Thursday, January 11, 2007

The Great and Dear Leaders

A series of YouTube videos, described by Samizdata and probably salvaged from the propaganda archives of North Korea, are wonderfully informative examples of "lessons from the Third World" that certain credulous people swallowed hook, line and sinker not so very long ago. And possibly to this day. The video shown below, is one of my favorites showing Kim Il Sung as the Invincible Leader, an appellation wholly at odds with his ridiculous appearance. Samizdata comments:


However, I find this sort of thing quite fascinating; lots of interesting tidbits to be found. For example, part three sees Kim Jong-il being exhorted for easing all the Great Leader's concerns about the people's welfare (a common theme), in this instance in the field of "traffic problem". What bloody traffic problem?? There Is nary a car to be seen motoring down the wide boulevards and highways shown. (Fair enough, those ridiculously broad motorways were designed to serve more than one purpose.) In part four, the two Kims are seen pouring over an architectural mock-up of Pyongyang in a manner most reminiscent of those Speer/Hitler snaps showing them admiring a model of the Berlin they were going to create after they won the war. Hopefully, the latter day town planners meet a similar fate as their similarly megalomaniacal forebears.

Samizdata's hope is probably misplaced. In many progressive circles North Korea is probably still regarded as a harbinger of the future; an intimation of the worker's paradise; a shining example of Communist triumph in the Third World. The fact that all these descriptions are a crock of s**t is a minor detail.

16 Comments:

Blogger Meme chose said...

For at least 100 years now a consistent pattern has been visible under which a substantial portion of our academics and leftists have been drawn to idolize the most criminal and repressive regimes on the planet, as long as they declare themselves irrevocably opposed to the United States.

As the nature of these regimes shifts over time from Marxist to Islamist to presumably something else, and it becomes ever clearer that depravity and hostility are the only common elements, even our academics and leftists may one day come to see that there is something wrong with this.

One can hope.

1/11/2007 04:56:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Meme chose said, "...even our academics and leftists may one day come to see that there is something wrong with this."

Presumably it will happen right around the time the intellectuals get 70 lashes in the public arena formerly known as Yankee Stadium for writing anti-sharia columns, right before the main event, the Stoning of the Sodomites.

1/11/2007 05:06:00 PM  
Blogger wretchardthecat said...

Here's another one that is almost as funny. I can understand some poor illiterate dirt farmer falling for this kind of s*** but what sort of educated man can watch this dreck and run out into Berkely to march nude on North Korea's behalf? Alas, lots.

1/11/2007 07:01:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah, the wonders of communism - let the elite think for you. You just have to harmonise and sing along with the lyrics - even if they don't make sense , even if you don't believe in them!

wretchard, thanks for the links!

I used to complain about Korean dramas being too soppy and melodramatic. Now I can see why South Korean dramas are not that bad after all.

1/11/2007 08:12:00 PM  
Blogger Alexis said...

wretchard:

A poor illiterate dirt farmer may be more able than an academic to notice how the emperor is wearing no clothes.

1/11/2007 11:15:00 PM  
Blogger RWE said...

I think a major problem we have is that most of us can’t take these guys seriously. I mean, how worried can you get about a country whose leader looks and dresses like a guy who should be sweeping out a gas station – and that’s all, because the owners dare not have him do something complicated like handle the Full Service lane.

Then there is the President of Iran, who looks like he should be behind the counter at a 7/11 – the one you don’t go to any more because he can’t figure out how to run the Slurpee machine.

On the other hand – the guys prancing nekkid at Berkley probably could not figure out how to pump gas or dispense excessively refrigerated drinks, either. Except they would be proud of the fact.

1/12/2007 06:20:00 AM  
Blogger Cosmo said...

What a disgrace. Thousands of years of civilizational development and all the North Koreans are entitled to is an industrialized version of tribal feudalism tarted up with discredited ideology.

And by the way, I'd just like to know what un-noticed wars North Korea has been fighting in all these years that would entitle those generals surrounding the little gangster to hang so much fruit salad on their chests.

And, yes, it's sometimes hard for us here to take seriously what is, in fact, human organization and behavior in its most lethal and brutal form -- a world of pathological violence accountable to no one. Think Tony Soprano in charge of everything (although Tony'd likely be better on economic matters).

But, of course, we mustn't judge . . . have so much to learn . . . and 'evil' is such a relative and unnecessarily provocative term . . . (ptui)

1/12/2007 08:34:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The entire country is a military version of Antique's Roadshow. Between the 30 year old fighters and 40 year old tanks NK is a collectors dream come true.

I'm also envious of their wide, traffic free boulevards. I wish I could have that lady traffic cops job, must be easy as heck with only four cars on the road at any one time.

1/12/2007 09:14:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

And please note, folks, N Korea as it is now is what the Left would have happen in Iraq, Iran, all of Africa, South and Central America, and anywhere they consider to be not worth soiling their lilly-white or lilly-black hands over. Which is everyhere.

Where is the Democrat's plan for Iraq? Take a look at North Korea. That was their plan. Worked fine according to them. No one is getting killed - that we know about - although everyone is dying.

P.S. The "Mom" in that video was kinda cute. Is she available for purchase?

1/12/2007 09:56:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They got lots of cute girls there, rwe, if you read the captions.
Plenty of Fruits and Nuts, also.
---
Propaganda USA:
I got an A in Phallus 101 - Los Angeles Times
---
You might wonder how a lesbian can have a phallus, or whether it's possible to say "phallologocentrism" three times without tripping on your tongue, but if so, it's likely that you won't be getting an "A" from Occidental professor Jeffrey Tobin, who is teaching the course this spring semester. Also this semester, Occidental will offer the course that the Young America's Foundation rated No. 5 in bizarreness: "Blackness." This class will explore "new blackness," "critical blackness," "post-blackness," "unforgivable blackness" and "queer blackness."

1/12/2007 10:01:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Whiteness" is of course a prerequisite. Really!

1/12/2007 10:03:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

songun-blog

Always Working Together For The People - Part 6

Bush the war criminal warmongering mental retard stupid corporate redneck capitalist cowboy is evil to the point of sucking out the blood of veterans of his criminal wars of aggression, but the Dear Leader Comrade Generalissimo Kim Jong Il the brilliant statesman political genius, prodigious humanist and invincible military commander is a very loyal leader who take the loving care of the veterans of the Revolutionary Anti-Japanese Liberation War and the Fatherland Liberation War.
---
When the Great Leader went abroad to conduct international affairs he could always work in ease of mind knowing that Comrade Kim Jong Il was back home. "All the world leaders are envious of our country because of our solution to the problem of the Revolution's successor" said President Kim Il Sung.

This is part six of the Korean documentary "Always Working Together For The People"

1/12/2007 10:11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Fat German Rabbits to Feed Poor
Monster Bunnies For North Korea

An east German pensioner who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by North Korea to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country.

1/12/2007 10:17:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Potential Chinese buyers have also expressed an interest. Szmolinsky doesn't know how many more rabbits he will be sending to North Korea and said he definitely wouldn't be increasing his own production to satisfy growing demand from Asia.

"I'm not increasing production and I'm not taking any more orders after this. They cost a lot to feed," he said.

1/12/2007 10:19:00 AM  
Blogger RWE said...

Doug: Are you sure that the "Bunny Farm" is not related to the surplus of cute girls in North Korea and the reported comeback of the Playboy Clubs?

1/12/2007 10:27:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Herr Karl thinks HIS Bunnies are expensive!
---
U.S. and South Korean soldiers escort a North Korean soldier, center, to
repatriate him to North Korea

Them South KOreans just got better GENES.

1/12/2007 10:34:00 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home


Powered by Blogger