The first in a series of many concerning various dystopian novels. This video (05:23 min) can also be viewed via this link: https://vimeo.com/foodforthoughtvideos Just want to read what I've stated in the video? Scroll down and read the video script. Join the conversation!
Video script
Introduction
Food for Thought here with key points in regards to the dystopian novel Harrison Bergeron, by Kurt Vonnegut, which was published in 1961. This video is not a book review, nor a book report but a presentation of important key points for you as a guideline for thought processes.
First paragraph
"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."
The issues the book is addressing
- The story describes egalitarianism to the extreme. Is equality in every aspect of existence effectively possible let alone a concept to embrace?
- The role government in society should not have
- The abuse of laws and legislation to trespass critical moral-ethical human boundaries.
- It portraits an unhealthy connection between citizens and their government.
Symbols
- Handycapper General as a personification of totalitarianism who supervises Handicapper agents to do her bidding.
- Handicaps – the mandatory physical devices on people to weaken their strengths in a desperate attempt to make everybody equal. It even prevents people for having meaningful emotional social relations and in some cases, minimizes their mental faculties.
- Harrison Bergeron – himself can be perceived as a symbol of human freedom, a freedom fighter. The freedom to be who we are with all our talents and skills meant to be shared with others and enrich many.
- Criminal law set up against people who are born with a more than average I.Q. and with great intellectual capabilities, such as Harrison Bergeron. This means a termination of parental rights. The government can take these children away from their parents if they refuse to become average. Criminal law is also used against people who criticize the government.
Aphorism
“Everybody was finally equal”, (…) “They were equal every which way.”
Interesting quotes
“Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.”
Hazel: "I think I'd make a good Handicapper General." "Good as anybody else," said George.
Harrison: “Now watch me become what I can become!"
"Forget sad things," said George.
Critique
- Critique on communism and socialism
- Too much power in the hands of the government is a recipe for totalitarianism
- Strangling of individualistic developments and achievements
- Governments’ psychological and physical control over perceptions, attention, emotions, intelligence and personalities of its citizens.
- Government control over its citizens to an extend that obstructs peoples very freedom to think, act, move, including the freedom to have the choice to develop ones’ full potential.
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