Harrison Bergeron Updated

Kurt Vonnegut went out as an unhinged moonbat, but not before writing a great story refuting liberalism entitled “Harrison Bergeron.” Bret Stephens quotes from it…

The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

…and finds inspiration to write his own version. Since we are much closer now to a world of mandated equality, his update isn’t set as far in the future:

The year was 2019 and Americans were finally on their way toward real equality. Not just equality in God’s eyes, or before the law, or in opportunity.

They were going to be equal every which way.

All this equality was due to bold new government action. There was the Decent Wage Act of 2017, which pegged the minimum wage to the (inflation-adjusted) average hourly wage of 2016. There was the NEW-AMT, which set a 55% minimum federal tax rate on individual income over $150,000 (or 80% for incomes above $500,000). There was the Unemployment Insurance Is Forever Act of 2018. There was the 2018 De Blasio-Waxman CEO Pay Act, which mandated a 9-to-1 ratio between the highest and lowest paid person in any enterprise.

Why not? According to the ideologically driven “experts,” none of this would have an ill effect on the economy.

New rules on income weren’t the only way America was achieving equality. Thanks to the efforts of Attorney General Thomas Perez, disparate outcome lawsuits were changing the country’s public culture in unexpected ways.

For example, the average height of NBA players for the 2007-08 season was just under 6 feet 7 inches. The average American male is 5 feet 9 inches. Patently unequal, patently unfair. Mr. Perez demanded that the NBA establish an average-height rule that would require each team to offset taller players with shorter ones. …

Fashion also changed. Victoria’s Secret models were henceforth required to parade down catwalks wearing horrible masks resembling bearded Princeton economists. Fox News came out with a roster of all-male, paunchy middle-aged anchors.

I wonder if there is still time for Obama to work any of these visionary progressive concepts into tonight’s State of the Union blabathon?

celebrity-vs-dwarf-basketball
The NBA of our egalitarian future.

On a tip from Varla. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.

Share this!

Enjoy reading? Share it with your friends!