"Harrison Bergeron"
Kurt Vonnegut's (very short) story "Harrison Bergeron" is well worth reading. Here's a link:
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
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13 April 2007
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are justly admired ("Defiant to the end," April 13). But his finest work, in my opinion, is his 1961 short story "Harrison Bergeron" which foretells the idiocy and the horror of using government to enforce equality of outcomes.
It's the year 2081 and a Handicapper General ensures that people with above-average looks wear masks; people with above-average strength are saddled with weights; people with above-average intelligence have implants in their brains to stymie above-average thoughts. Everyone is the same. No one suffers envy or embarrassment. Life is a tomb of numbness -- and of utter tyranny.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
.................
13 April 2007
Editor, USA Today
To the Editor:
Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are justly admired ("Defiant to the end," April 13). But his finest work, in my opinion, is his 1961 short story "Harrison Bergeron" which foretells the idiocy and the horror of using government to enforce equality of outcomes.
It's the year 2081 and a Handicapper General ensures that people with above-average looks wear masks; people with above-average strength are saddled with weights; people with above-average intelligence have implants in their brains to stymie above-average thoughts. Everyone is the same. No one suffers envy or embarrassment. Life is a tomb of numbness -- and of utter tyranny.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Posted by Don Boudreaux on
Monday November 19, 2007 at 5:35pm