The Handmaid's Tale--early

In the early part of this story, Offred, our heroine of sorts, is suppressed by technology, at least in her mind. There are the cattle prods handled by the Aunts, the cameras and other bugging devices, the shapeless robes and winged head gears (sounds familiar eh?, think Middle East) to keep the breeding class of women from having any individuality, and most importantly, the religion. So how is religion technology one might ask? Try watching FOX news sometime, but not too often, or might start to believe it. In WWII propaganda campaigns were used by both sides to de-humainze the enemy. Although this technique had been used throughout history (as Offred said you can't miss what you don't remember), WWII was when such methods were highly funded by major government bodies. The exact same thing goes on today every time you hear someone (maybe a specific someone) classify groups of people as terrorists or evil due to their allegiances. In this novel the religion is used to brain wash the culture into believing that educated women are sub human, calling them Unwomen, and going as far as killing heretics who's beliefs differed. This religion also promoted infanticide and prohibited medical comforts and support, claiming such things as un-godly. This in itself is a method of sedating a populous; Daniel Quinn: "Religion is the new age opium". The world proposed in this novel is a cross between Nazi Germany and Classical Greek.