Science Fiction or a Glimpse at Our Fascist Future?

Yesterday, our youngest daughter Katie, called to ask us to recommend a book to read. She was looking for something compelling – no fluff.

At the top of the list was one of our favorites, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.

Later, Elisia and I talked at length about the themes of that book and were shocked to realize that the fictionalized portrait Atwood painted of a future America had become less like fiction and more like fact.

In retrospect, the book seems frighteningly ominous given the current state of foreign and domestic policies and politics:

• A Private Army working for one branch of the government

• Widening Wage Gap

• Environmental woes -- especially global warming

• Rise in Corporate Power and Influence

• Rise in Religious influence over Politics
  

This is especially true when you superimpose the general themes of the book onto today’s headlines:

• Is God running for president?
  

• Theocracy Now!
  

• Bush's Delusions of World War Iii Disgraceful, Banal
  

• The God Vote
  

In Atwood’s fictional country of Gilead, the country formerly known as the United States of America, a revolutionary coup has occurred and the US has become a Christian theocracy:

From Wikipedia: “Gilead is ruled through biblical fundamentalism and rigid enforcement of social roles vaguely resembling current Dominionist thinking. Most citizens have been stripped of their freedoms. The key to this suppression is the conscious elimination of literacy among the population. All religions, except the official state religion, have been suppressed.

Those who do not conform to the new norms, or who in the past became pregnant and did not immediately embrace the new ways are pressed into service as handmaids and personal servants or deported to "the colonies" (regions where pollution has reached toxic levels). All those who threaten the ideology of Gilead, and those who will not repent — political and religious dissidents, pro-choice advocates (called abortionists) and homosexuals (gender treachery) — are executed by hanging and displayed at "The Wall". The government has proclaimed martial law owing to the destabilizing effect of "hordes of guerrillas" roaming the countryside. This is reinforced by the roadblocks, sandbags, and the sounds of gun and rocket fire that are mentioned repeatedly, yet almost glossed over by the characters, who seem to regard living in a war zone as normal.”

We aren’t the only folks who are concerned that our present situation is looking more and more like a futuristic science fiction novel – or a blast from the fascist past. Just look at a few recent headlines:

• Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
  

• America is Out of Time, We Need A new Strategy
  

• The “Hitler Comparison”
  

If you haven’t already done so -- or if it’s been awhile since you read The Handmaid’s Tale, you really ought to pick it up.

Perhaps it will remind you – as it reminds us -- that, as American citizens, our primary concern should not be who is winning on American Idol but rather that we keep the fire under the feet of our elected leaders so that they will protect and defend the Constitution – that “goddamned piece of paper” that provides us with rights, protections, liberties and freedoms.

And, by the way, if you want to do something but are not sure what that something might be, please join in the General Strike on November 6, 2007.

And let the bastards know that you are not working and/or not shopping on that day for a reason!