Friday, February 22, 2013

Fishbowl #1: "Harrison Bergeron"

I look forward to seeing your insightful comments about the short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut on our class blog today.  As you engage in outer circle discussion, keep in mind a couple ground rules:

  • This is a formal written discussion.  Use correct capitalization, punctuation, grammar and tone.
  • Participate in discussion throughout its duration.  I'm not looking for a certain number of comments, but rather consistent participation from the first few minutes through the last.
Happy posting!

54 comments:

  1. Can a world of absolute equality ever progress? How could it be possible?

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    1. If everything was absolutely equal, then nothing would happen, there would be nothing to motivate the people, no competition to drive them progress.

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    2. The last reply was from me, the last person did not sign out.

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    3. Not only that, but how could it even be better with everyone being put down instead of hoisted up. You see better standing on the shoulders of giants than you do on the shoulders of elves.

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    4. The world would never progress if everyone was the same. No one would think differently.

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    5. a world that is equal can never become better if evry one is equal because then no one will ever progress

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  2. In the text, George says that the government didn't want the people to take advantage of their own brains. How do you think that is possible?

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    1. The government won't let anyone be their own person, everyone must be the same, and that includes their thoughts. If people use their brains, they are going to have their own thoughts and opinions and that makes them be apart from one another. If they use their brains, they realize they do not want to live this way and could revolt; the government does not want this to happen.

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    2. I agree with Madison. The reason the goverment doesn't want smart people such as himself to have complete control of their thoughts is because they would revolt.

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  4. @Class
    Who do you guys think the H-G men are?

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    1. Government officials, or maybe the people that are allowed to be different

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    2. They are the only gifted people allowed in the United States. Hand picked by elected officials, raised with only the intention of keeping all equal, they are the police force of the government.

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    3. But how hypocritical is that? I mean, their job is to KEEP ALL EQUAL, and then they themselves are considered as higher than everyone else, how is THAT fare?! If your going to make everyone equal, then at least try to not become so god d. communistic about it!

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  5. It is not possible because there would be no competition. The world is what it is because of competition.

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    1. I would agree with you Mr. Jones. Because eventually people will be different from one another. For example, the Soviet Union. Looked what happened, they tried to have everyone equal to one another, but over time their "equality period" eneded

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  6. There is no way that there will be 214 amendments to the US constitution, people would have to actually get along in order for that to happen. I mean honestly its been in existence for around 250-300 years and there are only about 24 amendments that have been added to it. People are to opinionated to make 200 more amendments in only 70 years.

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    1. By the way, Mickey Hart is actually Mickey Liebrecht.

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  7. Is their any thing good about being the same. and if so explane why

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    1. It depends on how people are the same. If people have a lot of money and a good personality then it is good. If people have little money and are robbing each then it is bad.

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    2. In nature, there are definite benefits of being identical. Bacteria use this advantage for mass reproduction; they undergo mitosis every twenty minutes. But in a human society where everyone is born different, there cannot be absolute equality, and everyone has different needs. As much as I hate to admit it, there is nothing beneficial about forcing different people to be the same.

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    3. I think that there is nothing good about being the same because being different makes us who we are and what we want to be in our future and life

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    4. If people are the same because of the rights they have such as freedom of speech, worship, etc. then yes, it is good to be the same, but if they have to wear the same clothes, look the same physically and act the same then no. Everyone has to be themselves because without it we would't progress.

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    5. No, if you're the same in what you do as everybody else, then you won't ever be able to look at things from different views or different angles. You'd never be able to understand another view, another side, or another thought because their wouldn't be such thing as any. How does that help people get along? How does repressing who they are help others that are not as strong or as good as them? How then can anyone help anything? We solve some Scientific problems by looking at them through different glasses, different views, if you take those views away then we would never have come as far as we have.

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    7. In my opinion the only people who benefit from everyone being equal are those who are lower class. Because when instead of being looked down upon and not being able to change their social status easily. When they are all equal they don't have to worry about money or social status for they are the same as everyone.

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  8. In a society like this, do you think that the people could ever realize that this is not the way to live and ever revolt against it?

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    1. I think that people would realize that this is not the way to live because over time I think that someone would start questioning why is everyone the same, and would try to change it

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    2. The tragic part is that the government won't allow it. Moreover, in a government by the people and for the people, the people ultimately decided to elect officials who did this to them. The citizens who voted for this not only couldn't revolt, but wouldn't want to.

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    3. Eventually someone would figure out this is the wrong thing to do. You can't stay like that forever.

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    4. I think that people are to controlled by this government wouldn't realize that they are being controlled.

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    5. They can't revolt because the government controls their thoughts and if they think of something like that they get shocked or annoyed by sounds in their hearing aids. The goernment would find a way to keep the people down, the only way the people would win is if there were an army of Harrison Bergerons fighting the officials.

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    6. No I don't think so. Mainly because of what happens at the end of the story. When George walks in and asks hazel why she is crying she says she can't remember. All she can recall is that it was something sad. When in reality she just saw her son get shot and killed.

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  9. I find it ironic that, the more equal the government is trying to make the people, the more difference there is among them. Hazel said herself that she was jealous of all the sounds George was hearing, but if they are all so equal, how can you be jealous of someone else?

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    1. I have noticed this trend too, I think it is because people would like to be different from other people, and revolt in a way. The people want to do their own thing, not something someone is trying to make them do.

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    2. So very true which leads me to believe that no matter what the government does to make people equal they will always fail.

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  10. Are their ways our society puts handicaps one use now?

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  11. Can people really be stripped of who they are, of what they are?

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    1. No. Cause you can take away someone's possessions, but you can't physically change who someone is

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    2. No. The goverment doesn't have the power or nerves to do such a thing. That would be taking away our rights.

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    3. No they always have an inner self that will never change.

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    4. But what I mean is that if something like this happened, wouldn't at least ONE person have the will power to keep themselves themselves? I mean, are people really THAT ashamed in WHO they ARE?

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    5. They never lost who they were, all the people are themselves, but some of them don't know who they are. Bergeron never said they are ashamed of who they are, but the government is slightly controlling what they think about something and how much tey can think about that something.

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    6. The Song “Mad World” is one of my favorites in the intire world. I love it to death, and it speaks the mind of someone noticing that he is kind of trapped in a world where everyone is oblivious to problems he can see clear as day. It both amuses and saddens him. I know that’s how I feel some of the times in the world I live in now. I notice things others don’t, can’t help it. That is also why I wouldn’t be able to stand living or existing any way in that world, you can’t stop me from noticing things, from noticing problems, its something that happens automatically that I can’t help, and would never want to change because IT IS A PART OF ME.! How can everyone in this story want so keenly for that ability to not exist in not just people, but the nation, the world?

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    7. But how can they ignore how they feel about it? How they react to it inside and out.? How can they live their lives without being who they are and without feeling what they know they feel?

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    8. I don't think so because sooner or later someone will find the strength and courage to revolt. In this story it his 14 year old burgeruon who revolts against the government and what they stand for.

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  12. Is Bergeron trying to suggest that in the future there will be this kind of Communism in the world?

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    1. This is entirely hypothetical. There is no explanation as to how this arose, and there is also no explanation of why this would happen. If he was trying to suggest that this was absolutely going to happen, then he would have included both of these things.

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    2. I think that Bergeron was sudjedsting that our world is slowly becoming this like your place is diced by other people and not you saying it's not your chose

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  14. If everything were the same, at what point would there have to be change, and how would this change occur?

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    1. change would happen then and there whether people like it or not because there WILL always be an opposite view and there WILL always be people who believe in that side with all their hearts and souls. And some will do anything to make it not only be seen, but heard and believed in.

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    2. People would eventually realize that they want to be different and be an individual. Being the same as everyone else is no way to live life. I think after people realized this, there would be a revolt against the government and they would be able to live life the way they wanted to. But getting to the point of realizing who they are would be difficult because know one knows who they can really be besides just like everyone else.

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    3. If everything was the same then i dont thin that the government would let anthing change, i think they would do everything in there power to keep the same

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