The Folly of Bergeron

1. In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. spins a tale of warning. One that warns of the dangers of total, unadulterated equal society. A society that is so equal in informational access, that an omniscient narrator is needed to tell the whole story. A society that is so equal in intelligence, that is is almost non-existent. A society that is so equal in freedom, that nobody has it. The story of Harrison Bergeron gives the warning that when equal opportunity is confused with equal ability, society as a whole, will diminish as a result.
2. The first reason for this thesis stems from the point of view used in the story. The point of view exemplified is one of third person, more specifically one who is omniscient. The story’s message could not be conveyed from the first person, due to the fact that virtually everyone in the writing at hand is not only unable, but unwilling to figure out the true nature of their surroundings.
3-4. The need for an omniscient narrator is enforced by one of the first lines in the story. “Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence[…]she couldn't think[...]except in short bursts.”(119) In today’s world, average intelligence means you’re not too smart, but not exactly dumb either. If only being able to think in short bursts is average, then most of the population is hopelessly, hopelessly dumb. The other stage of the unreliability of the first-person narrative comes from the example of George’s character. George is described as “way above normal”(119) in intelligence. As a result, the government handicaps him with headphones that scatter his thoughts every few seconds. Because of this constant torture, George can’t remember or think about much of anything. Worst of all, he is fully complicit in this to...

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... quite literally defy the laws of everything, the Handicapper General kills them both with a “double-barreled ten-gauge shotgun.” From all these snippets of the freedom-less America in which the people of 2081 live, it is obvious that the community as a whole suffers when freedom is traded for happiness.
11. When ability is confused for opportunity, society takes the blame. When freedom is traded for happiness, society takes the blame. When total equality is achieved, there will be no more achievements. It is obvious from this story that total equality diminishes everything. It causes complicity in stupidity. It causes hubris in those above of the fray. It paves the way for the authoritarians to corrupt under the guise of “perservativation”. What the story of Harrison Bergeron, more specifically Kurt Vonnegut, is telling us, is one of warning. And it must be heeded.