In the short story Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, people with some type of ability, or even slightly better in any physical or mental way are “handicapped.” They have to wear equipment, like headphones that broadcast a loud sound to scramble their thoughts or heavy weights so they aren't as strong, that makes them equal to the rest of the population. The person who enforces this rule is the Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. Handicaps she might put on me would most likely be headphones to interrupt my thought process because, even though I wouldn't venture that far out to call myself an intellectual, I think often about anything available to think about. Due to this, Diana Moon Glampers would determine that I’m a threat to society and put the thought scrambler on me. As for the rest of my physical aspects, I don’t have much physical strength so I wouldn't need any weights on me, but my eyesight is rather terrible. Would it be fair to keep my regular eyesight or would I need to lose my glasses? Perhaps I would need some type of glasses that affect my vision so I would not be able to see fully clearly. The major point of the handicaps is that you’re unable to take them off or you get a hefty fine and time in jail. So me taking my glasses off for any type of activity would result badly? I wouldn't be more equal than someone else however, but less equal, physically speaking. Would that mean everyone has to be arrested because they’re more equal than I am? For glasses, it’s confusing because there are times where it’s necessary for me to remove them, such as when I wash my face, clean them, or when I need to sleep. I assume Diana Moon Glampers would put a device that did improve my eyesight, to make me equal with everyone else who has perfect eyesight, but the device wouldn't have absolutely perfect vision, so I would still be handicaps. These are the handicaps I can think of that she would have put on me.
The purpose of the handicaps is to make everyone equal, but they usually do that by lowering the exceptional, not increasing the deficient. You bring up an interesting point with the glasses - what do they do with people who are already naturally handicapped? Do people born with extra fingers get one cut off at birth? Do people born with not enough fingers get another one attached? The law about not being able to take off your handicaps, however, generally applies because they don't want people taking advantage of their abilities. If you took off a device, like glasses, that actually helped you see, I don't think the Handicapper General would have a problem with it.
ReplyDeleteIt would be really mean if they took away your glasses, but you pose an interesting question. Plenty of people need glasses so the easiest way to make everyone equal in that sense is to give everyone perfect sight because the other option is making everyone have equally bad vision and then they would have to make everyone blind.
ReplyDeleteI like the point that you bring up about what the handicapper general would say about naturally handicapped or impaired people. Could the natural impediment possibly cancel out a feat of strength. If you're an amazing baseball player whose as blind as a bat, would the blindness be enough of a handicap to offset your baseball prowess?
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how you examined why the handicapper general would use the glasses on you and how you questioned the effectiveness of it from a non-bias perspective. Also, why do you think they gave people like Harrison handicaps to make them less perfect, instead of just doing something that improved the lives of the other people? (like surgery could be used to make one of the ballerinas more "perfect" instead of using masks to cover up the faces of the already perfect ballerinas)?
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