In my humanities class last year we read "Harrison Bergeron," a riveting short story about the concept of equality. In the mid to late 1900s, there were a lot of movements for equality. However, how far is too far with equality? Before reading this tale, I didn't know there could be a limit on equality. I always believed that equality was a necessary and positive part of life. Now I know I was incorrect.
Some people are born with greater abilities in certain areas than others. This is not a bad thing. We often encourage others to excel in areas they naturally are better at. Then there are those who lag behind. We don't let them remain less successful though. Instead we try to force them into improving skills they aren't necessarily meant to improve. Our society doesn't think it's okay to not be good at something really. But people do specialize in certain areas naturally.
Harrison Bergeron was too good. So they put handicaps on him to drag him down to the neutral level created by the government.
That's just not fair.
If you want to explore this concept more, watch "2081", a short film based on Kurt Vonegut's "Harrison Bergeron."
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