{"id":13308,"date":"2017-06-09T00:06:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T07:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=13308"},"modified":"2017-06-09T00:08:38","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T07:08:38","slug":"omelettes-oligarchies-and-our-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/omelettes-oligarchies-and-our-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Omelettes, Oligarchies, and Our Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have been watching The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, a television series with a modern take on the 1985 dystopian novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. I read the original book some time ago, and this \"\"<\/a>current series is equally as chilling if not more so. The bottom line question is this: How far will religious zealots go to \u201csave\u201d their country from the punishment of God? As I read The Rise and Fall of Apartheid<\/em> by David Welsh, I found myself thinking about The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> but I struggled to understand why the two seemed linked in my mind.<\/p>\n

Welsh\u2019s book is an elegant if sometimes superficial telling of how the stage was set for South African apartheid, how apartheid created deep divisions and rage and, ultimately, the process through the racial oligarchy of apartheid gave way to democracy without the bloody race war so many were expecting. The crux of Welsh\u2019s conclusions about the ending of apartheid is that it may never have been accomplished without the unique leadership of Nelson Mandela and F.W. De Klerk. (566-567) Welsh\u2019s quote from Colin Eglin (566) frames Welsh\u2019s theory well:<\/p>\n

“\u2026low-intensity civil wars escalate until there is a clear winner and loser. South Africa, however, took a unique route, largely because of a rare display of leadership; a relatively conservative Afrikaner leader decided to negotiate before he had lost, and an imprisoned leader of a liberation movement decided to negotiate before he had won.” (Towards Democracy, 12)<\/em><\/p>\n

It is, of course more complex than that, but there is truth to the fact that both leaders saw the value in avoiding a vicious race war that would not serve the economy, nor would it serve the majority (the black South Africans). No one could truly \u201cwin\u201d if the leaders chose to ride out the revolution to its \"\"<\/a>bloody end. As Welsh notes, the government was recognizing the economic failure of apartheid repression, and the liberation movement was becoming aware that their costs in revolution would also be too much to bear. (575)<\/p>\n

What does this struggle and ultimate \u201cresolution\u201d to the apartheid state have to do with Margaret Atwood\u2019s novel or the show I am currently binge-watching? I think somewhere in the back of my mind, the two meld together into a blended cautionary tale for the world, and our nation in particular, today. How far will be go to \u201cprotect\u201d what we believe in? What moral boundaries are we willing to cross in order to perpetuate what we see as the \u201cright\u201d way? In a post-9\/11 world, we have already ceded some of the rights we once assumed in order to protect ourselves from terror, yet terror has not stopped. It seems we (citizens of the West) are willing to trade in some of the rights we hold dear in order to stop people who abuse those rights in order to commit acts of violence. For example, on June 6, Prime Minister Theresa May said that human rights laws may need to be changed in order to stop terrorists. How far are we willing to go? On one hand, we in America speak of arming every citizen against possible threat after passing a \u201cPatriot Act\u201d that allows the government to, essentially, negate many of the legal rights of anyone suspected of terrorism.<\/p>\n

How far are we willing to go?<\/p>\n

In one scene of The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, the handmaid tells her commander she is not particularly happy in the new regime (an understatement, by the way) even though they claim to be giving women more respect than ever before. He gives her the old saw, \u201cYou cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs.\u201d It seems that Mandela and De Klerk, as well as others in the opposing factions, were tired of \"\"<\/a>breaking eggs. Rather than continuing to hash it out in the streets of South Africa, a Reconciliation Commission was formed and the hard work of building democracy was started. It has not been without its struggles and weaknesses, but it is no longer apartheid.<\/p>\n

So where is our bottom line? At what point are we unwilling to break any more eggs, lay aside power and offense, and come to the table for a better form of our democracy? At what point can we set aside cynicism and skepticism just a bit to negotiate for what will hopefully be a better future for our children and grandchildren? I\u2019m asking this of myself \u2013 what are my bottom lines, and what am I willing to offer in compromise? I\u2019m afraid if we don\u2019t begin to have real conversations about breaking down the systems that cause harm to people, regardless of their political party, we may just end up in a \u201cwar\u201d that leaves us all at the mercy of those who could not care less about humanity but revel in their own power. And my daughters would\u00a0make terrible Handmaids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have been watching The Handmaid\u2019s Tale, a television series with a modern take on the 1985 dystopian novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood. I read the original book some time ago, and this current series is equally as chilling if not more so. The bottom line question is this: How far will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[975,980,997,994],"class_list":["post-13308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apartheid","tag-david-welsh","tag-handmaids-tale","tag-the-rise-and-fall-of-apartheid","cohort-lgp7"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13308"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13316,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13308\/revisions\/13316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}