The Handmaid's Tale Warned Us
When art presages reality
Yes, there are a lot of dystopian works that seem to be coming true these days, the most obvious being 1984 and Brave New World.
But I just started watching this one recently.
I’m a latecomer to The Handmaid’s Tale, so apologies if this seems woefully after the fact, but watching this in the post-covid, Great Reset world is chilling, to say the least…
If you think it’s only about feminism and Puritanism, I don’t think you’re getting it.
It’s about tyranny, how it creeps up on us, and what happens when it’s too late to realize it.
My favourite but scary quote is this one......"I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did it, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand. If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult.
It was after the catastrophe, when they shot the president and machine-gunned the Congress and the army declared a state of emergency. They blamed it on the Islamic fanatics at the time.
I was stunned. Everyone was, I know that. It was hard to believe, the entire government gone like that. How did they get in, how did it happen?
That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn't even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn't even an enemy you could put your finger on.”
― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale