Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Reading suggestion for Bernie supporters

Or Hillary's.  Or Obama's.  This dystopian, Kurt Vonnegut 1961 short story is so familiar to our culture today it's scary. It's quite short--you can read it in a few minutes.

http://tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren't only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

Some things about living still weren't quite right, though. April for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron's fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away. . . 
The way the government makes everyone equal in this story is through handicapping--like they do in horse racing, so no horse is at a disadvantage.  The smart people hear terrible noises if an intelligent thought passes through their mind; the beautiful are made ugly; the strong are required to carry heavy burdens.

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