As you listen to the inner circle's discussion of "Harrison Bergeron," offer your own questions and comments here. Remember to maintain your usual level of professionalism, to address directly which person you're responding to, and to hit the F5 key to refresh. Have fun!
52 comments:
A connection I made from Harrison Bergeron was to Anthem by Ann Rand.
It was brought up if the government people were above average.
In a way they are because they are the ones calling the shots and telling people what to do and how to behave and what to think.
They have the upper hand.
A connection that i made to Harrison Bergeron was the sieries of books, The Uglies, The Pretties, and The specials
rarely in our society is the perfect normal person found- a quote by a guy but i forgot who it was...its my personal philosophy on my wiki space
If the government didn't have handicaps then it's no longer a democracy, it's like a dictatorship.
but how is that fair they all have to be equal in this story
i agree with alli, i think that it was written to make us think it would happen but i dont think america will ever get that bad
Emma: I hadn't even thought of that series! It's so true! They are made equal when they become a "pretty."
isnt this like the series pretties uglys and specials
I agree with nicole in Anthem everyone was told what to do and they were two people who wanted to rebel and they eventually did at the end
I agree with what Conor said because without having competition, nobody would get anything done. So I don't think that this is the future of our society because I think it'll only get more competitive.
I agree with Cassie, there is not a normal person in our society and if there was how would we set the standard for "normal". Everyone is differant so it would be impossible to say what normal is.
Harrison was 7 feet tall because he was way above average and stronger than everyone. He symbolized not being average. Everyone has something above or below average about them.
Is this the future of our society?
Perhaps. I wouldn't be shocked if it was. Everyone stresses how important equality is, and we do so much to get that. So what would stop us from going into disgustingly equal and not even realize it before it was too late?
The kind of government sounded a lot like communism. That is what communisn is. Everyone is equal but the problem with equality is it is often not equal
Jake- I think that they make amendments because maybe in this story the people really respect the government, so they know that people are more than likely to follw them. I agree with Allie that this could be our future. People are getting more power hungry, and our technology is getting way more advanced as we go. The future is kind of frightening, but it couldn't necessarily be what our future WILL be like.
I don't think that is fair if the government is "above average" cause that's saying that not everyone is average. So forcing everyone els to be average except them doesn't make sense.
I think it was written to make us think about how our society is... but i agree with cassie that america wont get that bad. Also, i agree thatnot having as much competition and making everyone feel good can eventually make it hard to find leaders.
Cassie's quote is kind of hipocrtitcal because i don't think you can be normal and perfect at the same time. If you are perfect then it's impossible to be normal.
I don't think society will ever become equal. We all have fredom of speech and all do things differently. We vote and ellect people that we trust to lead us and do what is right for us. Those leaders wouldn't make us all equal. Being competitive stimulates our society.
QUESTION: in the book did they take the lowest of low and make them average??
I agree with cassie. I don't think we should be at that point in the future. Like Megan said without competition then it is pointless to do anything. There's no encouragement for you to succeed
I think that people who get their feelings hurt that easy need some therapy because it's not that big of a deal. I also agree with Meghan because if people want to do something, then they will put their mind to it and they'll get to where they want to be
Little kids are pretty fragile so thats why this generation is trying to make "everyone a winner". But as those kids get older then they will be able to handle the disappointment of not being the best at everything and they will know what they are good and not good at.
Cassie I don’t think it will get as bad as it was in the story but in real life the government is slowly getting more and more power over what we can and can’t do.
Competition is a good thing. People just need to suck it up because its a part of life and it makes us stronger. Theres nothing wrong with it.
ALLISON
...not perfect
perfectly normal
like just the standard normal
your rite there cant be a normal person thats perfece
Michelle: You're right. It's not fair for a specific group of people to be "above average" in an "average world." But, no matter what, there is always someone who tells people what to do. It isn't average to hold that kind of power, so being average is something the government in this story can't do.
It's really only little kids where they don't want hurt their feelings. But when people hit about 10 they need to be told that they're no good. I agree with what Jamie said that competition drives you, and no one would win if we were always worried about hurting feelings.
I think that in the book they did take the lower end of society, if you know what i mean, and made everyone equal to them. some of the things they say in the story really show this.
I also agree with Conor, our society needs competition that's what keeps our society going. Without competition there is no motivation to acomplish things. If everyone was the same and there was no competition nobody would want to get things done because someone else could do the same thing.
I have a connection this story reminds me of the book series of Uglies. But in this book everyone had to have surgery to make everyone above average, so everyone living is gorgeous, sociable, and overall perfect. But it shows that even in the perfect world, it isn't perfect.
Cassie: Oh okay I interperated that wrong.
Compatition is the key to success in all aspects of life. Without compatition life is pointless. The whole reason that people want to succeed is to beat someone or be better then someone else
Cassie: They could have made the opposite of handicaps. Like "boosters" or something.
I have doubts that this could happen in the near future, unless our government went like power-crazy. They would have to get total control over everyone. There would be so many riots and I think that the power of the people can be stronger then the government. If citizens oppose a situation like this, then they won't allow it to happen. The people in our nation are powerful.
I am a triplet so I am constantly competeing with my sisters. We compete over everything. Boys, grades, friends, looks, etc. So it helps me work harder for everything so that I can do better than my sisters.
ok... so i agree that it feels good to beat someone. You probley worked hard to get to that point and you deserve it. If everyone was average, you wouldn't want to work harder to be better than others. you can have healthy competition
america was founded on competiton and capatilism so in i society without competetion would be more and more like comunism
Competition will never die out because we are constantly competing against schools from other countries to have a higher percentage of students and a lower percentage of drop outs
why do you think everyone in the story wanted to go through all this stuff in order for everyone to be equal. They say that if everyone wasn't equal than the society would fall apart.
QUESTION: I've noticed how so many people spell incorrectly. For something like that do you think that they would make everyone a bad speller, or just make the bad spellers into average spellers?
I think it depends on what the person is passionate about, like people care more about one thing then another so they work harder.
I agree with what Mrs.Leclaire said without competition it seems like the world would be empty and boring.
NICOLE
i would think they would make everyone a bad speller it would be alot easier than teaching people to spell
Cassie-
It would be more like communism because in communist countries, everyone has the same amount of money and no one is richer than one another .
I agree with ellen, it does feel good to do better than someone else. it makes you feel good because you feel like you have acomplished something. For example, in sports it feels good to beat the opposite team or in cross country it makes you want to run harder when you pass someone. Competition makes us strive to be better. I agree with mrs. Leclaire too, A world without competition would be really wierd because people thrive on competition and without it would be empty.
nicole: I think they would make a handicap for the good spellers
"They're not making it equal, they're making it worse."
That basically describes what the government has done to the nation.
At the end of the story why do you think the leader gave the orchestra a chance and not the two dancing
April: I think everyone put up with this because it was pretty much a law to do these things. I believe most people were scared of not doing what they were told. Just like someone might be scared about doing things now cause of breaking the law so they just deal with it, even if they don't like it. Also they tended to forget things and forgot what was going on, so they might not remember what was going on.
April: Probably because it seemed that they were threatened to play.
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