Vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General. All this equality was due to theĢ11th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing Nobody was better looking than anybody else. They weren't only equalīefore God and the law.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. Get started below, then follow the link to an entity that seems to have obtained the rights to republish this timely short story. I have requested permission but have not received a reply. It's a great story for classroom discussion because if forces every reader to consider the implications of trading opportunity for outcomes and hopefully forces the thoughtful consideration of simple questions as, 'What is fair?' Is the government's role to decide your destiny or is it to provide a framework where everyone can forge their own?įirst published in 1961, Harrison Bergeron is not in the public domain and I cannot publish it here in its entirety without permission from the copyright holder. This particularly story makes itself both timely and relevant by taking the equal outcome concept to its absurd conclusion. Lately, however, there is a growing part of the population that increasingly begins to support policies that directly and indirectly support equal outcomes rather than, and ocassionally at the expense of, equal opportunity. This short story is so compelling and interesting because it forces us to look at the issue of 'equal opportunity' vs 'equal outcomes.' For much of the history of the United States the overwhelming majority of people happily settled for equal opportunity. Rather, he is an exaggerated alpha male, a towering, brave, breathtakingly strong man who hungers for power. He has none of the cowardice and passivity that characterize nearly everyone else in the story. A common mistake is to criticize existing practices and policies without offering practical alternatives - both sides of the political spectrum are guilty of this. Harrison represents the spark of defiance and individuality that still exists in some Americans. The short story Harrison Bergeron, is a great 'thought piece' for classroom reading and discussion.

I think one of the more interesting political fault lines emerging in the United States centers around the idea of 'inequality' and is currently voiced - in what I consider to be an overly simplified and not quite thoughtful manner - as 'income inequality.'

Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.