Better is never better for everyone.  It always means worse, for some.

–Commander Waterford in “Faithful,” from The Handmaid’s Tale, Season 1, Episode 5, and from the novel by Margaret Atwood.  Episode written by Dorothy Fortenberry

There’s much to unpack in that line, and I am not sure whether I believe it.  I’m trying to think of something in which better would be better for everyone.  We Idealists spend lots of time trying to imagine a world that is better for everyone.  I like to think that ending homelessness, hunger, and poverty would be better for everyone.  I suppose a case could be made that for those currently in power, it would be worse.  They would have less money somehow, but I’m not entirely sure how.  They would certainly lose much of the power they have now.  It would make it more difficult for them to tell the rest of us what to do all the time.  We would no longer be their wage slaves, forced to choose between working for them or facing those conditions.  I suppose in the short term it would be worse, but we would inevitably reduce crime by lessening desperation, and people would generally be less angry.  The wealthy would be safer.

Equality and Equity may not seem to be better for everyone.  Those at the top feel like they would be forfeiting their superiority.  I’m not convinced they are superior to the rest of us, but they certainly have the power to force many of us into positions we would rather not occupy.  Equality and Equity would reduce that power.  Justice usually accompanies these two, but I’m reluctant to decide what justice is in most cases.

Perhaps it’s the lust for power that separates those who have so much of it from those who have so little.  I, for example, have little interest in telling anyone else what to do with their lives.  I should like for them to pursue what interests them.  I would like them to be free to explore the world, the ideas that have helped to get us to the place that we have enough for everyone, their own ideas, and their own identities. 

I understand, then, I suppose, why some people are opposed to my Idealistic World.  It will mean less for a few and more for many.  Since the few have the power, they’re not likely to accept any such arrangement. 

The purpose, however, of our Democratic Republic is to give power to the many.  It is intended to rescue us from the power of the few.  We evicted a King in favor of having a President who would be elected by the majority of us.  And there are people now who would like very much to change that.

“​Now I’m awake to the world. I was asleep before. That’s how we let it happen. When they slaughtered Congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the constitution, we didn’t wake up then, either. Nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bathtub, you’d be boiled to death before you knew it.”

― Margaret Atwood

This is, of course, fiction… for the moment.  One of the horrifying aspects of The Handmaid’s Tale is its close resemblance to the world we already inhabit.  Margaret Atwood, and the producers of the show, have shown us a dystopian nightmare that quite nearly began on January 6, 2021.  Had that insurrection been successful there’s little room for doubt that those who seized power would have enacted laws similar to those in Gilead.  They have already stripped bodily autonomy from half the population.  They would like to tell us who can marry whom, now.  They have corrupted Christianity, which was never the law of the land in America, to be a weapon of hatred instead of a religion of love.  They declare homosexuality an abomination.  They are working to keep those who choose to explore other genders than those of their physical bodies as far from society as possible.  Rapists are seldom punished.  There are always questions about what the woman did to deserve what happened to her.  The answer, by the way, is nothing.  There’s nothing a person can possibly do that makes them deserve to be raped.

Right now, in America they are banning books.  Reading is illegal in Gilead.  The offense was originally punishable by the loss of a hand.  In their kindness, those in power reduced the penalty to a finger.  One can work more efficiently with the loss of a single finger than the loss of an entire hand, after all.  And a Commander’s Wife loses her finger for reading The Bible.  Fascists frequently turn on their own.  Ask Mike Pence.

While we are certainly perilously close to becoming Gilead, it’s vital that we realize we’re not there yet.  I’m not, in any way, minimizing the danger we are facing.  One of my friends, however, was shocked when I said we’re not there yet.  She’s sure we are.  Interestingly, she made this comment on Facebook, in response to one I made that she must have… read.  She used either her phone or her computer.  I assume she still has all her fingers.  In America, in September of 2022, she wasn’t breaking a law.  Had Offred (or June, which is her real name) made such a comment, the consequences of her words would have been swift and merciless.  We’re not Gilead… yet.

A case could be made that I ought to be careful about what I wish for.  (Yes, I ended a sentence in a preposition.  My late father is hovering over my shoulder telling me to take the corn cob out of my butt.). Gilead, after all, has no homelessness, poverty, or hunger.  Neither do prisons.  If one is willing to sacrifice freedom, some of the challenges in life can be eliminated.  We can simply discard the poor.  They can be executed and used for animal feed in Gilead.  Jonathan Swift suggested serving them as a delicacy at the tables of the wealthy in the 18^th century… except he was kidding, at least as much as someone with an 18^th century corn cob up his butt could kid. 

Among the reasons people can be convinced that Gilead is a good idea is that it removes our need to find out, for ourselves, who we are.  My father told me once that George Bernard Shaw said, “Most men would rather dig a ditch than think a thought.”  I assumed he was right.  I was accustomed to Dad always being right.  For the life of me, though, I can’t find that quote anywhere, and I’ve read my share of Shaw and done my due diligence Google searches.  So, if it wasn’t Shaw, maybe it is best attributed to Dad.  Whomever said, there’s more than a little truth in it.  

Introspection is difficult.  It is frightening.  When we begin to consider all the sorts of people we could be, it’s not unlike losing ourselves in the stars when we stare too long at the night sky.  I’ve actually become uncomfortably dizzy while stargazing.    While many of us find this exhilarating, there are plenty of us who prefer to keep our feet firmly planted on terra firma.  We cling tightly to the old and familiar.  Questions are frightening.  If something seems to be working for us, we don’t want to change it.

I used to get fucked behind a dumpster just so I could buy a sixth of Oxy and a Happy Meal. I’m clean now. I’ve got a safe place to sleep every night and I have people who are nice to me.

— Ofglen in The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1, Episode 5, “Faithful”

Fascist authoritarian dictatorships have their value, too.  I will, however, die before endorsing one.  Freedom has to exist before anything of value can be accomplished. 

The question now is how to save us from the Gilead we are about to become.  The first step needs to be to protect what freedom we still have.  As of September, 2022, we can still vote.  That fundamental right is under attack all over the country.  We need to keep those who threaten that right out of office.  I know it’s easy to be cynical and tell me that all politicians are corrupt, and voting is useless.  I won’t subscribe to that interpretation of our world.  It takes away the only weapon we have in this fight.  It’s tempting to endorse violence, but violence means killing, and killing makes us into what we oppose.  I won’t advocate that. 

We need to open our minds to more than one idea.  We need to consider things we haven’t before.  That doesn’t mean we have to accept them.  I won’t accept Gilead, but I will try to understand how our world might become that way so I can try to keep it from happening.  The only tool I have is my words.  My body is worthless.  My influence is less than insignificant.  I realize that.  And I will keep trying anyway because to do otherwise is to surrender. 

Dad also told me that Albert Camus said, “To believe you can change the world is insanity; failure to try is cowardice,” but I’ve never been able to find that line, either.  I think Dad just didn’t want to take credit for his best lines, so he pretended someone else said them realizing that, since Google wasn’t a thing yet, I would probably never know.  I don’t believe for a moment I can change the world.  I will always continue to try.  I’m secretly hoping you can do it. 

I joined the Patreon of one of my heroes, David Gerrold, last month.  It cost more than I can possibly afford, but I wanted to make an investment in myself and in this show.  I may eat more ramen for a while, but I hope to be a better writer.  One of our assignments was to describe our Ideal Audience.  You’re probably in these words.

My Ideal Audience

My great writer’s dream is that an up-and-coming politician, uncorrupted by the influence of lobbyists, corporations, or PACs, reads my work or listens to my show and decides to pass laws that help that unrepresented majority of us who hope only to make it to our next paycheck.  They change the world.  Everyone has a place to live.  Everyone has all the medical care they require.  Education is free for everyone forever.  Food is considered a human right and not a luxury for the chosen few.  I don’t know this reader or listener’s name, or gender, or age, or sexuality, or ethnic background, and I couldn’t possibly care less.  They’re my Ideal Audience.

I find that my actual audience is made up of kind and caring people who respond favorably to my Idealism.  They are compassionate.  They are empathetic.  Some of them have both of those qualities.  A few of them have a few extra dollars a month they contribute to my Patreon every month so I can make it to next month.  That’s probably more times that I’ve said month than I’ve said in the last… month.  Most of them are older people.  I’m unaware of any children who listen to my work, and it’s not written for them.  I taught Elementary School for 29 years.  I’ve done my bit for kids.  I’m talking to “gr’ups” now.  A few of them are in their 30s.  They seem to be a diverse group.  I don’t target any particular group.

I have a surprising number of Conservatives supporting my show.  I write with them in mind.  If I can avoid pissing them off, I might be able to get them to rethink some of their ideas.  One of them actually said, on more than one occasion, I’ve given him “something to think about.” 

I write for an audience that is at least as intelligent as I am.  I assume they’re familiar with Shakespeare, the classics, and current popular culture.  If they’re not, Google is readily available. 

Finally, my audience is Seymour’s Fat Lady:

“This terribly clear, clear picture of the Fat Lady formed in my mind.  I had her sitting on this porch all day, swatting flies, with her radio going full-blast from morning till night.  I figured the heat was terrible, and she probably had cancer, and — I don’t know.  Anyway, it seemed goddam clear why Seymour wanted me to shine my shoes when I went on the air.  It made sense.”

J.D. Salinger in Franny and Zooey

I feel a little like one of the underground broadcasters in Harry Potter when Voldemort has taken over.  I’m sending out messages hoping someone will hear them and do what I can’t.  I’m Piglet, sending out his message in a bottle in “Piglet is Entirely Surrounded By Water.”  I’m Josh Lyman in The West Wing yelling at the President that Bartlett needs to listen to him.  Josh was having a nervous breakdown at the time, however, and I try to remain calm.  And interestingly, Bradley Whitford played Josh Lyman in The West Wing, and he plays Commander Lambert in The Handmaid’s Tale.  Elisabeth Moss played Zoey Bartlett in the former show, and stars in the latter.  That makes the show strangely more personal for me.  I was friends with both of them two decades ago, in the way that we all become friends with fictional characters.  That adds to my catharsis.  Connections add to the power of an experience. 

I hope my connection with you is sufficient for you to help in what ways you can.  The midterms are coming.  This is not the time to sit them out.  Even if you are a very small animal like me, you can still vote.  If you don’t do it now, there is a very real possibility you won’t have the right to again.  Gilead is coming for us.  Let’s stop them while we still can.