Are All People Really Created Equal?
One of my favorite short stories to teach and read is Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. It gives us a glimpse into the future where everyone is finally equal:
“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.”
It explains what can happen when society takes the notion of equality too far. If you are swift on your feet, you will be handicapped so that those who are slower will not think less of themselves. If you are attractive, you will be forced to wear hideous masks so that unattractive people will not feel like “what the cat dragged in” as stated in the story. Then there is the young and handsome genius named Harrison Bergeron. He was taken away from his parents presumably because of his physical and mental gifts. It was only Harrison’s final act of rebellion that caused the handicapper general, Diana Moon Glampers, to shoot him dead. The story was written in the early 60′s so I can assume this may have been a stab at civil rights on the part of Vonnegut, an atheist. He’s dead now and is unable to defend that point. Whatever the case, there is an important lesson to be learned here.
I firmly believe that we are all equal as human beings should be. BUT, we cannot deny the fact that we are not equal in terms of intellectual and/or physical abilities. When I consider myself, I will admit that I will never have the physical prowess it takes to be an athlete. I do, on the other hand, have the intellectual capacity for scholarship. Still, the person with an I.Q. of “15″ and I are equals. That may be hard for those with inflated egos to accept, but it’s the truth nonetheless. So in a sense, all men and women are created equal.
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