Comment by cturner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cturner | Hacker News Reader

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Regarding the caste thing, had some more thoughts. Django Unchained plays with this. At first, you don't know where Stephen fits in. Is he a slave who "knows his place"? But he's so disrespectful! Gradually you learn that he has carved out a special role for himself at the expense of others.

There's lots of room for talking about knocks on the door, and who fears who in Pulp Fiction too.

Thinking about North Korea is interesting because the media coverage is so slim. What can I trust? Maybe I'm just living in a personalised version of the Truman Show. But the closest we have to a knock on the door is fear of economic strife, and very rare but overhyped incidents of domestic terrorism.

    > why there haven't been a popular revolt, against
    > the government, if people are that oppressed

Revolution is a rare thing.

I assume North Koreans have to deal with twisted language as well, and they're not allowed to talk to one another to work out their ideas. Marxism is filled with weasel words like "permanent revolution".

Imagine how your brain would work if you had been born and bred on a diet of astrology, and taught that even discussing interpretations of what the people with guns say will have immediate, dire consequences.

Most of history is dictatorship and compliance. What we have at the moment feels normal because it's what we know. But really it's a special exception to everything that has come before, and the reality for most of the people who are alive even today.

I'm glad you challenged the post, I didn't have a bunch of these ideas an hour ago.

It depends, whether this is the case with NK as well. As it is, they are indeed subject to a fair amount of our interference, Ideas, or whatever you call it.

But the fundamental issues of a country are poverty, education, shelter, etc. Why?

Well, if you are hungry, a lifetime of servitude to psychological brainwash, would not turn the millions of years of instinct. If that situation worsens, people across North Korea would have been angry, even if they don't express it immediately.

This anger, increases overtime based on atrocities caused by the government.

But imagine, America coming in to NK, in the name of liberalizing the people, and causing more death, famine, and stuff in the process, which is not avoidable.

It would be too easy for the great leader to propagate, and even easier for the people to accept, that all fault lies with America and its allies, thus causing a failure of attainment of objective, i.e to provide people a way to better life.

The war against NK, if it exist, is at the base level. Organizations like RedCross, UNESCO, and others have to be pressed upon.

Not more economic sanctions, and threats to a society, that understands very little about your intention.

Why are all the downvotes here? rikacomet isn't obnoxious, just making a point that you're uncomfortable with. Or maybe you can see flaws - if so then respond. If you can't explain why you disagree, maybe that's something you need to work on more constructively then silently downvoting something just because you disagree with it.

Maybe the propagandaid has seeped too far in the (un)conscious minds of people to the extent that they cannot/do not question their own reality (maybe to the same extent that NK's?) and feel the need to fight/put down all existential threats to such.

Then again, nothing more depleted uranium rounds can't fix because terrorism.

> But imagine, America coming in to NK, in the name of liberalizing the people, and causing more death, famine, and stuff in the process, which is not avoidable.

Ugh, this dichotomy of America as world police vs. cultures it doesn't really understand is juvenile at best.

The US drone strikes on Pakistani civillians are horrible, but if you want a lesson in brutality towards non-combatants, look no further than Pakistan during partition or the Bangladeshi independence war. The U.S. dropped nukes on Japan, but the atrocities carried out by the Japanese military at Nanking and Unit 731 are about the most terrible you'll read about outside of the Third Reich.

Morality, especially in terms of the actions of nations over time is complex and nuanced. Pointing out that the North Korean regime is fucking insane does not imply that you think the U.S. should roll in guns blazing.

> Organizations like RedCross, UNESCO, and others have to be pressed upon.

Pressed upon to do what exactly? Provide even more aid to the North Korean regime who will distribute it to citizens it deems fit to eat?

I applaud the sentiment here, but this belies either naivete about the complexities and long-term effects of supplying aid to developing countries (especially dictatorships) or a complete lack of knowledge about the North Korean track record.

The grim western consensus on the North Korean problem has always been to sit-tight and let the country implode and hopefully unify with the South, though whether this is likely to happen soon is anyones guess.

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