For the most part an empire does not heed irony or nuance or satire. Such hubris of course are the seeds of its entropy.

Proof is the need for the Empire to silence its tricksters, turn them into clowns, ignore its thinkers, degrade education and critical thinking, in essence follow Rome's credo of bread and circuses.

The Empire of course needs its High Priests too...and Atwood used the Evangelical Right's response to mainstream feminism as the underpinning of Gilead and its 'Commanders'.

She was chillingly prescient...perhaps our time's Cassandra.

Good satire David.