I have never diaried before, so please excuse my errors to come. Last night I finished re-reading The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, a science fiction novel written in 1985.
The first time I read the book it had just been released and I saw it as a fascinating look at events that could never happen in my America.
This second reading scared the shit out of me.
More Below...........
All through the book the little voice in my head was saying "This is happening now!" The rational voice reminded me, we do not have martial law, yet. Our Constitution has not been suspended, yet. Women are still allowed to work, own property, have banking accounts, at least for now. But there continued to be moments of foreshadowing in the book that continued to startle me.
Of course, the idea of the radical right taking over the country, used to seem kind of extreme, but now they obviously maintain a huge power base, funded by those tax free donations, which are filtered into the "right" competitor's campaign. Add to that the parishioners of any church willing to vote with the church's voice. The disingenuous leading the disinformed. Never under estimate the power of large groups of misinformed people too lazy to form an opinion.
But what truly gets me about Atwood's writing is some of the little details. Almost in passing, when she describes how America fell into its present form (during the story of the book). We do know that something very toxic has happened in the country, something so drastic many citizens are left sterile and in need of some outsider to bear the children. Then we learn that supposedly the the President and all Congress were gunned down. Martial law ensues and the Constitution is suspended. Eerily the one line the truly gripped me was "At first, they blamed it on the Islamic fascists" Ohh, starting to get close to home.
I started thinking - what kind of event could lead us to the point a take over - by any extremist organization -would be possible. Given georie's recent press conferences, the first thing that comes to mind is avian flu. He has already told the country he will use martial law when, not if, the pandemic arrives. So lets prepare, righ?
Last week I began hearing reports about Rumsfield's holdings in a company which developed Tamiflu. The one drug believed to be useful against avian flu and with the potential to prevent millions of deaths - if they wanted to, but they really do not, they just want to drive up the stock prices and make sure those who count get their vaccinations. All the reports I heard were regarding Hoffman LaRoche as the drug company. But in reality, the drug's patent is not held by Hoffman LaRoche, it is just the distributor. Also, it is not the company Rumsfield is a board member of. The drug was developed by and the patent is held by Gilead Sciences, Inc.
And what was the name of the new republic in The Handmaids Tale, the republic where everyone, except a select few, are stripped of all rights, woman are classified by their ability or non ability to bear children and one must dress according to their place in society? Why - it was the Republic of Gilead.
Does Rummy know something we do not?