Response Paper

Responding to the Socratic Seminar and Reading

According to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of ‘Equality’ is “the quality or state of being equal”. So what is ‘Equal’? I received several answers like, “…of the same measure, quantity, amount, or number as another”, “not showing variation in appearance, structure, or proportion”, and “like in quality, nature, or status”. This raised an interesting question in the discussion: Is true equality a good thing? What kind of equality are we –people- striving for?

Harrison Bergeron was a complex story due to its form of ‘equality’. “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal…They were equal in every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” The setting was a world where people wore handicaps, like weights, masks for beautiful people and ear pieces which prevented smart people from thinking too much. One of my first thoughts about this was ‘Why wasn’t the standard of equality the other way around”? Instead of giving everyone ugly masks, and weights, why not give them all beautiful masks? Why not invent a way to make everyone fast? Asking a question with no expectation of an answer, I soon enough received one. “It’s easier to down grade people, than make them all perfect.” The moment I heard this, I understood. Weights are easy to come by, unlike a miracle concoction that makes everyone beauty.