Poor people of North Korea

Originally posted by finnegan
Discusses whether North Koreans were brainwashed.

I wonder what impact all this discussion of brainwashing will have on the "international community's" willingness to let the North Korean people decide their future for themselves, assuming that they move into political phase where they are, indeed, able and eager to decide their future for themselves.

I know this thread is basically dead but I thought this article was relevant:

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9776689-despair-over-kim-jong-il-real-grief-or-forced

Originally posted by no1marauder
I know this thread is basically dead but I thought this article was relevant:

http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9776689-despair-over-kim-jong-il-real-grief-or-forced

That article basically says there's no real way to know...

I concede that some of the mourning, though bizarre to us, could have been genuine.

But some of it had to have been staged or forced or put on for show. That guy at the front of the perfectly organized square of people pounding the pavement over and over and over again was simply not displaying a natural human reaction to grief.

Originally posted by sh76
That article basically says there's no real way to know...

I concede that some of the mourning, though bizarre to us, could have been genuine.

But some of it had to have been staged or forced or put on for show. That guy at the front of the perfectly organized square of people pounding the pavement over and over and over again was simply not displaying a natural human reaction to grief.

I do realize that North Koreans have been isolated and they have a really bizarre culture, but there has to be a lot of them who want to get the hell out of there. Why else would they have gone to such extremes to forcibly keep everyone in?

Originally posted by USArmyParatrooper
I do realize that North Koreans have been isolated and they have a really bizarre culture, but there has to be a lot of them who want to get the hell out of there. Why else would they have gone to such extremes to forcibly keep everyone in?

Because, of course, the people really do love Big Brother, but they have to be reminded of such every once in a while, for their own good.

Originally posted by sh76
Because, of course, the people really do love Big Brother, but they have to be reminded of such every once in a while, for their own good.

That's why we all wave the flag.