Is This A Dystopian Novel?
(Or Is It Reality?)
by C.A. Matthews
I’m
writing this on the way home from an annual science fiction
convention we’ve attended for many years. My husband and I
primarily speak on writing craft and publishing topics, but sometimes
we’re asked to be on panel discussions dealing with the
intersection between fiction and reality. How does SF (speculative
fiction) show us the current situation humanity finds itself in or
even our possible future?
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Wise words from a famous science fiction author
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I
happened to land on a panel called “The
Handmaid’s Tale:
Fear and Social Dystopia.” (Excellent topic idea!) We were to
discuss how this best-selling novel by Margaret Atwood, and the more
recent streaming television series based upon it, reflects the horror
of discrimination American women currently face and how it could be a
prediction of even scarier things to come.
Of course, since I was on
the panel, the discussion soon wandered into what I see as
the novel’s true premise. The story of the abused and enslaved
handmaids isn’t a dystopian tale of the near-future or an alternate
future but an accurate reflection of both our current and past
American society. Atwood, as a Canadian, is in an excellent position
to see us as a sympathetic outsider and point out painful things that
Americans have blocked from our cultural memories. There
is much for us to learn from her discerning eye. Is
the USA in reality the mythical “Gilead”? Why do we not see the
red-caped young women marching
in lines and
“the wall,” the
place where
dissidents
and non-believers are hung for
their crimes against the state and
their
bodies
left hanging
as a warning to others?
My contention is that these two things do in fact exist, albeit in
slightly different forms.
The
US now spends more money on militarizing our local police departments
than most countries—including Russia—spend on their actual
military. No other country has 800+ military bases scattered all over the globe. The closest
is China with about eight bases. The US has the largest military budget
in the world, one that is more than the other top ten nations
combined, and yet it has no money available for health care,
education, or housing for all its citizens.
Now,
which country reminds you of the fascistic/militaristic realm of Gilead—the
country who recently announced that poverty had been eradicated
within their borders (China) or the one that has criminalized
homelessness in many municipalities (USA)? “The wall” presents
injustices along with rotting corpses of those the state doesn’t
want.
What
about the red capes and the rapes
of the handmaids/ concubines? Atwood purposefully had her handmaids
wrapped in “bloody cloths” or
red capes,
a symbol of birth and sacrifice. These young women are the heifers
and hens forced to give birth like livestock in order to provide
enough laborers to support the ruling classes. Gilead’s economic
system relies on slavery—but it isn’t necessarily thought of as
chattel slavery by
its rulers.
Wage
slavery works just fine in present day America and our rulers (bosses) think
nothing of it, either.
Which
so-called “first world nation” has the highest maternal mortality
rate? You know it—it’s the USA. The maternal mortality rate for
mothers of color is even higher than it is for whites, but it’s
also high for poor whites with no access to private health insurance.
What other society tells its women of child bearing years that their
health and safety during child birth isn’t all that important?
Could it be the only so-called first world nation that doesn’t
provide universal health care for its people?
And
then there’s the overturn of the Roe V. Wade ruling. (Read my take on how abortion rights are used against women in A Matter of Control.)
What other country allows basic human rights, such as the right to
bodily autonomy, to be stolen away from its citizens at the whim of
conservative judges? Yes, Trump did appoint conservative federal
judges,
but he didn’t appoint all of them or even the
majority
of them. Most federal
judges
currently serving have been serving for more than ten years.
Arch-conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was appointed during
the Clinton Administration.
Who was the senator that made sure Clarence
Thomas
was appointed to the Supreme Court by discrediting Anita Hill’s
testimony and raking her over the coals? Senator Joseph R. Biden of
Delaware is the
man who made sexist, disparaging remarks to Professor Hill.
You
may have heard of him.
Atwood’s
Gilead has one advantage the
US doesn’t.
It doesn’t waste time playing the silly game of what “color” or
establishment political party is currently in the majority. True
rulers always will
get
what they want at the expense of the ordinary working
people’s
lives. The
establishment parties are
mere distractions, foils as it were, and will
always
do
as they’re told. Therefore,
all
third parties or alternative viewpoints must be crushed at
whatever cost.
The
upper-classes can’t have the ordinary people thinking for
themselves, can they?
I
posit that Americans
have been living in Gilead since 1776. The corrupt economic system
established by our “Founding Fathers” will always favor wealthy,
white, land-owning (and slave owning) males. Women will always be
controlled by the state through their wombs or reproductive capacity.
Activists who speak up against injustices and attempt to organize the
poor and working classes will always be labelled as agitators,
communists, or
enemies of the state.
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Los Angeles has criminalized the homeless.
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Isn’t
this the society Atwood
envisioned
in The
Handmaid’s Tale?
There’s no reason for Americans to lie to themselves any longer.
The US is a dystopian novel.
What
can we do about it? Audience members asked the panelists if there was
a way to overcome the Gilead characteristics baked into the DNA of
the USA. I’m optimistic there is something we can do because folks
did
ask
that question and assumed that they are capable of enacting changes
for the better.
I think our best shot is to create genuine community
and practice systems of mutual aid, such as the ones I described in
my novel Where The Bodies Lie.
We can grow our own food and share it with neighbors. We can create
worker co-ops and organize worker-run unions to take on exploitative employers. We can work around the discriminatory distribution systems
for food, health care, and shelter by fulfilling needs directly
without including the predatory middle-man that capitalism seems to
think is necessary for life (and that we all know isn’t).
There
are many positive things we can and already do to dispel the gloom of
dystopia, but we must do them together.
No more of this “rugged individualism” that keeps us
struggling
and infighting amongst our
fellow workers while the rich receive tax breaks and government
subsidies for failing businesses. We need
to build
compassionate
communities
capable of feeding and taking care of each other, such as those
described
in the New Testament in the
book of Acts.
No
more leaving anyone behind!
Until
all
women
are free, all
people
of color are free, the homeless and the migrant and the hungry are
all
free,
none of us will ever
be free. None of us will escape
Gilead. It’s an all or nothing proposition. But
do
we have the will to turn The
Handmaid’s Tale
dystopia into a Star
Trek
utopia? If
any group can make the world into a better place, I
believe it's sci-fi fans.
Let’s
boldly go into that future.
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Another great quote from Kurt Vonnegut.
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Related Links:
Free Stores Offer an Alternative to the Exploitative Capitalist Economy https://truthout.org/articles/free-stores-offer-an-alternative-to-the-exploitative-capitalist-economy/
Catalyzing Worker Co-ops and the Solidarity Economy https://popularresistance.org/catalyzing-worker-co-ops-the-solidarity-economy/
US Quality of Life Now Ranks Down with Bulgaria (video) https://rumble.com/v1lor6v-us-now-ranks-with-bulgaria-as-developing-country.html
90% of the World Doesn't Back the US Now (video) https://youtu.be/jsrOfEVcbzA
