Is This A Dystopian Novel?
(Or Is It Reality?)
by C.A. Matthews
Wise words from a famous science fiction author |
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.
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.
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 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.
Los Angeles has criminalized the homeless. |
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 WhereThe 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!Let’s boldly go into that future.
Another great quote from Kurt Vonnegut. |
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
This post first appeared on Our Revolution Continues -- The Bernie, please read the originial post: here