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An oppressive regime is not hard to believe under any admin, imo, but the HT requires the element of the 'fertility plaque' and religious extremism.
Does the book say which came first? As in, was the religious extremism the 'cure' to the 'fertility plague'? Seems so, from snippets of the past in the show.
Please explain further what you're getting at. Use examples.
And please, if you could, refrain from helter-skelter absurdism about how you're sick with terror that the proverbial sky is falling.
Well, I would hope that you're not accusing me of using helter-skelter absurdism already, or claiming I'm sick with terror or that the sky is falling, since I've hardly said anything yet, but I'll give it a shot.
In HT, every person has a role to play in society. They do not choose that role and they cannot deviate from it. Women can be handmaids, who are essentially breeding stock; prostitutes; housekeepers/cooks; or wives. Wives are essentially idle until their husband's handmaid has a child, at which point they swoop in to raise the child so the handmaid can be moved to another household to be bred again. Men's roles are also defined. They are either government officials, in which case they have a handmaid and a wife, or they are laborers, in which case they do not have breeding rights.
The key thing to understand in my mind is that if you do not fulfill your role in society, you are utterly disposable. The handmaids who are found infertile are sent away to a fate that is worse than death. Prostitutes who become pregnant or try to run away are punished. Housekeepers who can no longer work are sent away. Everyone is afraid of what will happen to them if they fail to be useful to society and everyone is afraid of what will happen to them if they are denounced by someone.
Does it work as a perfect analogy for today? No, of course not. That would be absurd. But are there parallels that give people who have read the book pause? I would say so. Look how we demonize people who cannot or do not work, either through their own fault or through circumstance or physical/mental health. You can't tell me that most Americans look at someone who is homeless or unemployed and see them as a problem rather than a human being. Look at how those in Trump's camp determine a person's worth. Are you rich enough to be of value to him or not? Look how we demonize people with views that are different than our own and seek to control others through government and religion. Look at how Trump and his camp treat those who disagree with him.
The power in the HT is not that it describes our society to a 'T', but rather that it gets us thinking about how we view and treat each other, how we try to control one another, our own fears and our own expectations for ourselves and for others.
As others have said, Margaret Atwood looks at the present day US and she sees a country that is making choices too close to those in her book for her own comfort. She's particularly concerned about efforts by the Christian right to control women's reproductive choices and efforts of those like Trump to push the country into isolationism (also a central tenant of the society in HT) through fear and false promises of security. And clearly she isn't the only one who sees those parallels, some like your friend's wife who are eager to generalize and say we are headed toward the world of the HT, and others, like myself, who see something to give us pause, to examine the choices we make, the way we treat one another...and see a chance to do better.
So several blacks are killed in various high profile shootings resulting in BLM and that means the DNC hates white people? That is a leap only the city bus in Speed could make. The Handmaid's Tale is likened to the GOP by the actual author of The Handmaid's Tale.
What part of my post mentions anything about BLM? Is that the only thing you have to defend the racism at the DNC? Since you didn't touch the illegal alien pandering or the race card issue, you must agree with it.
First, thank you for taking the time to reply. Reputation mark coming up.
I'm a strong advocate for powerful individuals who are at liberty to practice self-determination in a free society.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AminWi
Look how we demonize people who cannot or do not work, either through their own fault or through circumstance or physical/mental health. You can't tell me that most Americans look at someone who is homeless or unemployed and see them as a problem rather than a human being. Look at how those in Trump's camp determine a person's worth. Are you rich enough to be of value to him or not? Look how we demonize people with views that are different than our own and seek to control others through government and religion. Look at how Trump and his camp treat those who disagree with him.
Okay. The idea that this is "Trump's America" boggles my mind, however. There has not been some "sudden shift" in the last six or eighteen months. Life is pretty much the way it's been for a while, in my opinion, except in the *minds* of certain people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AminWi
As others have said, Margaret Atwood looks at the present day US and she sees a country that is making choices too close to those in her book for her own comfort.
Like I said, I have not seen the series nor read the books. However, I view authoritarianism and statism -- the usurping of the individual in favor of the collective -- as the problem, and that is as likely (some might say more likely) to come from the left as from the right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AminWi
And clearly she isn't the only one who sees those parallels, some like your friend's wife who are eager to generalize and say we are headed toward the world of the HT...
Yes, my issue with my friend's wife is as I mentioned: huge authoritarian central planning fan. She's totally okay with the state being in charge of everything *as long as it's secular.*
She sees left-wing top-down control and planning and social engineering and usurpation of free speech as good, as the direction we should be going, while waxing apocalyptic about a hypothetical right-wing authoritarian society. I find it hypocritical in her.
Having said all that, I do generally enjoy dystopian fiction as cautionary tale.
I don't see the Democratic Party mandating women cannot work and biblical scripture being read allowed as a woman is forced to have sex with a man in order to procreate. I don't see the Democratic Party dehumanizing women as nothing more than baby incubators.
But you can see Republicans doing this? Give me a break!
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So several blacks are killed in various high profile shootings resulting in BLM and that means the DNC hates white people? That is a leap only the city bus in Speed could make. The Handmaid's Tale is likened to the GOP by the actual author of The Handmaid's Tale.