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24 million people, all brainwashed. There will be a long time before this country sees a popular uprising like Tunisia and Egypt have.

by Entlin 16y ago

daliusd 16y ago
I'm pretty sure they are not brainwashed that much. There are people who are like those young actors. But that engineer (father of actress) understands situation better: there is reason why he does not want his daughter to be actress. Actually looks at reaction of parents when actress told the story how she became actress. They are trying to hide their eyes like they could betray them. This video alone is enough to understand what price she might pay sometime.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  Such attitudes may predate the communists. Even in my mother's generation, entertainers carried a stigma with them. Much like in ancient times in the West, entertainers of many kinds were considered the lowest of the low. My mother was born to parents who were living in what is now North Korea. My grandfather was a doctor and a successful entrepreneur. Needless to say, the communists didn't have a very sunny view of him, and the family had to be quickly moved south. Both my mother and my father had some inclinations towards the performing arts and were actively discouraged from this. In the case of females, yes, a fear of "dishonor" was involved. Since many men of power in the North Korean regime are effectively above the law, such fear is perhaps not unwarranted. (Is it really much different than our society?)
- davidchua 16y ago
  I thought this video was excellent because of just that. The subjects' reactions and the little nuances tell so much. I find it fascinating that the NKorean censors gave so much freedom to the film crew and the students, to showcase their life. For example, I thought it was really cute to see the male and female protaganist quite close to one another. Could they be dating? Or is it all just acting? The varied emotions seen in this documentary is a refreshing break from all the straight-face, cautious, camera-shy interviewees from the other films by foreign crews in NKorea.
kia 16y ago
The history shows that this may happen sooner than many expect. In 80s nobody in the USSR could even imagine that in several years the country would not exist.
- stcredzero 16y ago
  The same conditions do not exist in North Korea. In the USSR, there was a clear disconnect with economic reality. Communism was not a superior economic system. In fact, it produced rampant disincentives. The North Korean regime doesn't rely on such ideology. Rather, the idea is that Koreans are the world's "true" people, and that only the North Korean regime keeps this faith and keeps their culture away from willing economic and political servitude to the west. The North Korean regime sees itself as the last bastion of resistance for "the good guys." As far as they're concerned, they're like the rebel alliance in Star Wars. As in Star Wars, their weapons are worn and inferior and their industrial power is dwarfed by that of the evil empire that they fight. Yet they somehow heroically fight on, defying the odds because they are "the good guys."
  - kia 16y ago
    1. Communism is a political system & ideology; not an economic system (See Communism article in Wikipedia). In fact the country can be a communist society and have a fairly open (liberal) economic system (China). 2. The ideology in USSR was exactly the same - the war against evil west. There were a lot of propaganda about decaying western society and how in 10 years we will build communism and win the Cold War. 3. The economic situation in North Korea is very bad. People would starve there if China would cease it's economic help. 4. Don't think that people there have no understanding of the situation inside their country. In USSR there was an Iron Curtain and totally controlled media but still many people understood the situation and discussed it in their kitchens. People feel the situation very well when they see the dramatic difference between the idealistic picture in government controlled media and in real life.
    - stcredzero 16y ago
      1. "We will bury you" -- widely taken as a statement that communism would out-compete capitalism. North Korea and the USSR differ because the former doesn't have an ideology like communism that can be shown to be rationally hollow. Instead, it's based on nationalist feeling, which is entirely irrational. 2. I don't think the North Korean regime preaches that the West is decaying and will fall in X years. That's another way the USSR got egg on it's face that the North Korean regime does now. 3. Not disputing this. The "heroic struggle" stance takes care of this. The thing is that it only works if it resonates with the people. It got to the point where no one in the USSR believed it. I think huge numbers of North Koreans do believe it. 4. The USSR failed to maintain a believable alternate reality for enough of their people and they lost the emotional support of virtually all of their populace. From what I've seen of North Korea, I think they do have a viable "reality distortion field" in place and large numbers of people are emotionally involved in it.
hasenj 16y ago
Why the hell would you assume "all brainwashed"? People under a dictatorship pretend to like the regime out of fear. You'd always hear stories about this guy who said X in front of person A, and the next day he was taken "down there", and the idea is: be careful of A, he's an agent. But also: be careful of any stranger, you never know who's gonna report you to the authorities if you say the wrong thing. Basically, under a dictatorship, the safe thing to do is pretend you're ok with the regime, as long as you don't know who you're talking to.

24 million people, all brainwashed. There will be a long time before this country sees a popular uprising like Tunisia and Egypt have.

by Entlin 16y ago

24 million people, all brainwashed. There will be a long time before this country sees a popular uprising like Tunisia and Egypt have.

daliusd 16y ago

I'm pretty sure they are not brainwashed that much. There are people who are like those young actors. But that engineer (father of actress) understands situation better: there is reason why he does not want his daughter to be actress. Actually looks at reaction of parents when actress told the story how she became actress. They are trying to hide their eyes like they could betray them. This video alone is enough to understand what price she might pay sometime.

stcredzero 16y ago
Such attitudes may predate the communists. Even in my mother's generation, entertainers carried a stigma with them. Much like in ancient times in the West, entertainers of many kinds were considered the lowest of the low. My mother was born to parents who were living in what is now North Korea. My grandfather was a doctor and a successful entrepreneur. Needless to say, the communists didn't have a very sunny view of him, and the family had to be quickly moved south. Both my mother and my father had some inclinations towards the performing arts and were actively discouraged from this. In the case of females, yes, a fear of "dishonor" was involved. Since many men of power in the North Korean regime are effectively above the law, such fear is perhaps not unwarranted. (Is it really much different than our society?)
davidchua 16y ago
I thought this video was excellent because of just that. The subjects' reactions and the little nuances tell so much. I find it fascinating that the NKorean censors gave so much freedom to the film crew and the students, to showcase their life. For example, I thought it was really cute to see the male and female protaganist quite close to one another. Could they be dating? Or is it all just acting? The varied emotions seen in this documentary is a refreshing break from all the straight-face, cautious, camera-shy interviewees from the other films by foreign crews in NKorea.

kia 16y ago

The history shows that this may happen sooner than many expect. In 80s nobody in the USSR could even imagine that in several years the country would not exist.

stcredzero 16y ago
The same conditions do not exist in North Korea. In the USSR, there was a clear disconnect with economic reality. Communism was not a superior economic system. In fact, it produced rampant disincentives. The North Korean regime doesn't rely on such ideology. Rather, the idea is that Koreans are the world's "true" people, and that only the North Korean regime keeps this faith and keeps their culture away from willing economic and political servitude to the west. The North Korean regime sees itself as the last bastion of resistance for "the good guys." As far as they're concerned, they're like the rebel alliance in Star Wars. As in Star Wars, their weapons are worn and inferior and their industrial power is dwarfed by that of the evil empire that they fight. Yet they somehow heroically fight on, defying the odds because they are "the good guys."
- kia 16y ago
  1. Communism is a political system & ideology; not an economic system (See Communism article in Wikipedia). In fact the country can be a communist society and have a fairly open (liberal) economic system (China). 2. The ideology in USSR was exactly the same - the war against evil west. There were a lot of propaganda about decaying western society and how in 10 years we will build communism and win the Cold War. 3. The economic situation in North Korea is very bad. People would starve there if China would cease it's economic help. 4. Don't think that people there have no understanding of the situation inside their country. In USSR there was an Iron Curtain and totally controlled media but still many people understood the situation and discussed it in their kitchens. People feel the situation very well when they see the dramatic difference between the idealistic picture in government controlled media and in real life.
  - stcredzero 16y ago
    1. "We will bury you" -- widely taken as a statement that communism would out-compete capitalism. North Korea and the USSR differ because the former doesn't have an ideology like communism that can be shown to be rationally hollow. Instead, it's based on nationalist feeling, which is entirely irrational. 2. I don't think the North Korean regime preaches that the West is decaying and will fall in X years. That's another way the USSR got egg on it's face that the North Korean regime does now. 3. Not disputing this. The "heroic struggle" stance takes care of this. The thing is that it only works if it resonates with the people. It got to the point where no one in the USSR believed it. I think huge numbers of North Koreans do believe it. 4. The USSR failed to maintain a believable alternate reality for enough of their people and they lost the emotional support of virtually all of their populace. From what I've seen of North Korea, I think they do have a viable "reality distortion field" in place and large numbers of people are emotionally involved in it.

hasenj 16y ago

Why the hell would you assume "all brainwashed"? People under a dictatorship pretend to like the regime out of fear. You'd always hear stories about this guy who said X in front of person A, and the next day he was taken "down there", and the idea is: be careful of A, he's an agent. But also: be careful of any stranger, you never know who's gonna report you to the authorities if you say the wrong thing. Basically, under a dictatorship, the safe thing to do is pretend you're ok with the regime, as long as you don't know who you're talking to.