In Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. describes the nightmare of total equality, a society in which equality is finally achieved, but at the cost of freedom and individuality. One’s utopia is another’s dystopia.
We’ll be exploring the increasing promotion of equality to the point of it being absurd as a consequence of the “unheard cry for meaning” that plagues modern society.
The modern age is characterised by a sense of disorientation of not knowing what to do with one’s life. Nietzsche’s foresaw nihilism as an inevitable consequence of the Death of God, where God is replaced with public opinion, the entertainment culture, and the State.
Without objective values, we fall into relativism, making us fall prey to authoritarianism and conformism, as displayed by George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984.
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Eternalised
P.O. Box 10.011
28080 Madrid, Spain
━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⌛ Timestamps (0:00) Introduction: The Nightmare of Total Equality (1:40) Disorientation and Nihilism (4:10) Living a Meaningful Life (4:43) The Problem of Relativism (5:23) Totalitarianism and Conformism (7:45) Preachers of Equality (11:20) Pathos of Distance: The Overman and The Last Man (12:25) Orwell’s Warning: 1984