Louie Morais answers “Do you wish Gilead would come true?”

A Goodreads user asked this question about The Handmaid’s Tale (The Handmaid's Tale, #1):

Do you wish Gilead would come true?

Louie Morais One has to consider that if a country with such an ideological premise and purported objective based on the continuation of the human race ever existe…moreOne has to consider that if a country with such an ideological premise and purported objective based on the continuation of the human race ever existed, it would attract all sorts of backward thinkers scattered in several right wing, evangelical and fringe libertarian movements across the world.

The only reason Gilead is met with any opposition in Atwood's universe is because they overthrew the bases of power of the most powerful country in the world, displacing these powerful actors but not handicapping their influence. This process not being gradual and offering a contrast as clear as night and day makes it easy for the world to see the drastic changes imposed and object to Gilead's reforms.

Nevertheless, "gileadism" is alive and kicking all over the world, surviving in pockets that don't attract the attention of the world because they are unimportant, too scattered, or too far away to make us realise how big they are when one weighs them all together

At the same time, the bases that give gileadism the environment to thrive in our backyards are not being laid in the noise of overnight coups but gradually and insidiously, like very slow growing grass "under the eye" of elected governments that see those proto-ideologies as just another fair set of opinions that deserve as much space as any other ideology for the sake of "balance", "freedom of speech" and "democracy".

For sure, a catalyst is missing, thanks Gods, to cause people and governments to exercise their twisted ideologies under the guise of the "greater good of the humankind" but have you ever considered that in practical terms, we have no spelled out universal legal predispositions that dictate that in a situation where the future of humankind were at stake we, as a race, would rather go extinct than lose our humanity by enslaving and exploiting other human beings in the pursuit of our preservation?

I am of the opinion that if we ever had to face our extinction, we should simply accept it, celebrate the great gig we had and live our last days the best way possible with free internet, Netflix and Amazon Kindle open access and massified psychological treatment for all. Just like Childhood's End.(less)

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The Handmaid’s Tale

by Margaret Atwood (Goodreads Author)

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