Harrison Bergeron opens with a paragraph that immediately gives a background setting to the story as a whole. The time of 2081 is indicated, but more importantly the author chose to mention the "211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution". This is important because of the historical pattern that has developed. The Constitution of the United States had 23 amendments when this particular story was written (26 amendments currently). This original number of twenty three was achieved between 1791 and 1961, which is over a time period of one hundred and seventy years. This story itself sets place one hundred and twenty years from the initial composure of the story in 1961. During those years the amendments took over an eight hundred percent increase in number. This is important because of the trend that occurs within socialism and the same augmentation.
If one were to view the regime of Adolf Hitler, this same rapid development of laws and dictation is observed. He subtly moved into power and changed things around in little time also sky-rocketing the laws and what not. From the first paragraph it is safe and monumental to conclude that this over excessiveness is comparable
Cited: Compaine, Ben. "Domination Fantasies" Reason. Los Angeles: 2004 Vol. 35, Issue 8; pg.26http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.882004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000521344881&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=html&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=10850 Literature Resource Center Crt. Joseph Alvarez. Exploring Short Stories, Gale Research, 1998 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?locID=warrencc&srchtp=ttl&c=1&stab=512&ai=91364&docNum=H1420003758&bConts=4783&vrsn=3&TI=Harrison+Bergeron&OP=starts&TQ=TO&ca=3&ste=57&tab=2&tbst=trp&n=10&wi=1097155 Mitchell, Gregory. "Why law and economics ' perfect rationality should not be traded for behavioral law and economics ' equal incompetence" Georgetown Law Journal Washington: Nov 2002. Vol. 91, Iss. 1; pg. 67 http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88 Reed, Peter. "Hurting 'Til It Laughs." Kurt Vonnegut: Images and Representations. Ed. Marc Leeds and Peter J. Reed. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood, 2000. 19-38.