The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Claire Berlinski, Ed. ·
Dec 19, 2011 at 3:15am
You just cannot get weirder, at least not on this planet.
- Comment (43)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (3)
Comments :
Mar '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
I would love to conclude that the hysterical Koreans of this video are cynically doing their duty to ensure that they won't get into trouble -- in the same grim way that, as Solzhenitsyn related in The Gulag Archipeligo, those at party meetings in the 30s Soviet Union would continue applauding Stalin until hands were bleeding, for no one dared to be seen to be the first to stop.
But I fear that a small but significant proportion really have attached themselves to the North Korean leadership as their actual deities.
How are such people eventually normalised?
When East Germany was subsumed into a greater, free, capitalist Germany, at least by then there were few if any true believers left.
May '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
The first three people to cease weeping will be shot.
Sep '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
I wonder if these people are also nomenklatura of some sort so that they really may have something to lose in the inevitable power struggle. Beyond strange regardless.
May '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Mesquito wins again!
Oct '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
For some, the same way a cultist is deprogrammed or how a person kidnapped and locked in a basement for two decades is brought back to reality. But for the vast majority, when they finally can live w/o all-pervasive insecurity and material want, the magic of retail therapy will bring them around in a matter of a few months. Thankfully, like the East Germans, they have wealthy cousins next door.
Sep '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Yes, definitely. Well fed, aren't they?
Apr '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
God help them.
Jul '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
"Oh, great... Just when I was allowed to get over Kim Il-sung.... now this. It's always back to step 1 'round here...."
You'd Better Cry For Me North Korea
Oct '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
It’s a good time to remember Totalitarian Leadership Rule Gen 3.
First Generation = true believers.
Second generation = protecting their privileges.
Third generation … it all falls apart.
This was true for Soviet Bolshevism. It was true for the Italian mafia in the US. It is starting to play out in Cuba, modified slightly due to the unusual longevity of Fidel. China’s communists are hoping that by massively transforming who they are they can avoid Rule Gen 3; they are buying time but will ultimately fail (but the ‘fail’ may be less violent as a result).
It will happen in North Korea next. Strap on your seatbelts for a bumpy ride. But by the end of 2013, North Korea will be free. You simply can’t maintain a nation-wide penal colony into the third generation of leadership.
You heard it here first, folks. [:-)
Mar '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Gaby Charing
Yes, definitely. Well fed, aren't they? · Dec 19 at 4:16am
I was thinking they looked pretty hale too. Not like this little guy:
It's tough not biting the hand that feeds you when you don't know which hand that is going to be. The best bet is to stand around crying your eyes out until a "winner" emerges.
Mar '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Best tweet this morning is a retweet from @AceofSpadesHQ originally from @jstrevino: I'd like to think God let Havel and Hitchens pick the third.
Dec '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Claire, now imagine this event 1,000 times the size and 1,000,000 times more dangerous and influential. Now you are imagining Stalin.
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Exactly.
And people have forgotten, or they never knew in the first place.
Jan '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
HVTs: It’s a good time to remember Totalitarian Leadership Rule Gen 3.
First Generation = true believers.
Second generation = protecting their privileges.
Third generation … it all falls apart.
You heard it here first, folks. [:-) · Dec 19 at 4:33am
Change some of the words but don't we have that here? The 1st generation neglected to teach subsequent generations the effort required to resist this rule.
Oct '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Yeah...ok.
HVTs: It’s a good time to remember Totalitarian Leadership Rule Gen 3.
First Generation = true believers.
Second generation = protecting their privileges.
Third generation … it all falls apart.
You heard it here first, folks. [:-) · Dec 19 at 4:33am
Change some of the words but don't we have that here? The 1st generation neglected to teach subsequent generations the effort required to resist this rule. · Dec 19 at 5:00am
This applies to totalitarian rule not our constitutional republic. (The source of our problems lies elsewhere.)
Interestingly, however, our Gen 3 leadership did face an existential crisis … the Civil War. Lincoln, born 20 years after the Constitution took effect, is our preeminent 3rd generation leader. We weathered the 3rd Gen storm precisely because we first obliterated the association of political power with heredity—be it genetic or ideological.
Jan '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Claire, how clever of you to re-title that very famous video from seven years ago:
"Yankee Fans React to Game 7 of the 2004 American League Playoffs"
Mar '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Nothing like thousands of exhausted, starving people all suffering mass Stockholm syndrome at once. On video.
Happy holidays! :)
Nov '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
You'd almost think someone special, like Princess Diana, had died.
May '10
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
Actually, Koreans are quite emotional at "real" funerals, with a great deal of open and highly dramatic sobbing and weeping, so they are not doing anything utterly strange from their point of view. Of course, they would be sent to a place worse than Auschwitz if they didn't put on a good performance and they know it.
Mar '11
Re: The Breathtaking Weirdness of the Hermit Kingdom
This sort of thing is really just for the family, you know.