Harrison Bergeron Essay

In the short reputation, Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut portrays a nightspot in which constantlyyone is adapted. by the efforts of the odds-maker General, some(prenominal) persons who were endowed with anything more than moderate talents are hale to discover various devices meant to make allone affect, intellectu eithery and physically. Through showing his au bustnce what a truly oppose decree could be, as well as how governing body could regulate comparison, Kurt Vonnegut clearly makes the point that truly equivalence leads to a loss of true individuality deep down a society.Each person in society has talents that another does not, which is what bring somewhats variety in our communities and careers. By removing this diversity from society by making every person equal, the government is inviting its own demise. The first example of how grand comparison creates a lack of individuality is in the scene where George and Hazel Bergeron are watching danseuses on television. George notes, They werent real very good no better than anybody else would have been, anyway.By direct the playing field, and forcing ballerinas to accept weights and masks to hide their talent and beauty, the Handicapper General has taken away from the dancers their unique talents for leaping and eliminating any competition between ballerinas. If all dancers essential be equal, this eliminates the need for any one ballerina to spend extra cartridge clip practicing, or nerve-racking to be a better ballerina. This, in turn, could create a less than desirable work ethic, as the ballerinas do not have to work as hard to be competitive.As Philip Fetzer explains, even if it were workable to create a society based on equality of ability, it would not be desirable to do so. A society without differences of ability would generate no leaders, no great works of art or literature, no brand- immature ideas. The society would quickly tick over. The second instance in whic h Vonnegut shows his readers the impact of an equal society is when George and Hazel are talking about what society would be like without handicaps to make everyone equal.George cannot figure for more than a few seconds at a time because of the handicap that he mustiness wear in his ear, to distract him from his thoughts by blaring flashy noises at random. All people who have to a higher place average intelligence are required to wear such a device to eliminate any unfair intellectual advantage over others. However, by scaring off the thoughts of truly intelligent people, the government is as well creating a society in which nothing testament ever change.Without the truly intelligent men and women in any society, there are no new inventions or new ideas that, in the past, have revolutionized a society. By making all people intellectually equal, the government and the society itself will remain unaltered and unadvanced. Ironically, George believes that without handicaps to keep everyone equal, pretty soon wed be right back to the dark ages again, with everybody competing against everybody else. However, without competition, society would fall back to the dark ages, unable to compete with other societies and heighten new technology and innovation.As Christopher Alexion points out, human beings must be careful with creating equality, because of the risk of taking it to extremes that finally destroy whatever it was we were trying to protect. Thats wherefore our efforts toward equality need vitally to be point by a love of liberty. Naked equality is just another name for tyranny for if everyones going to be equal in all aspects, then no one can really be free. The final example of the do of a truly equal society occurs when Harrison Bergeron appears on television with all of his clanking weights and extreme handicaps.Harrison is athletic and intelligent, and has an obscene amount of handicaps because of this. Harrison attempts to overthrow the governme nt, by declaring himself the emperor butterfly, and removing all of his handicaps, as well as those of his elect Empress. By having independent thoughts and beliefs, Harrison leads his own revolution in an attempt to change society for the better. Harrison sees that the constant equality means that people are no nightlong competitive, and he decides to try to change that.However, he is killed by the government in the process, and any dreams of change die with him. As Steven Saus notes, The maximization of human likely and the potential of society can only be achieved by allowing all individuals to have the best opportunity to go after within the limits of their primary characteristics. Any person who has new ideas or tries to initiate change within an equal society would be met with the same fate, and consequently, nothing would ever change.By creating a society in which every person is equal, Kurt Vonnegut is able to show his readers how devastating to a society equality coul d be. At a time when political correctness is a must, and society strives for equality, it is low-cal to see how true equality could lead to a lack of diversity and competition within a society. Although Vonneguts society was a fictional one, a society similar to the one in Harrison Bergeron would flummox a stagnant and unmotivated environment, falling crumb in innovation and invention. Ultimately, the equality in this story will lead to the demise of the society.