I have always wondered how the country of North Korea functions in the face of a national ongoing case of dementia. How can it be that a even a minority of the population can not see clearly enough to know that their leaders are all major Bozo crazy? I guess brainwashing really does work but I never thought everyone in a country could be had.
Then I look at our U.S. House of Representatives and the GOP majority that is also Bozo crazy and I wonder if we are moving closer to the North Korean way of thinking. Which is not thinking at all. (At least we have electricity.) Could it be that the House GOP folks are pushing this country towards another term for President Obama? I think so. And even after all of my disappointments with his administration I can say that would be a good thing. He may be a wuss, but he is not living as a crazy person like most of his opponents.
Having said that I get the feeling that the republicans will reelect more of their reps than most people think. I see their base turning out stronger than Obama's. I read somewhere that if Obama were to run against a 2008 version of himself he would lose. I think that is true.
2 comments:
When I traveled to North Korea, the Foreign Ministry minders assigned to us could not understand the concept of questioning the actions of Kim Jong Il. Interesting story in today's NY Times about the public grieving in North Korea: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/world/asia/north-korean-mourning-blends-emotion-and-coercion.html?hpw
That was a rare opportunity, Gil.
As for my comment, I did not see any video but it was pretty mind boggling to hear those people wailing with grief on the radio. It may be that we are way more cynical but when something like this happens here, you're just as likely to hear wisecracks and jokes as expressions of grief or sadness, but maybe there was some of that out of camera shot in North Korea. Everything you saw from there came from the state media.
I think some insight into the psyche of North Koreans was provided by a couple of Koreans interviewed Tuesday on the Democracy Now program. You can read a transcript or watch or listen here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/12/20/the_death_of_kim_jong_il
My take was basically it goes back to Korea's division into two places by the great powers after WWII and to the inauguration of the Cold War, and the instillation of a military dictatorship in the South by the US. The Korean War was the opening volley of the Cold War and our bombs just leveled the cities of the North, and those people had no idea why.
Before, there was Korea, then the US split away the South part. In the North they see the US as aggressors and foreign occupiers, which we are.
Then there was a lot of trauma when the Soviet Union broke up and their economic ties disintegrated. They could not even get fuel to run their tractors. Then there was a series of droughts. More than a million people died of starvation.
Kim Jung Il's father was in charge for the first part of that but during the worst of it Kim Jung Il was in charge and led them through a very difficult period and is admired for it. He also got them the bomb. They see this as not an offensive weapon but as keeping the US, who they see as a hostile power, at bay. (Incidentally, Iran looks at North Korea and wants the bomb, too. Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, some of the Latin Americans countries, places without the bomb, have been overrun and destroyed by the US while North Korea has been left alone.)
But add to all that the isolation of North Korea and the oppressiveness of the government and it's easier to see why they act like Republicans.
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