In this scene on pages 210-211, the handmaid is having a (banned) private conversation with one of the people in charge of reengineering the society.
"I like to know what you think, his voice says, from behind me.
I don't think a lot, I say lightly. What he wants is intimacy, but I can't give him that.
There's hardly any point in my thinking, is there? I say. What I think doesn't matter.
Which is the only reason he can tell me things.
Come now, he says, pressing a little with his hands. I'm interested in your opinion. You're intelligent enough, you must have an opinion.
About what? I say.
What we've done, he says. How thing have worked out.
I hold myself very still. I try to empty my mind. I think about the sky, at night, when there's no moon. I have no opinion, I say.
He sighs, relaxes his hands, but leaves them on my shoulders. He knows what I think, all right.
You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs, is what he says. We thought we could do better.
Better? I say in a small voice. How can he think this is better?
Better never means better for everyone, he says. It always means worse, for some."
(emphasis mine)
The notion of governmental changes with good intentions to make things better for some with the unintended consequence of making it worse for some really struck me and has been on my mind in the weeks since I first read that passage. I could write an essay about current events and today's politics and the economy related to this notion right now if I so chose.
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