View Full Version : Kim Jong-Il's funeral procession
Have you seen the video of this? People are wailing and screaming. Is this just a big put-on? Maybe they told them that the people looking the most distraught would get food or money? Its just hard to believe that with the way he treated them, they would be so distraught.
It was interesting on the first day after his death, seeing everyone in neat rows, sort of like a military formation, on their knees and beating the ground as they cried in anguish. The spontaneous choreography was quite impressive.
Have you seen the video of this? People are wailing and screaming. Is this just a big put-on? Maybe they told them that the people looking the most distraught would get food or money? Its just hard to believe that with the way he treated them, they would be so distraught.
I think it's a cultural thing and put on at the same time.
And not a wet eye in the house. ;)
It's pretty bizarre, but then consider the source...
Miss Cellane
12-29-11, 10:20am
From what I've gathered, the entire country is so isolated from the rest of the world that they have no basis for comparison. These people may truly believe that their dead president did a lot for them--protecting them from the evil of the US and Europe. Propaganda, done well, is a frightening thing.
It might be like an abused child. Many times, they feel totally dependent on the abusive parent and actually don't allow any negative thoughts about the parent into their heads..........at least not until they are older..........and freer.
From what I've gathered, the entire country is so isolated from the rest of the world that they have no basis for comparison. These people may truly believe that their dead president did a lot for them--protecting them from the evil of the US and Europe. Propaganda, done well, is a frightening thing.
It makes me wonder what kind of lens we see things through.
ApatheticNoMore
12-29-11, 12:26pm
Have you seen the video of this? People are wailing and screaming. Is this just a big put-on? Maybe they told them that the people looking the most distraught would get food or money? Its just hard to believe that with the way he treated them, they would be so distraught.
It could be cultural yea, and he is familiar (his rule represents long periods of people's lives - maybe it's kinda like losing a not very good friendship or job or something that nontheless you have had for a very long time - I mean ok a bad ruler is *much* worse than that, but it's just an analogy), and they might be isolated from the rest of the world.
OTOH I find no shortage of people in my own rather authoritarian country that uncritically worship the powerful and I wish the human race would just wake up! And stop making powerful people their heros just because they hold power.
I heard (on the radio,probably NPR) that when the first Kim died, people were punished for not showing enough grief.
I like seeing the old Cadillac s and Continentals they use in the funeral procession. They must be from the 1960s or 70s.
I heard (on the radio,probably NPR) that when the first Kim died, people were punished for not showing enough grief.
So, grieve for your lives.
So, grieve for your lives.
A little sick when you really think about it, but that line made me laugh, Tiam. It's the kind of thing the writers of Monty Python wished they would have come up with.
I didn't watch any of it, but knowing the way the leader was, flogging, starving, and controlling every aspect of his people with an iron fist, I was gobsmacked when I heard of all the public display or sorrow. It definitely does not add up, unless of course, the people are that brainwashed...
A little sick when you really think about it, but that line made me laugh, Tiam. It's the kind of thing the writers of Monty Python wished they would have come up with.
Even more Monty Pythonish is their official photoshopping which resulted in pictures of a 9 foot tall soldier standing at attention at the funeral
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/9-foot-tall-supersoldier-mourns-kim-jong-il/250658/
http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/7011/wassoorney.jpg
We shall not see his like again. I surely hope.
I heard on the news that supposedly there was a giant who lived there.
Bronxboy
12-31-11, 12:09am
@bae
I just noticed that the windshield of the windshield of the car with the picture on top is almost completely snow-covered. Windshield wipers would be disrespectful to the dear leader, but so would crashing the car.
@creaker
I wonder about that myself. As someone with immigrant parents, I sometimes take an outsider's view. It isn't always pretty. When sealing the borders is mentioned in political debates, I'm very conscious of the fact that fences work in both directions.
Miss Cellane
12-31-11, 8:02am
A couple of years ago, I saw a documentary about a couple of North Korean girls who were competing to be acrobats in an annual display for Kim. There wasn't much, but there were bits and pieces, including some translation of television news programs, where it was clear that every single scrap of information the people had about the world outside North Korea was tightly controlled by the state. There were, if I recall correctly, comments about the nuclear threat that the US posed to North Korea on a daily basis, and something that put the blame on the "food shortage" on outside countries, and something about how the US caused power blackouts, even in the capital city.
If that's all you ever hear, and you are told over and over and over again that your leader is doing his best for you, you would start to believe it. And if any sort of independent thought is punished, you learn to keep those thoughts very, very hidden.
ApatheticNoMore
12-31-11, 10:55pm
There wasn't much, but there were bits and pieces, including some translation of television news programs, where it was clear that every single scrap of information the people had about the world outside North Korea was tightly controlled by the state. There were, if I recall correctly, comments about the nuclear threat that the US posed to North Korea on a daily basis, and something that put the blame on the "food shortage" on outside countries, and something about how the US caused power blackouts, even in the capital city.
If that's all you ever hear, and you are told over and over and over again that your leader is doing his best for you, you would start to believe it. And if any sort of independent thought is punished, you learn to keep those thoughts very, very hidden.
Yes pretty ridiculous. But I really don't wonder how it happens because I see it happening around me now. The U.S. is becoming North Korea? Well no, the two countries really don't have that much in common and we certainly aren't following their particular model of dictatorship (based on communist ideology and so on).
But the U.S. seems to be becoming an almost but not quite yet police state, an almost but not quite yet dictatorship. Protestors are not yet gunned down in the street or imprisoned for decades for the most part. But NDAA is passed all but the presidents signature which is chillling and certainly raises that imprisonment potential. How does it happen here? The media barely covers it (every scrap of information is not yet controlled by the state, just the mainstream media almost never covers anything of any importance). The people are out to lunch, they don't protest and raise heck. Their so called representatives sell them out. And that is part of how it happens here. And I feel incredibly guilty and sad for not having protested more in the last 10 years when I see the guns finally pointing inward (towards the "homeland") now. I still slept even though I thought I was awake.
Haha, happy new year. The clouds on the horizon could not be darker (economic, environmental, political), but the government even if almost dictatorial is not yet totalitarian (meaning there is still room for a life outside politics, even if I think we must fight what is going on consistently). So enjoy that life in the new year, while trying to hold accountable the crazies (politicians) all over the world trying to run the asylum into the ground and getting scarier by the minute.
Have you seen the video of this? People are wailing and screaming. Is this just a big put-on? Maybe they told them that the people looking the most distraught would get food or money? Its just hard to believe that with the way he treated them, they would be so distraught.
I think this explains it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085636/North-Korea-cracks-mourners-didnt-genuine-death-Kim-Jong-il.html
North Korea's hardline regime is punishing those who did not cry at the death of dictator Kim Jong-il, according to reports.
Sentences of at least six months in labour camps are also apparently being given to those who didn't go to the organised mourning events, while anyone who criticised the new leader Kim Jong-un is also being punished.
Those who tried to leave the country, or even made a mobile phone call out, were also being disciplined, it has been claimed.
That's what I feared. .........actually, I thought they might pay them to cry, or give them food, but it was much worse than that.
That's what I feared. .........actually, I thought they might pay them to cry, or give them food, but it was much worse than that.
It's pretty much traditional behaviour for communist regimes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_regimes
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