OCT–DEC 2017 AusTRAlIAN QuARTeRlY 3

iMAGE: © Rob Wilson - Facebook

In the first episode of The Handmaid’s Tale, Offred reflects

on how she and her fellow Handmaids found themselves

in their current predicament – living in a world where a

small group of elites have rewritten the law in line with an

inhumane and brutally enforced ideology.

‘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.’

ARTICle BY: Dr Cristy Clark

Law, legitimacy

and activism in the

Anthropocene

i

n the real world, there’s a

dominant narrative that we are

blindly walking down the path

to catastrophic climate change.

But the truth is even scarier – we

are being shepherded down this path

quite deliberately. We may have taken a

while to wake up, but ever since we did

and began to object, our governments

have been making ever-increasing use

of state power to silence us.

I reflected on this during a recent

trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier

Reef. Heron’s reef supports around 4000

turtles, while many more return to the

island in spring to nest. During one

afternoon snorkelling trip, I was lucky

enough to see three turtles, including

a small juvenile, feeding on seaweed

just metres from me. As I watched, my

feelings turned from wonder to horror