In 2011 I read a book by Margaret Atwood titled The Handmaid’s Tale. It was hard for me,
even though it was a futuristic tale of the Gileadean regime. Atwood’s book told the tale of a
woman who was one of the “breeders” in Gilead before 2195 (possibly 150 years
prior to 2195, which might have put it around 2045).
Many of the books in my shelves were written in some place out of our own time, and many could be classed as sci-fi or similar. According to Wikipaedia, sci-fi is “a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.” Atwood’s novel could, for me, be described as dystopia: “…characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society.”
Dystopia describes what our world is becoming. Dehumanization is for real for so many people who are not rich – don’t have their own money; they are killed by hundreds of thousands by war-like governments who don’t care about them; they are shut up within a “civilised” country when they have tried to escape war in their own country; rape and violence is far too often. Religion is looked on as “good” when none prove they are – too many wars are in the name of religion; men take control in most countries; climate change is flicked off; trade agreements with other governments take over - and people who are dehumanized have no involvement. Yes, dystopia.
Who are you thinking about? Syria? Israel? Afghanistan? Try Australia, China, USA. Think of everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph and see if you can place it in Australia, China or USA. Or any other country which might seem a “good” country. Work out if that country has poverty. See if they have refugees. Look into recent history and find out if they’ve been at war anywhere in the world. And think if there is any “dehumanization” within your own country.
Recently the LNP “won” the election, lost three government votes this week when some of their politicians went home when they had no need to, and yet argues against Labour and opposition politicians who do what they should be doing. They argue about the Chinese donations when LNP also received them. They turn their backs on the climate change when the majority of the population agreed with it. They ignore poverty and try to move Newstart even lower when unemployed people never asked to be there. They reduce tax on multi-million profit companies who should pay more. They have responsibilities they ignore, such as the purchase of building products with asbestos from China. They have cut the funds from many charities which provide help to needie people or sick people or victims of rape and violence. And so much more which is spreading the gap in this country.
Many unemployed never chose unemployment, but have found out that 11:1 applications for work would be what they face. Many DSP people never chose DSP, but applied for work and have found out that they will be ignored because they are not really fit for work – except something like cleaning. Many can’t get past this, can’t find work, decent work. Government contractors take them on but can’t really help them. In fact, many contractors have shown that they are there to make money on the applicants when the applicants have no choice. Perhaps if the government got rid of these contractors there should be a lot more money for unemployed or DSP people.
The Conversation, FactCheck QandA, in May 2016 had been been told that Newstart hadn’t increased since 1996. They wrote that their checks proved that. Newstart only went up with CPI and “rates of Newstart have not increased substantially in real terms since 1996.”
Roy Morgan found that “[n]ow a high 11.0% of the workforce, 1,422,000 people, are unemployed – up 54,000 since March 2015 with the unemployment rate up 0.2% in a year while 1,011,000 Australians are under-employed – working part-time and looking for more hours.” It’s a real pity that these figures are ignored by LNP, and unemployed are blamed for their unemployment.
So why are politicians getting paid so high? Why are CEOs of any large company in Australia paid in the millions? Why does tax-avoidance happen by companies which pay part of their profit to their shareholders instead of paying the ATO? Why are house prices far too high? Why is rent too high for many Australians? Who owns too many properties but don’t care about who they rent to?
Have you, an employee still wonderfully employed, received a decent salary increase in the last year, two years, five years? Have you invested in your home, paid for your overseas holiday, eaten out evenings, private-schooled your kids, owned more than one family car? Can you pay to get your hair cut, your nails painted, new clothes, new shoes? Who is spending tens of thousands more dollars than any unemployed or DSP person or any other beneficiary can spend? Who cares about the rich-poor difference?
I wonder how many people are aware of what happens within the whole world, or especially within Australia. I wonder how many people care about any of this. I wonder how many people can relate anything in any alleged fiction to reality.
Gilead?
Should it be?
Many of the books in my shelves were written in some place out of our own time, and many could be classed as sci-fi or similar. According to Wikipaedia, sci-fi is “a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.” Atwood’s novel could, for me, be described as dystopia: “…characterized by dehumanization, totalitarian governments, environmental disaster, or other characteristics associated with a cataclysmic decline in society.”
Dystopia describes what our world is becoming. Dehumanization is for real for so many people who are not rich – don’t have their own money; they are killed by hundreds of thousands by war-like governments who don’t care about them; they are shut up within a “civilised” country when they have tried to escape war in their own country; rape and violence is far too often. Religion is looked on as “good” when none prove they are – too many wars are in the name of religion; men take control in most countries; climate change is flicked off; trade agreements with other governments take over - and people who are dehumanized have no involvement. Yes, dystopia.
Who are you thinking about? Syria? Israel? Afghanistan? Try Australia, China, USA. Think of everything I mentioned in the previous paragraph and see if you can place it in Australia, China or USA. Or any other country which might seem a “good” country. Work out if that country has poverty. See if they have refugees. Look into recent history and find out if they’ve been at war anywhere in the world. And think if there is any “dehumanization” within your own country.
Recently the LNP “won” the election, lost three government votes this week when some of their politicians went home when they had no need to, and yet argues against Labour and opposition politicians who do what they should be doing. They argue about the Chinese donations when LNP also received them. They turn their backs on the climate change when the majority of the population agreed with it. They ignore poverty and try to move Newstart even lower when unemployed people never asked to be there. They reduce tax on multi-million profit companies who should pay more. They have responsibilities they ignore, such as the purchase of building products with asbestos from China. They have cut the funds from many charities which provide help to needie people or sick people or victims of rape and violence. And so much more which is spreading the gap in this country.
Many unemployed never chose unemployment, but have found out that 11:1 applications for work would be what they face. Many DSP people never chose DSP, but applied for work and have found out that they will be ignored because they are not really fit for work – except something like cleaning. Many can’t get past this, can’t find work, decent work. Government contractors take them on but can’t really help them. In fact, many contractors have shown that they are there to make money on the applicants when the applicants have no choice. Perhaps if the government got rid of these contractors there should be a lot more money for unemployed or DSP people.
The Conversation, FactCheck QandA, in May 2016 had been been told that Newstart hadn’t increased since 1996. They wrote that their checks proved that. Newstart only went up with CPI and “rates of Newstart have not increased substantially in real terms since 1996.”
Roy Morgan found that “[n]ow a high 11.0% of the workforce, 1,422,000 people, are unemployed – up 54,000 since March 2015 with the unemployment rate up 0.2% in a year while 1,011,000 Australians are under-employed – working part-time and looking for more hours.” It’s a real pity that these figures are ignored by LNP, and unemployed are blamed for their unemployment.
So why are politicians getting paid so high? Why are CEOs of any large company in Australia paid in the millions? Why does tax-avoidance happen by companies which pay part of their profit to their shareholders instead of paying the ATO? Why are house prices far too high? Why is rent too high for many Australians? Who owns too many properties but don’t care about who they rent to?
Have you, an employee still wonderfully employed, received a decent salary increase in the last year, two years, five years? Have you invested in your home, paid for your overseas holiday, eaten out evenings, private-schooled your kids, owned more than one family car? Can you pay to get your hair cut, your nails painted, new clothes, new shoes? Who is spending tens of thousands more dollars than any unemployed or DSP person or any other beneficiary can spend? Who cares about the rich-poor difference?
I wonder how many people are aware of what happens within the whole world, or especially within Australia. I wonder how many people care about any of this. I wonder how many people can relate anything in any alleged fiction to reality.
Gilead?
Should it be?
“I wish this story were different. I wish it were more civilised. I wish
it showed me in a better light, if not happier, then at least more active, less
hesitant, less distracted by trivia. I wish it had more shape. I wish it were
about love, or about sudden realizations important to one’s life, or even about
sunsets, birds, rainstorms, or snow.”
The
Handmaid’s Tale,
Chapter 41
“…to institute an effective totalitarian system or indeed any system at
all you must offer some benefits and freedoms, at least to a privileged few, in
return for those you remove.”
Historical Notes on Handmaid’s Tale from the Twelfth
Symposium on Gileadean Studies, 26 June 2195
No comments:
Post a Comment