A society where everything is equal?

Question

In the novel Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut describes the faults in a world where everything is equal. Do you agree with his description, or do you think he overlooked certain things about his world?

If you have not read the story, you can find it here:
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb…

Additional Details

EDIT: In first sentence, I said 'novel', when I should have said 'short story'. Sorry peeps

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker

I actually do agree with him. I've thought about this quite often and the fact that you have to physically and mentally disable someone to create "equality" just goes to show that it is a lot worse off than it was in the first place. Our survival was dependent on the survival of the fittest contest, and I think that ignoring this concept would be extremely ignorant of man-kind. Another thought I had was that fairness doesn't mean everyone gets what they want, it means everyone gets what they deserve. If you work extra long hours and actually try, then you deserve more. But if you don't even care and just throw your life away, then you don't deserve to get anything. So back to the book, because of technology and society, it is possible for almost anyone to advance through the ranks of a cultural caste system. Therefore, we must honor the idea of true fairness.

Asker's Rating:

Asker's Comment:

Thanks for all of your well thought answers everyone.

Answer 2

I think a world like that would be horrible! It would be Communism at its best... everyone is equal then we should stop living... If everyone was equal what would be the point in working. Everything you work for you are going to lose to give to everyone else, there is no point in working because there are ppl who will not work and then there would be no food, no money, no life. the problem with 100% equal is that there is no room for improvement.
Life is based on Improvement. The human mind is made to be able to improve. That is how every invention that we have today came to pass, that is why we have schools, that is why we are all born not speaking and we die with the capability to talk and have thought. Thought its self is an improvement. The beauty of life is that there is infinite intelligence and that everyone has and equal chance of gathering a part of it. Yes we all may have different circumstances but it is how we handle what we are handed that makes us all different and wonderful each in our own right.

Answer 3

Nice Brainwashing you got the there... i see you studied a lot of communism.... man that isent communism or well its a bad branch of it go read karl marks books please...... communism isent bad if its carried out in the right way like in yugoslavia before Tito died.

Answer 4

youre dreamin