Today I was shown a trailer for a short film based on one of my favorite short stories: "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut. The movie is called 2081, for the year in which the US Constitution is amended to require all people to be exactly equal.
"Harrison Bergeron" is a very short story about a world of limitations, and a man who is simply too magnificent to be limited. And where once we would have held this hero up, named him Hercules or Paul Bunyan or John Henry, admired a man whose strength could not be measured, whose determination could not be swayed, now we simply put him down like a rabid dog.
He's better than other people. It isn't fair. It's downright dangerous. And everyone who reads this story feels sadness at the tragedy of Harrison Bergeron, that the world could not allow uniqueness to thrive.
Now here we are, at the edge of great structural change in our country, and this story has been on my mind lately. I speak, of course, about the Healthcare Reform situation, and the arguments associated with it. If you show anyone "Harrison Bergeron", they'll shake their heads and say, "It's such a sad story. It's messed up, the way the government makes everyone the same. It's not fair. Nobody's beautiful or smart or strong, just because it would hurt someone else's feelings."
Similar themes are expressed in Lois Lowry's "The Giver", a story about a Community where the highest ideal is "Sameness". Things like art, religion, music, even people's ability to see color are taken away, in the interest of peaceful, simple Sameness. The discontent are "released" into the rest of the world, according to the government, because anyone is free to leave their Utopia at will. In reality, the "released" are secretly euthanized.
Again, anybody who reads this story would be aghast at the idea of individual choice and personality and ability being confiscated for the sake of society. A Government with supreme authority over every facet of your life is a horrific thought.
And yet, many of those same people, my peers and classmates and friends, when asked, would happily vote to socialize Healthcare and hand our well-being over to the Government. They don't see a problem with establishing a "single-payer" health insurance policy. It would ensure that everyone, no matter what, received the same level of healthcare. Sounds nice!
Until you look at it from anything but an emotional stance. Suddenly it becomes all too apparent that single-payer means single decision maker. You notice that Medicare, the only current Government healthcare insurance provider, declines more claims by far than any private insurer. You notice the frightening incompetence of our Government to handle things like Hurricane Katrina, Swine Flu, the War on Terror, etc. Every huge problem we have trusted them with, they have bungled spectacularly. They can't even respond to Janet Jackson's nipple in a reasonable, intelligent way. Why should they be the ones to decide which medications I am allowed?
I, as a benefit of my full-time job, have private health insurance. Each week, a portion of my paycheck is diverted to paying for my healthcare coverage, and the company I work for picks up the rest. My productivity and time are rewarded with the security of knowing that if I am wounded or sick, I can provide for myself. And I do provide for myself. The sense of pride I feel, knowing that my life is in my own hands and that I'm not terrified at the thought, cannot be put into words. This makes me enjoy working. It's very simple.
And I understand why so many people have a problem with that. Lots of people see healthcare as a fundamental Human right. Everybody has the right to live and be healthy.
Unfortunately that's not really true. Healthcare is a service, like a restaurant is a service. You're perfectly free to give it your best shot with homemade bandages and herbal remedies, just like you're free to attempt to grow your own crops and slaughter your own beef. Modern healthcare is not a given right, it is a convenience and often, a luxury.
I digress. I guess what I am trying to say is that it's funny the way people will recoil at the idea of an all-powerful Government... and then take the steps necessary to create one.
I guess they missed the point of the story. My advice to all my readers is to read "Harrison Bergeron" and take your lives into your own hands. Uncle Sam's are a little shaky right now.
The full story "Harrison Bergeron" can be found at http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html It's very short. Read it now.
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