“Harrison Bergeron,” a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in 1961, presents the world 120 years later when the government has complete control over freedom of thought and full equality has finally been achieved – at a price, obviously. The story is interesting in many ways, especially in analyzing a common logical fallacy: the substitution of notions of equality and sameness. This whole dystopian society is built on this global substitution, which not only the demented majority but also the intellectual elite seem not to notice. In the pursuit of equality and justice, the world is mired in discrimination and heresy – that is the essential message of this story.
In seeking to equalize all people, the government usually widens the distance between them even further. An example of this given in the story is vivid – noise headphones and handicapped bags – the contrasts are turned up to the maximum to make sure the reader gets the message right. In the story, the consequences of the government’s actions are the total intellectual and physical degradation of the population. From the outside, it looks like a nightmare, like torture, like a terrible injustice to people who have to carry huge loads every day and hear a horrible noise every twenty seconds. However, behind all this entourage is a much deeper and more terrifying message: a society that aspires to excessive equality is doomed to degradation and destruction because the difference is the engine of development. Without development, society degenerates to the point of no return – the point at which a mother forgets that her son is dead in a few seconds.