It has been awhile since I’ve sat down to
write, and I’m sorry it has taken me so long to write this particular
piece. Since going to the DMZ, I
realized I had a lot to think about and process from that visit. And as time went by (and kept going by…) this
account got harder and harder to write.
Not because of memory, although I admit, that has a habit of failing me.
Sometimes. Only sometimes. I think…
No, it’s more of
the idea “Where to start?” I know I
wrote about the history that brought us to the formation of the 38th parallel,
but seriously? Where to start? It’s a
dividing line, and it’s not objects we’re talking about, but people. Living, breathing people. It’s you.
It’s me.
We often say we
don’t understand what “they” can be thinking on the other side of the line, but
actually in a way, yes, we can. We ARE
all human, so yes, that could be us on the other side of that 4 kilometer
space. And yes, that could be, and is, us. We are a product of our environments. “Ours” happens to be drastically different. But “we” are not different.
What would you
do? Take away the typical western
automatic individualistic reply, “I’d do blah, blah, blah and get away and blah,
blah, blah. And then I’d: blah, blah,
blah.” But reality doesn’t work that
way. That’s delusional to think that we
would be the same person as we are now, if we were there. The environment is different. Ideas are different. Ideas are typically hard to shake.
For example, (not related to the DMZ): “Where
do trees get their size from?” Ask a
large sample of random average people this question. Very few can give the correct answer. Even fewer know how to find the correct
answer, (very few actually care to find the answer). And when you tell them the answer, most will
look at you cross-eyed and say “You are nuts. Who cares?” Even if you explain the reason. How do you change that? You give them the tools to discover the
answer. And have them prove it for themselves. Even then there are some who will stubbornly
dismiss the evidence and continue on their way. (The answer is at the bottom )
The same goes
for ideology. And it is a humanly devastating
ideology across that little border. With
all its secrecy, North Korea has been provoking a lot of global interest, which
may be both the country’s purpose and its annoyance.
Ok, number one
thing to remember when dealing with any information dealing with North Korea: It’s all about the “Dear Leader”. All three Kims have been and are still the
Dear Leader (yes, I know two of them are dead now but still…Dear Leader). Technically it is a socialist republic and
elections are held. BUT, in reality it
is a totalitarian dictatorship, in every sense of the term. Even more so than most of the extreme dictatorships
we’ve come across. The people revere the
Dear Leader.
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| Arirang games -Creative Commons |
The Dear Leader:
Who created an ideology of “self-reliance” called juche, but is often called kimilsungism (conveniently coined by Kim
Jung Il-his son). Kim Il Sung, remember,
is the general appointed by the Soviets to head the northern troops after WW2
and before the Korean War. He then
became the first president of North Korea and basically created the country we
know today. His ideology basically, was
that the people are the “masters of their country’s development” and “military-first”. It stresses the idea of the Korean nation as being
number one, and although it had its roots in Marxism, it evolved into a more
nationalistic and stringent entity that found its own unique solutions to the
problems in Marxism. Marxism was
materialistic at its center. Kimilsungism
claims to have people as its center. And
Kim Il Sung was at the center of the people.
That’s the theory
anyway. The whole philosophy was that
General Kim Il Sung ruled by force of personality and that evolved into the let’s
worship him as a deity, endowing him with the title Eternal Leader. He is the only one of the three North Korean Presidents
with this title Eternal Leader. All
three are Dear Leader, but only the first was Eternal Leader. The Eternal Leader was worshipped as a deity,
although North Korea has adopted the Marxist ideology of state atheism, which
oddly enough, contradicts the ideas of Juche. Juche
encourages the education and preservation of Korean history and culture. Koreans have a millennia old tradition of
shamanism, Buddhism, and ancestor worship…
The main party
(the ONLY party) is the Worker’s Party.
There have been four offices to the Worker’s Party over time: Chairman of the Central Committee (1946-1966),
General Secretary of the Central Committee(1966-1994), General Secretary of the
Worker’s Party of Korea(1994-2011), and First Secretary of the Worker’s Party
of Korea (2011-). Technically to be a
member of these offices you were elected into the positions. Technically. But there is a delegated list of preapproved
candidates. And the head of the Office is the Party leader.
That wasn’t
always the case, though. Let’s just say that at some point in time, when the original
Chairman of the Central Committee died, Kim Il Sung replaced him… and then the
office was switched to the General Secretary of the Central Committee. When Kim Jong Il (#1’s son) took over, he
became the General Secretary of the Worker’s Party and #3 Kim Jong Un (see the
trend in the family names?) took over as the First Secretary of the Worker’s
Party. Yes, it’s all rather complicated.
And at this point I encourage you to do your own study… My head is exploding!
The answer:
Air. Trees get their size (mass) from
air. Photosynthesis, anyone?
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