Last weekend I watched my daughter and her friends in a Theatre d’Art production, Between Time and Timbuktu, a compilation of Kurt Vonnegut’s early work including Cat’s Cradle, Player Piano, Welcome to the Monkey House, The Sirens of Titan, Happy Birthday Wanda June, and Harrison Bergeron, directed by Brian Mann.
I remember a few of these stories from my high school reading of Kurt Vonnegut, but there was one in particular that I want to describe. Theatre d’Art portrayed it in a memorable way that still haunts me.
For those of you that don’t remember the “Harrison Bergeron” story, it takes place in the future United Sates . . . where social equality has finally been achieved through the amendments 211-213 to the Constitution. Social justice is the law of the land, so that no one feels inferior to anyone else.
The strong are forced to carry extra weight, the intelligent must wear noisy headphones so they can’t think straight, the beautiful are required to wear masks, and graceful dancers must wear handcuffs, hobbles or chains. The government “Handicapper General” is the enforcer.
In this portion of the play, several ballerinas perform on stage, each of them bearing weights or chains. It’s sort of amusng at first to see their bumbling struggle, but it quickly becomes uncomfortable. Then Harrison Bergeron barges on stage . . . he’s a fugitive from social justice. He rips off his chains and heavy weights. The lead ballerina proceeds to do the same. They embrace, and clumsy dance becomes sensual and beautiful, and the closeness of the stage makes it even more intimate. It’s as if the weights come off your own body as you are lifted by watching the dancers embrace each other in graceful synchrony. Then . . . the Handicapper General marches in with her gun . . . and the shocking ending of their dance brought me to tears.
If you are reading this before Friday, April 16th 2010, you still have a chance to go see the play. The last ones are this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Osborne Studio Theater, 2nd floor of UCCS University Hall off Austin Bluffs, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
I couldn’t help but think about how often we are hearing about “social justice” in our current political climate. It’s a good thing to assist the handicapped and helpless. It’s entirely something else to force handicaps on the able, talented, and hard-working folks in order to bring about a dubious benefit called “social justice.” The handicaps our government is already imposing include salary caps, “special” taxes, racial discrimination points, heavy regulations for businesses, burdensome mandates for hiring employees, and the social attacks of being vilified for becoming “rich” or successful. Since 10% of our population pays over 70% of the income taxes, do we truly wish to encumber their productivity?
In the play, the audience assembled to watch the travesty of a performance when the ballerinas were burdened and restricted. In real life, I doubt if anyone would truly WANT to watch such a thing . . . it was painful. It was obvious to everyone how much more enjoyable the performance would be if they were FREE. It wasn’t just the dancers who suffered . . . it was the audience.
In our society, if we hate and envy the smart, talented, or hard-working . . . and we impose handicaps on their success . . . it will not only be THEY that suffer . . . it will be ALL OF US.
By coincidence, a film company has produced the Harrison Bergeron play in DVD format, the title is "2081” by the Moving Picture Institute.
It’s an official selection of the Seattle International Film Festival 2009. You can watch the trailer here: http://vimeo.com/7898284. I encourage you to watch the clip, it's unforgettable. The music on the DVD is performed by the word-renowned Kronos Quartet.
The photo above is not from the play "Between Time and Timbuktu," it's a snapshot from the DVD "2081."
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It's so frightening to think how far on the road to "Social Justice" we are being taken by the "Fundamental Changes" some want for our country. During the pro-democracy movement in China many Chinese students were our special friends. They took risks marching through our streets with banners in support of their countrymen, because they knew that's not the kind of life they wanted. We sheltered some who lived in fear because some of the "handicappers" were in our country trying to hush their voices. God help us!
ReplyDeleteYOU KNOW NOTHING OF VONNEGUT. HE WAS A HUMANIST/SOCIALIST. HE DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE RICH OR SUCCESSFUL. ACTUALLY READ HIS STUFF.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Vonnegut was not thinking about successful people, but the analogy is the same.
ReplyDeleteSome people get lucky, or have talent, but it takes hard WORK to become successful. Read the book "Outliers" if you want to learn more about how the extraordinarily successful people achieved it. And many people are successful through hard work alone.
Most millionaires become so through hard work and savings, built up slowly. Read the book "The Millionaire Next Door."
Whether people become rich through hard work, talent, OR luck, we shouldn't punish/handicap them through some ill-conceived notion of government enforced "fairness."
The Beatles were told they had to make £120,000 in order to keep just £10,000. Ultimately, at near 90% taxes, they broke up. If the UK had a lower tax rate at the top bracket, say 25%, perhaps they would have benefited from the 25% tax on the Beatles' millions, instead of getting 90% of zero. And maybe the world wouldn't have lost the benefit of their combined talents.
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/09/15/dont-blame-yoko-taxes-killed-the-beatles/
Margaret Thatcher once said, "Socialism works until you run out of other people's money."
Punish success, and you get less of it. Reward success, and you'll get MORE of it . . . actually you don't even have to CREATE a reward for success . . . just let the successful reward themselves, and tax it just a little. A little tax on a LOT of money ultimately gives you more than than a BIG tax on a LITTLE money.
Humanists don't care about the rich and successful? That doesn't seem right--the rich and successful are human too...
ReplyDelete