The Absurdly Deranged Fantasy of The Handmaid’s Tale
By: Daniel Goldman
Tags: Religion, Politics, Television, Sociology, Government

The Absurdly Deranged Fantasy of The Handmaid’s Tale

As a student of economics, history, and anthropology, I can only find the Handmaid’s Tale to be the deranged fantasy of someone who doesn’t understand a thing about how people function.

First, I want to admit something. I have not seen the entire series. I’ve seen pieces of it, and dived into the Wiki as well. I’ve read summaries of both the new series and the book. I cannot waste such a large amount of time on such nonsense. But if I’m going to call this story nonsense, I have to explain myself, though a bit of a disclaimer: this is somewhat of a rant.

Background and Nonsense

Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized ‘return to traditional values’.

The modern series does seem to be poking at environmental devestation, and I don’t reject sustainable practices. In fact, Politicoid’s original philosophy started as a combination of libertarianism and environmentalism. But there are so many issues with this idea.

But can we start with the fact that medical science has progressed far enough that plunging fertility rates are not a problem, because we can fertilize eggs and implant embryos into women do wish to have children? In fact, we’re really moving beyond this limited form of fertility treatment, as I addressed in my discussion on children with three biological parents.

Okay??

But alright. We have some environmental disasters and low fertility and roughly 300 million people spread across roughly 300 million square miles of land. And they are so easily controlled by a group of fundamentalists that not even most Christians would tolerate?

There is an actual moral to this story though. It is not the threat of religion that is the real concern, although the author clearly is having a fantasy about her hatred of religion. The real issue is that supposedly this takeover worked because they took over the existing power structure of the United States. In other words, the real weapon wasn’t religion. It was government.

But things get worse.

This is Not Early 20th Century Russia

It might seem obvious that a large scale takeover would go without too much of a problem. After all, the Bolshevik revolution succeeded — if you consider the establishment of an even more ruthless system a success. But there are major differences. Russia was a rural society at the time. They were largely illiterate, both linguistically and technologically.

There are so many people spread across such a large area that it would already be difficult to keep an eye on what they’re all doing. There would be huge pockets of people who would largely be out of control of the government. There are also a ton of guns in the United States. Many people, both on the “left” and the “right” are armed. There are even 3D printers that can print new guns.

There are also numerous people who are trained in radio technology. Indeed, the United States has a total of 758,032 licensed amateur radio operators. Many of them have significant technical knowledge. And that’s a small fraction of the people with information that could be used to fight an totalitarian regime.

Indeed, the only reason that our government is able to maintain control over us is because we accept it. The majority accept being ruled by this government. Most believe that while the government has its problems, it’s still a good institution that does right by us. It doesn’t, but people believe it does, and so the government maintains its power. If the majority rejected the government, it would lose its ability to control us.

Electricity

In the series, there’s electricity and technology, and all sorts of nice stuff. Who is maintaining the power grid? As it stands, maintaining the power grid takes a massive number of skilled people working around the clock. Who is maintaining the nuclear reactors, preventing them from melting down? It’s true that next generation nuclear reactors are passively cooled and will shut down on their own. But a lot of reactors in the country are actively cooled.

Gun Ownership

A final point about how America is not early 20th century Russia, or really wherever such strict order is maintained. The United States is well armed, and not just among conservatives. Even among liberals over 25% are armed. There are more guns than people in this country. Maybe if the zero gun tolerance agenda succeeds things will be different, but as of now, there’s really no way that Gilead would survive.

Maybe in the Book

From the reviews I’ve read, the book was a little different. For one thing, Gilead didn’t have electricity. There’s still the issue of managing the existing power plants, but okay. It could have worked back in 1985, though I still don’t buy it.

If Gilead as a whole went back to a time before most of our technology existed, it wouldn’t have a way to defend itself from incursion. It’s easy to defend a small region. It’s impossible to defend a massive region like the United States, without a lot of willing people and massive infrastructure.

Russia, China, and even the Pacific Islands would probably jump at the chance to take a piece of the United States. Mexico’s border would likely be extended North, and Canada’s border would likely be extended South. Other countries would quickly carve away at the nation until there was nothing left of Gilead.

Summery

Whether discussing the new series or the original book, there is so much that is just absurd about the story that it’s hard to call it anything but the deranged fantasy of the obsessed. There’s obviously an anti-religious and anti-Christian sentiment, and while fundamentalism is a problem, this view holds true for all forms of fundamentalism, whether religious or not. Moreover, if the story tells us anything, it is that the greatest danger is having a power structure in place that can control a large group of people, for such a power structure, if taken over by the wrong people, ultimately becomes the most dangerous weapon that humans have ever created.