The Equalizer

The story Harrison Beageron, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. shows a terrifying vision of an attempt at total equality.  How the society in the story accomplishes total equality is by giving its citizens impediments that counteract an individual’s strengths and talents.  Everything would be very boring in Vonnegut’s world because all entertainment such as art or music would be terrible because good artists and musicians would have impediments to make them underperform.  This future is very jarring to every reader, because all people feel that they are over average in one thing or another.  No person today would agree to join a utopia like this because they would never want to give up their advantages and lower everyone else to the level of their disadvantages.  Because of budget cuts, public schools in the United States are losing their funding for honors programs.  These budget cuts do not positively affect poor students; the budget cuts just negatively affect the best and brightest students.  Kurt Vonnegut Jr. shows that as a society, we should be focusing on our improving our weaknesses rather than equalizing every person.  This story also highlights the fact that many people fixate on how other people are better at things than they are instead of focusing on their own positive qualities.  One way that we could change this mindset is by valuing more than just intelligence and physical characteristics.  Many people feel inferior because their great characteristics are not valued.  If we promoted this ideal, we would not have to worry about a future like this.