
Vonnegut: a society without productivity variation has no Edisons. - akkartik
http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html
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njharman
I agree with "Harrison Bergeron"'s message but Edison was a corrupt, greedy,
egotistical, complete asshole. We would be much better off with less of his
type and more of Tesla's type.

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akkartik
The title was subtle karma whoring (<http://paulgraham.com/gh.html>)

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kirubakaran
FYI... Didn't find it subtle at all.

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akkartik
:)

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davidw
I can't stand science fiction stories that strive to Hit you over the Head
with a Message.

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notquitehere188
True, that is what really annoys me about 1984.

But independent of the message, I have always found the image of the scene
following Harrison's entrance to be rather awesome.

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larryfreeman
Wow. I really miss Kurt Vonnegut. I think his main point was usually life is
crazy and people are even crazier.

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kaens
I just received a collection of Vonnegut books, so I've been reading them.
From the prologue to Jailbird:

 _John Figler is a law-abiding high-school student. He says in his letter that
he has read almost everything of mine and is now prepared to state the single
idea that lies at the core of my life's word so far. The words are his: "Love
may fail, but courtesy will prevail"

This seems true to me--and complete. So I am now in the abashed condition,
five days after my fifty-sixth birthday, of realizing that I needn't have
bothered to write several books. A seven-word telegram would have done the
job.

Seriously._

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anthonyrubin
Several months ago I heard about this story and found that it was published in
Welcome to the Monkey House. It is a great collection of some of his short
stories.

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gaius
_Harrison Bergeron_ is an excellent film, it's out on VHS but not DVD for some
inexplicable reason.

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c3o
It's online here:
<http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-175006468841636088>

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craigbellot
I just wish more of the intellectually stimulation women were that beautiful.

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aditya
Very nice. Like a combination of Ayn Rand's Anthem and Orwell. Vonnegut rocks.

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akkartik
Yeah, here's a counterpoint: <http://akkartik.name/blog/money-river>

On balance I think Vonnegut was socialist. But he had less of an agenda, and
that made him able to see more, lent nuance to his writing.

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rw
There are plenty of capitalists with agendas :)

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akkartik
Of course. I meant, 'less of an agenda than Orwell.'

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bd
_Society without productivity variation_ could also be just Edisons (depending
on the definition of "Edison").

