Harrison Bergeron
This Kurt Vonnegut short story and its film adaptations have been mentioned in passing several times here in the Gulch. If you do not know the story, you should find it for yourself. It is about a future society, American 2081, in which the Handicapper General enforces laws that make everyone equal. Harrison's father, George Bergeron, is naturally very smart, so he wears an earpiece tuned to a government frequency that delivers blinding headaches to interrupt his thinking. Everyone has one or more such handicaps so that everyone will be equal.
The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriso...) points to several similar stories, including another by Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan.
The article also provides links to real examples, such as Jante, the Scandinavian folkway that punishes people who think that they are better than others. They are not alone in that. In an anthropology class in college in 2007 I learned of other societies equalize their members.
"Below the Suns were the Nobles, followed by the Honored People. Stinkards were commoners who occupied the lowest class in society. However, since people were required to take spouses from a lower class, and since class membership was inherited from the mother in this matrilineal society, many children of lower class fathers were born into a higher class." -- "Natchez Indians," University of Arkansas here: http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/indians...
In another narrative, the visiting anthropologist took it upon himself to buy the tribe a fat cow for a special annual feast. After the feast, no one mentioned it. Finally, he did. "Oh, that stringy old bull you foisted on us? It made me sick." It took him a while to figure it out. It was a leveling behavior to prevent the rise of "big men" who would dominate others.
Herodotus tells a similar story, cited in the Wikipedia article, as the "tall poppy syndrome" (In Herodotus, it is actually wheat, but the context is clear.)
The story was cited by lawyers in a law suit over public funding of schools in Kansas.
"Attorneys representing students from the Shawnee Mission district say the story "Harrison Bergeron" shows that a world of forced equality would be a nightmare, so unequal funding of public schools is OK. [...] But in a telephone interview Wednesday, Vonnegut told the Journal-World that the students' attorneys may have misinterpreted his story.
"It's about intelligence and talent, and wealth is not a demonstration of either one," said Vonnegut, 82, of New York. He said he wouldn't want schoolchildren deprived of a quality education because they were poor.
"Kansas is apparently handicapping schoolchildren, no matter how gifted and talented, with lousy educations if their parents are poor," he said." -- Lawrence [Kansas] Journal-World website here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/may...
I think that we in the Gulch assert wealth is indeed a consequence of intelligence and talent, except in a society where the power of the government is misapplied.
Realize also, that societies across time and space, do honor achievements, and do so differently. Whether and to what extent our society is one way or another may be a "glass half full" discussion. We work in a mixed economy because our society today grew out of a mixed-premise philosophy in which achievement was justified by altruism. Vonnegut's own interpretation of his work certainly underscores that. Any work of art is a selective recreation to deliver a statement. Like Brave New World, 1984, and Anthem, Harrison Bergeron is a warning.
The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriso...) points to several similar stories, including another by Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan.
The article also provides links to real examples, such as Jante, the Scandinavian folkway that punishes people who think that they are better than others. They are not alone in that. In an anthropology class in college in 2007 I learned of other societies equalize their members.
"Below the Suns were the Nobles, followed by the Honored People. Stinkards were commoners who occupied the lowest class in society. However, since people were required to take spouses from a lower class, and since class membership was inherited from the mother in this matrilineal society, many children of lower class fathers were born into a higher class." -- "Natchez Indians," University of Arkansas here: http://arkarcheology.uark.edu/indians...
In another narrative, the visiting anthropologist took it upon himself to buy the tribe a fat cow for a special annual feast. After the feast, no one mentioned it. Finally, he did. "Oh, that stringy old bull you foisted on us? It made me sick." It took him a while to figure it out. It was a leveling behavior to prevent the rise of "big men" who would dominate others.
Herodotus tells a similar story, cited in the Wikipedia article, as the "tall poppy syndrome" (In Herodotus, it is actually wheat, but the context is clear.)
The story was cited by lawyers in a law suit over public funding of schools in Kansas.
"Attorneys representing students from the Shawnee Mission district say the story "Harrison Bergeron" shows that a world of forced equality would be a nightmare, so unequal funding of public schools is OK. [...] But in a telephone interview Wednesday, Vonnegut told the Journal-World that the students' attorneys may have misinterpreted his story.
"It's about intelligence and talent, and wealth is not a demonstration of either one," said Vonnegut, 82, of New York. He said he wouldn't want schoolchildren deprived of a quality education because they were poor.
"Kansas is apparently handicapping schoolchildren, no matter how gifted and talented, with lousy educations if their parents are poor," he said." -- Lawrence [Kansas] Journal-World website here: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/may...
I think that we in the Gulch assert wealth is indeed a consequence of intelligence and talent, except in a society where the power of the government is misapplied.
Realize also, that societies across time and space, do honor achievements, and do so differently. Whether and to what extent our society is one way or another may be a "glass half full" discussion. We work in a mixed economy because our society today grew out of a mixed-premise philosophy in which achievement was justified by altruism. Vonnegut's own interpretation of his work certainly underscores that. Any work of art is a selective recreation to deliver a statement. Like Brave New World, 1984, and Anthem, Harrison Bergeron is a warning.
