Harrison

The U.S. Constitution states that all men are created equal. We nod our heads in agreement when we first hear it, But how far will we go to keep it that way? Kurt Vonnegut’s book “The Monkey House” has a short story in it called Harrison Bergeron that puts equality in a new perspective for us.
The story takes place in the year 2081, and EVERYONE is equal. The Government in this time period goes so far, and tries so hard to make everyone equal that they give people handicaps, to make sure that no one excels. This story focuses on a set of parents who have been so handicapped that they are numbed to their own son’s death. How far will our government go, to try and make us all equal? Already, we are seeing the beginning of something momentous. With this pretty recent program “no child left behind” we are making those children who learn faster stay behind and wait up for those who are slower.
This program is preventing those fast learners from reaching their full potential, and learning all that they possibly could. Is it right to say that “all men are created equal?” All men excel in certain things, and struggle in others. Trying to make those elementary kids have the same IQ and learn all the same material is a toned down version of our government tying bags of lead balls to our ankles, and putting little radios on our ears that prevent us from being able to think for too long. It is not possible that we could all be equal. Each and every human on earth is different, isn’t that crazy? There are an estimated 6.798 billion people in this world, and not one of them is exactly identical to another.
There are things that encourage equality everywhere. Any time we see a sign of difference, or a fraction of something unfair we feel we have to ‘fix it’ in some way, and correct it by making everything equal. Here are some examples of things we face in life that do not represent equality, but work all the same. In the work place, men and women are treated differently. Men are generally given more hard labor jobs and women more jobs that deal with customer service. This is because men and women are different. Men are naturally blunter, and women are naturally more sensitive. Both can be good or bad, and it’s something that we must let happen, let nature take its course. Trying to make men and women’s jobs exactly equal would just make it harder on both genders.
A huge issue that we see right now, is racial equality. Some discriminate others because of the color of their skin, But I believe, that for the most part, it is mostly in their heads. People have gone so far as to convince themselves that the reason they are not succeeding or advancing anywhere in life is because they are being treated unfairly, and being judged by their ethnicity. (7 habits!) The government saying, “Oh, sorry we enslaved your ancestors back in the 1800’s, here, we’ll give you some money” is just a cop out, a way to make us feel that we are justifying things and setting things straight? When in reality, we are just separating our races more and more by focusing so much attention on it.
Trying to make everyone feel equal by changing simple things likes your taste in music and viewpoints on political issues, sounds completely ridiculous to us. We have our own judgments, we have the right to think and act as individuals, and we do not wish to all be the same, even though we might sometimes think we do.
In conclusion, Harrison Bergeron addressed a very important issue that we face today, that is, how far should we go to make everybody equal. We have browsed through some topics that we are now dealing with, and have come to the conclusion that it is ridiculous to try to equalize everyone because we are so individual, and we all thrive off each other’s knowledge, we need diversity. And we require it. Because after all we are all different, all 6 billion of us.