Thoughts on Harrison Bergeron

The meaning of freedom in this story is directly tied in with the fact that everyone is equal, but not equal in greatness, equal in ordinariness. Or even equal in underachieving. Equality is usually spoken of with a positive connotation. Mankind has been striving to make things equal for one group or another for many years. But, as we find out in Harrison Bergeron, equality is not always a good thing. Here, it has been attained by handicapping extraordinary people to the level of the person who is lowest. While this is done with good intentions, so that nobody will feel inferior or superior to anyone else, it doesn't turn out well in my opinion. The future in the book has succeeded in eliminating prejudices, because everybody got the same opportunity to do everything, and the result was a scary world where people were dehumanized. Competition was the greatest of sins. I believe it was partly a plot of the government, when power got into the hands of people unfit to run things, they had to handicap people to keep that control. There is a certain freedom involved, because you don't have to worry about beating somebody else, or other people beating you. The constant strain and stress of competition wouldn't be in your head all the time. Although I believe the price you pay would not be worth it at all. You're giving up your ability to think freely, differently than others.
I wouldn't want to live in a society like this. I enjoy knowing that some people are better than me at certain things, and also that I am better than them at other things. To excel at something you truly love is a feeling like no other. When you handicap people and make them all the same, nobody gets the chance to feel something like that. Also, I believe competition goes a long way towards building character, and can help further people in all aspects of their life. Even today, in elementary schools, administrations are trying to slowly put a stop to competition. I think children need a little healthy competition to help them develop. I could never live in a society such as the one that Kurt Vonnegut came up with in Harrison Bergeron.