Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise
5 hours ago
Friday, November 21, 2014
The disturbing example of North Korea
Just about anyone who doesn't actually live in North Korea thinks the country is a nut job place. Even Somalis can thank their lucky stars that they don't live in North Korea.
The really disturbing thing is that the country functions at all. The majority of the people live in near feudal conditions. A tiny elite live like kings. In spite of all its problems the country has been able to build nuclear weapons.
So what's going on here? The North Koreans and the South Koreans are the same people, yet the south is a prosperous place, a rich highly technological society. The big difference between the two countries is that the northern rulers manged to lock down the country. By limiting the citizens knowledge of the outside world, they created a bubble of illusion. North Koreans used to think that they were the lucky ones. There have been some cracks in the bubble allowing some information to get in. It doesn't help that their main ally and neighbor, China, has done so well in recent years. For now, however, the isolation holds.
Now here's the idea that keeps me up at night. We are all living in North Korea. Hear me out. The rest of the world may be locked down in its own way. What if a tiny nut job elite is keeping the rest of us down? How would we know? They control the schools, the media, and the governments. We could all be living in an oppressive bubble and not even suspect. What would a more egalitarian world look like?
How come automation hasn't reduced everyone to a 15 hour work week? Maybe we should be living in a poverty free world, with access to health care and higher education. Anyone else get the uneasy feeling that we should be living a lot more free than we do now? Has the wool been pulled over our eyes?
What's to keep the rest of the world from slowly devolving into a replica of North Korea? We can see the rich are getting richer. The middle class is becoming the poor class. The poor are . . . dying. North Korea has shown that it's possible to keep the average people suppressed and poor while being to have a tiny core of high technology.
Is there the possibility of everyone living in a much better world but the powers that be are keeping us from even knowing it could be real? How would we know?
. . . unless it's just a sick uneasy feeling that the world is not the world we should have.
-Sixbears
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many of us do suspect.
ReplyDeletedeb h.
So . . . what are we going to do about it?
Deletedear mr. s,
Deleteone bad apple, or 2 or 3 , may not spoil the barrel-full if detected and evicted quickly.
but this barrel is beyond decontaminating.
all the rotten mush must go, barrel chlorined and left in the sun, then used for something unrottable in future.
i know you are not conventionally godly but fasting and praying [i'm not fasting by the way, and praying only for God's armor around the innocent] are the only way to help because we are beyond human help.
every civilization undergoes the same rhythm.
as in 'captain, the orrrrbit is decayin' '.
it is just that now nuclear weapons make it possible for the prophecies to be fulfilled.
it is inevitable. i just wonder if our generation will see the conflagration foretold.
Jesus told all that would happen and said 'but the end is not yet.' so i cannot get panicked because we see the beginning of birth pangs.
it is possible that we are at a dead end.
deb h.
Of course this world is not the world we should have but, it's the one we've got. And for most of the ninety nine percent it's not going to get any better any time soon.
ReplyDeleteUnless there's a world revolution...
There are revolutions and there are revolutions. It doesn't help changing the people if we keep falling into the say handful of systems.
DeleteI sense more is to come.
ReplyDeleteInteresting times.
DeleteAfter our generation is gone, who will be left to teach what freedom really is? This the the reason for Common Core. The dumbing down and repression of free, intelligent thought. Everyone gets indoctrinated with only information you need to know to follow orders.
ReplyDeleteIt's up to us to keep the flame alive.
DeleteWe really ARE in that state, Sixbears, and unless the ones who know better in Congress get off their tushes and do something, we will be just like Chickenmom says in 1 generation, and another North Korea in 3.
ReplyDeletei am amazed and disturbed how quickly people adapt to "the new normal."
DeleteThe cuts to education are a big reason I see why the "poor" consistently voted against their own interests. It really is mind-boggling.
ReplyDeleteThe are not educated -they are schooled. There's a big difference.
DeleteMy Father-in-law always said he wouldn't mind a dictatorship as long as he was the dictator. Another way of saying that the people on top think everything is OK.
ReplyDeleteThey have no idea what life on the bottom is like.
DeletePersonally, I wouldn't want the job of dictator. Not worth the bother.
congrats to the first indication of "intelligent lifeform"
ReplyDeletenot seen for a damn too long time
may others start "catching it"
Wildflower
Maybe it's going around . . .
DeleteOutstanding writing Six, good job!
ReplyDeleteNow I wonder what I should do?
Thanks Mike!
DeleteDo what feels right in your heart. Our heads have been lied to too much.
Years ago my cousin was expounding the benefits of the payroll çomputer system my father had bought for his company. My cousin commented on how the job would take half the time and the staff wouldn't have to work so hard. My fathers instant retort was that he woukd halve the staff.
ReplyDeleteThis, to me, was one of my earliest lessons in reality. Computerisation has bought many benefits but the cost if often larger than most imagine!
It's like that across many industries. I remember talking to old lumber jacks. They said they cut a lot more wood with chainsaws than by axe, but didn't make any more money.
Delete