Posted by octopusprime on December 24, 2003, at 16:27:24
In reply to Re: I'm awful but...., posted by gabbix2 on December 24, 2003, at 15:35:29
> Actually instead of that we could perhaps exterminate the rest; or perhaps pass laws that only those deemed by the majority to have equal physical attributes should be allowed to marry.
gabbix:
this reminds me of a short story written by Kurt Vonnegut, called Harrison Bergeron (which was in the book "Welcome to the Monkey House")Harrison lived in a politically correct society where everybody was equal to one another. The beautiful, the eloquent, the strong, etc were all handicapped in some way. Ballerinas wore deforming masks and carried lead weights so that they could be equal. They danced horribly, but "they tried their best". Anybody that tried to think deep thoughts, or pictured beautiful things, was zapped with an implanted brain zapper. Eventually there was a revolution so that the smart, etc could venture out into the world unencumbered by artificially imposed handicaps.
It's only tangentially related, but when i read your post it reminded me of this story about artificial measures of equality.
poster:octopusprime
thread:293158
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20031217/msgs/293186.html