influenced by what the government alone conveys and instead of taking responsibility they place or are forced to place their problems on another entity or governing group of individuals people when really they should be demanding to develop their own senses of right and wrong. If the people did demand this there would not be as drastic ethical breaches such as no privacy, no memory loss caused by the handicappers, and no stunt in development by both societies. Though because of the repression of reason people would not be able to demand or very well argue for their freedom, it would be impossible to break such a strong and intact societal cycle like this one without help from
outside.

To conclude, the absence of reason, and growth of memory and ethics in the societies of “Harrison Bergeron” and “All the Troubles of the World” creates an unbalanced, inhumane, and unjust living conditions for people under the constraints created by the Handicapper-General and Multivac’s government. Only with the allowance of these qualities in society would humanity exist in society. Therefore, both authors suggest that it is impossible for an equal and humane society to exist as the restricting of humanity’s and society’s development is unavoidable in an equal society.