Kevork Antabian

11/1/15
Prof. Collins
Progression 2 Essay
Prompt: Using a Marxist lens examine the short story Harrison Bergeron in order to determine
whether or not you believe that absolute equality is obtainable without sacrificing freedom and
democracy. First you must give your reader some historical, political, and cultural context: this
means looking at opposing ideologies (forms of government such as democracy vs. communism,
and economic systems such as capitalism vs. socialism) and then using textual evidence to
support your claims. In addition to the text, you must link your claim to the real and current
world: how do real life conditions in the 21st century support your claims about equality in
general, and more specifically whether or not absolute equality is compatible with humanity?
Communism and other ideals of Karl Marx do not work. Marxist ideals go directly
against the base instincts of human nature and thus is doomed to fail before it can even start.
"Harrison Bergeron" is a story about a world with a form of absolute equality, a world where the
ideas of Marxism are taken very literally and a world where the ideals communism and socialism
are grossly exaggerated. Marxism is defined as the political and economic theories of Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers to form the basis for the theory and
practice of communism as well as socialism. Communism is defined as a political theory derived
from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly
owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. Socialism is
defined as a political and economic theory of social organization that advocates that the means of
production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a
whole.
Communism is a governing system that effectively goes against all of human nature and
as a result is doomed to fail. The concept of sharing all wealth just does jive well with the way
humans are. Human nature is about doing whatever it takes to make one's self comfortable. Not
everyone can feel comfort in not being able to own what is theirs, in fact, most people feel
entitled to have a sovereign right to certain things. This very entitlement, this very instinct that
we all have is the antithesis to everything that Communism stands for, and that is ultimately why
such a governing ideal will never work.
Here's a link to the actual story:
https://moodle.csun.edu/pluginfile.php/3087848/mod_resource/content/1/HARRISON
%20BERGERON%20by%20Kurt%20Vonnegut.pdf

The story plays with the idea of an absolute form of equality among the human populace,
with several forms of "restrictions" and handicaps placed on each human being. For example,
George had above average intelligence and as a result had a buzzer installed in his head that
emitted white noise. Taking it back a notch, throughout history the perfect form of communism
has never been achieved. As seen throughout history, a communist government typically turns
into a form of fascism, as seen with modern North Korea, or causes forms of revolts, as seen in
the former USSR. So in general communism as a government form has failed throughout recent
history. Communist failures aside, absolute equality among a populace is virtually impossible.
Nothing is fair and sometimes circumstances happen to people that don't deserve them. This
point is driven home when the handicapper general kills Harrison Bergeron in the heavily rushed
and over the top climax of the story. The Handicapper general is shown to be dominant over
many others in this final scene, possessing shotgun (an unfair advantage over the unarmed
Bergeron). This situation shows how impossible it is to achieve an absolute form of fairness or
equality in any populous. One can assume this government that imposes this absolute equality
among their citizens is actually quite totalitarian and dictatorial. Equality is not the way of nature
nor the way of human nature.

Picture found on a random Google image search

There is no real life example of communism that replicates the form of equality that is
represented in "Harrison Bergeron" (as it is an exaggeration). Communism through historic and
modern times has always seemed to fail. Though there have been several Marxist/ Neo-Marxist
movements in history that have been very positive and extremely successful, they never
developed into a true form of communist government. They all devolve into totalitarian regimes
or break into anarchy. North Korea is the best example of a totalitarian regime spawned from
communism, it's dictator being Kim Jong Un. The USSR was the closest government in history
to maintain a somewhat successful communist governing system, however even the USSR
devolved into a totalitarian dictatorship as well with the rise of Joseph Stalin.

Some anti-communist propaganda by the United States during the cold war.

Anyway, here's a video that truly drives home the fundamental idea of why communism can
never work:
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfnkvNqXWNM

Moving on from communism, socialism is of the same species, but a different animal
nonetheless. In "Harrison Bergeron", one can assume from the absolute equality that is seen in
the short story that socialism has almost no presence in the government structure. Though
socialism is taking from the same ideals as communism (Marxism), socialism allows more
freedom for the community as a whole to structure their way of life as they see fit. Why that does
not work with the communism shown in "Harrison Bergeron" is because the people can sturcture
it exactly how they want. The people are given the freedom to establish a hierarchy, free
enterprise, and other "less equal" economic ideals. Thus socialism isn't purely a communist
economical philosophy. In fact, the only reason why socialism should even be mentioned is
because of its relations to the Marxist philosophies. Despite its origins, socialism does have a
chance of actually succeeding in the modern world, however, its practice will most likely
resemble that of capitalism more than one may assume.

Some nice anti-socialist propaganda I found

In conclusion, absolute equality is not possible to achieve in our modern world and is
arguably non-humane. You must sacrifice your freedom as well as your aspirations to achieve
this level of irrational equality. The Marxist ideals are that of a naive optimist, an optimist who
hoped that humanity could put aside what makes us human for a greater good. A communist
government is too susceptible to greed from the higher ups and anarchy throughout the populace
as a result. Unfortunately, life isn't fair, and communism is a government based around fairness.
Communism, in theory, is very beautiful and very utopic , however, a utopia is a perfect place in
an imperfect world. But such is life.

Work cited page

- http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/communism
- http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
- https://www.nyu.edu/projects/ollman/docs/what_is_marxism.php
- http://www.britannica.com/topic/Marxism
- http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-communism.html
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature
- http://healthland.time.com/2012/10/08/is-human-nature-fundamentally-selfish-or-altruistic/