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I'm reading your line of reasoning and coming to the opposite conclusions. In the North Korean power structure, superior authorities need to be depended on to
by chipsy 14y ago
I'm reading your line of reasoning and coming to the opposite conclusions.
In the North Korean power structure, superior authorities need to be depended on to improve the "helpless" masses, and a takeover would not be believed to be an improvement because the new leaders would be, at best, equally as strong and wise as the old.
But in more egalitarian societies, the idea of "do it yourself" and "fixing the system" is taken seriously, and the corresponding societal myths reflect this - "The Emperor has no clothes", for example.
- dkarl 14y agoYep, both cultures reinforce and stabilize themselves. That's why new cultural perspectives can be revolutionary. If Americans came to believe leadership should be based on superior personal virtue, then they might reject democracy, a la Plato and Confucius. If North Koreans came to believe that there is not a single "virtue" that makes a person superior at everything, that different people can be good or bad at different things, such as good at seeking power and bad at ruling justly, then they might demand institutions to protect themselves from the weaknesses of their leaders. They might decided that executive leadership is just a job that should be done by someone who is good at that particular thing, and that ordinary citizens are as qualified to choose their leaders as anyone else.