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"Harrison Bergeron"

Author	Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre(s)	Dystopia, Science fiction, short story
Published in	The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1st release)
Publication type	Periodical
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	1961

"Harrison Bergeron" is a dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and first published in October, 1961. The theme of the story is egalitarianism and is set by the first line: "The year was 2081, and everyone was finally equal." Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968.

In the story, societal equality has been achieved by handicapping the most intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society down to the level of the highest common endowment, a process central to the society which is overseen by the United States Handicapper General. At the time of the story, the office of Handicapper General is filled by the shotgun-toting Diana Moon Glampers.

Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, height, strength and beauty, and as a result he has to bear enormous handicaps. These include distracting noises, three hundred pounds of excess weight, eyeglasses to give him headaches and cosmetic changes to make him ugly. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station and declare himself emperor. As he strips himself of his handicaps, then dances with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded, both are shot dead by Diana Moon Glampers, the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are watching TV but cannot concentrate enough to remember the incident.

A highly similar (though less developed) version of this idea appeared in Vonnegut's earlier novel, The Sirens of Titan.

For more details on this topic, see Harrison Bergeron (film).

In the 1995 made for television movie, after the handicapping devices are discovered to be ineffective against Bergeron, he is recruited to become a member of the secret unhandicapped elite who keep society running. Bergeron eventually decides to remain true to himself and hijacks a TV station to bring some culture to the masses before committing suicide when the guards are about to break into the studio; most of his viewers are unable to appreciate what just happened, but the film ends on an optimistic note by showing that a few people did get the message and so his sacrifice was not in vain. One of these people includes Harrison's son, whose mother was a runaway member of the elite society. His name is the General which shot the ballerina and Harrison in two shots.

• One segment of the 1972 teleplay Between Time and Timbuktu was based on the story, and it was later adapted into a TV movie, Harrison Bergeron (1995) with Sean Astin in the title role.
• In 2005 the story was quoted by attorneys in a brief before the Kansas Supreme Court. Vonnegut was quoted as saying that while he didn't mind the story being used in the suit, he disagreed with the lawyers' interpretation of it.^[1]
• The hardcore band Snapcase referenced the story in the song "Harrison Bergeron" on their 1997 album Progression Through Unlearning.
• "Handicapper General," therefore, has entered colloquial use as a pejorative term used to describe a person or institution that seeks to achieve equality of outcome by leveling down rather than leveling up, e.g., a school system that cancels advanced classes out of a fear of elitism.

• Dumbing down
• Tall poppy syndrome
• Jante Law
• Political Correctness

• John Tierney, "When Every Child Is Good Enough," The New York Times, November 21, 2004

• Harrison Bergeron at the Internet Movie Database
• The politics of Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron" - Critical Essay (Fall, 1998) by Darryl Hattenhauer